Priester's issues continue to stem from fastball, two-out pitches

NEW YORK -- The rarest thing in baseball may not be a perfect game or an unassisted triple play, but rather catching a truly down in the dumps Quinn Priester.

Even after another rough major-league outing, arguably his sixth in as many starts, Priester still cracked some smiles postgame. He was far from his jovial self and much more subdued, but the confidence in himself hasn't wavered.

"I just know what type of player i can be," Priester said about staying upbeat in a stretch like this. "I see that every day and that's why having outings like this is super frustrating because I know it's not the type of player I am. So, just committed to that work and realizing that we're going to be able to be better and come out of this here and really put some good ones together is what keeps me going. I know just the work's been really, really good." 

Priester may feel his between starts work is good, but his results have been far from it. Priester consistently faltered with two outs Monday at Citi Field, resulting in him failing to post a scoreless inning in any of his five frames. He would end up allowing six runs on the evening, and the Pirates fell to the Mets, 7-2.

Ranked as the No. 99 prospect in the game by MLB Pipeline in their most recent update, Priester has not had a smooth transition to the majors over his first half dozen starts, recording a 9.10 ERA and 1.92 WHIP over his first 28 2/3 innings. It's way too soon to press the panic button, and given the state of the Pirates' starting pitching depth at the moment, also probably too soon to wonder how long his leash is. But while all of the Pirates' rookies have had their ups and downs during their transition to the show, Priester's first turn in the majors has arguably been the roughest.

Several recurring themes continued to pop up throughout those first starts, mostly centering around on him sticking to a gameplan and his fastball, the latter of which has been of particular interest. Priester's heater has been sitting in the lower-90s this year, so he hasn't had that velo tick that has been teased ever since he peaked on top prospect lists in 2020 and 2021, but there's more to the pitch than just the speed.

"If you don't throw it on the plate, it doesn't matter how hard it is, so it has to be more execution and location," Derek Shelton said pregame.

Priester ended up proving that time and time again Monday. Ahead in the count 2-2 in the first inning, Pete Alonso got a 92 mph offering up and over the plate and ripped it for a double:

Pete gets us going! 👏 pic.twitter.com/kLlbhbQN0B

— New York Mets (@Mets) August 14, 2023

The next inning, Daniel Vogelbach fell behind 1-2 before pouncing on another fastball left over the heart for a homer:

Tied at two in the bottom of the third, Jeff McNeil got a hold of a fastball that was down, but again in the center third of the zone and deposited it in left-center for what would be the winning hit:

And finally, in the fourth, Endy Rodríguez called for a fastball up to Jonathan Araúz, but instead Priester left it down and paid the price:

Are you noticing a theme here?

If not, let's make it a little more clear. Here is the heatmap of the location of Priester's fastballs Monday. The red areas are the locations of where he threw the most fastballs, and it was essentially down the middle:

That isn't going to cut it, and it's pretty similar to the hot zones he threw to over his first five starts. Of Priester's 102 pitches Monday, 47 were fastballs (28 four-seamers, 19 sinkers). The Mets swung at 21 of them and whiffed only once.

And remember, many of those swings came with two strikes in run scoring opportunities. 

When asked where things go from here with Priester, Shelton answered, "It''s gonna be a conversation. Probably review of the tape of just, 'hey, we can't leave balls in the middle of the plate to people.' "

The fastball results speak for themselves -- hitters have a .315 batting average and a .644 slugging percentage -- the breaking stuff has also not played as well. The slider has not gotten the same results as it has in the minors, and Priester shied away from the curveball Monday, throwing it only nine times.

"They feed off each other," Shelton said pregame. "... When you use the fastball [effectively], everything else is going to be more efficient and be better. Should be better."

Unfortunately, it did look like the breaking balls did feed off the fastballs Monday. Priester wasn't able to consistently execute and almost all of sliders and curveballs either fell out of the zone or were left down the middle:

So Priester needs a breakthrough. The first way to start getting it to perform better has to begin with Priester's mindset when throwing those fastballs.

"I feel like I get real stiff and rigid in the two strikes to really try and execute rather than just throw the crap out of it," Priester said. "Whereas, 0-0 til two strikes. I'm just like, 'hey, man, here's my best stuff and ultimately that's gonna be a separator for me once I'm able to do that. And then, I think we're gonna have a lot better result." 

This is fairly uncharted territory for Priester. His first month with Class AAA Indianapolis had a similarly shaky start, but besides that, he has not had an extended stretch like this in pro ball. Getting a few extra pitches to go his way could have kept some runs off the board, but seven hits, three walks, three strikeouts and 11 hard hit balls doesn't exactly inspire hope for better peripherals at the moment.

He's searching, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he thinks he's lost.

"I know that we're close," Priester said. "I just gotta keep my head down, keep working hard, keep doing those things and the result's going to come. It's still new, still need to learn every single start and there's still things to learn every single start. The big challenge, taking things one thing at a time, rather than trying to work on all six at once or whatever it is. So, just going one thing at a time here." 

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THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: 2B Ji Hwan Bae (ankle)

• 15-day injured list: RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (elbow), RHP Dauri Moreta (lower back)

• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), INF Tucupita Marcano (knee), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Connor Joe, LF
2. Bryan Reynolds, DH
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Jack Suwinski, CF
5. Henry Davis, RF
6. Endy Rodriguez, C
7. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
8. Liover Peguero, 2B
9. Alika Williams, SS

And for Buck Showalter's Mets:

1. Brandon Nimmo, LF
2. Francisco Lindor, SS
3. Pete Alonso, 1B
4. Jeff McNeil, RF
5. Francisco Alvarez, C
6. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
7. Mark Vientos, 3B
8. Rafael Ortega, CF
9. Jonathan Araúz, 2B

THE SCHEDULE

Bailey Falter (0-7, 5.21) will take the ball in game two Tuesday, taking on southpaw David Peterson (3-7, 5.61). First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. I'll have you covered.

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