\u00a0did he deserve that tab and was he ready to be the stud the young staff needed?<\/span><\/p>\nThe answer is two-fold.<\/span><\/p>\nBeing the staff ace for a major league ball club brings on a lot of pressure, both from the team and especially the fans. But guess what, it’s becoming more obvious that the Pirates might not have an “ace.”<\/span><\/p>\nPrior to this season, Taillon had impressed in the bigs but never really wowed fans. He was fit into a spot in the rotation where he wasn’t the headline but he was still able to make a name for himself.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, Jamo is expected to be THE guy for the pitching staff. Unfortunately, his performance hasn’t stood out aside from his first career complete game shutout back in April.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nA pitcher’s worst enemy<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nBaseball is surely a mental game but the pitcher’s mound is the loneliest place in sports when things are going wrong.<\/span>\u00a0It is rather easy for a struggling pitcher to get inside his own head and try too hard to correct his woes. It\u2019s possible this has happened to Taillon more once this year.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile it sounds simple and quite cliche, Taillon just needs to relax and not try to do too much.<\/span><\/p>\nExpectations are hard to escape<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\nThis rides hand-in-hand with a pitcher\u2019s mentality. <\/span><\/p>\nThose supporting the Bucs this year expected a lot out of Taillon. After all, he was the number two overall pick in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard for Jamo to not feel those expectations rise after Cole was sent away. He knew that people would be looking for him to carry the load. <\/span><\/p>\nI think he has let that pressure get to him on the mound in certain situations. There have been times when he doesn’t have his best stuff and he seems to be forcing his pitches across the plate. While it\u2019s hard to prove, it’s possible he might be frustrated with his mechanics.<\/span><\/p>\nMore to show<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\nThen again, his repertoire is strong and he has shown that in the past. We have seen a sharp curveball that many have been clamoring for him to throw more often.<\/span><\/p>\nThen all of a sudden he just started throwing a slider in his most recent start. According to Brooks Baseball, he threw 35 sliders with 40 percent of them for strikes with a 23 percent whiff rate. That’s impressive and probably unsustainable consistency.<\/span><\/p>\nClearly he was working on something in the background and didn\u2019t want to establish it until he felt absolutely comfortable. <\/span><\/p>\nCould we see this replace his curveball? The deuce has produced the lowest swing rate of all his pitches this year at 34 percent. He only threw seven curveballs in his last start; however he hasn’t relied on his breaking stuff nearly as much this year as he should.<\/span><\/p>\nIf he continues to feel comfortable with the slider, expect to see that become his main breaking pitch which clearly caught hitters off guard. <\/span><\/p>\nAt the end of the day, Taillon is still the best starting pitcher on this Pirates squad\u00a0<\/span>despite his struggles. In his start tonight, I expect his slider to be a prominent pitch again. I also see him coming out for revenge after the heartbreaking loss last night. <\/span><\/p>\nWhile the team needs a quality start out of him, I think Jamo will be just fine tomorrow and the rest of the year. He just needs to loosen up on the hill and let his ability do the talking.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jameson Taillon needs to forget about the lofty expectations and just go out and pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":818288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[703638948,610258686,1],"tags":[605048828,140059],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Jameson Taillon needs to ignore expectations and just pitch - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n