With Majors success, Taillon happily sheds prospect label

PITTSBURGH — Jameson Taillon reported to the Pirate City complex for Spring Training knowing this year would be unlike the previous five. He was one step away from Pittsburgh, healthy and ready to pitch.

So when Taillon sat down for his entrance interview with manager Clint Hurdle, general manager Neal Huntington and assistant GM Kyle Stark, he didn’t hold anything back.

“I’m sick of being a prospect,” Taillon said. “I think you hit a point where it’s no longer a compliment. Twenty-four years old, picked where I was picked, I don’t want to be a prospect. I want to help out.”

Exactly two months into his Major League career, Taillon has accomplished both goals. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2010 Draft officially shed the “prospect” label while putting together a 3.29 ERA over nine starts, displaying a level of polish and poise well beyond his limited Major League experience.

Seven of Taillon’s nine outings have been quality starts. He’s struck out 43 batters and only walked six, a team-high 7.17 strikeout-to-walk rate. He’s pitched six innings in each of his last five starts for a club in need of innings from their rotation.

“I remember my debut like it was literally yesterday,” Taillon said. “I just want to keep my head down and keep knocking out starts.”

The “top prospect” tag was affixed to Taillon for a while. According to MLBPipeline.com’s rankings, Taillon was baseball’s ninth-best prospect in 2011, bounced around the Top 50 for four more seasons and ranked 30th in the mid-2016 update.

But after six years of being named among the game’s top Minor League players, Taillon surpassed the 50-inning mark in the Majors on …

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