It’s Monday, so it’s time for another special Card of the Day article on Pirates Prospects featuring a card that has been added to the Cardboard Bucs section of this website. If you missed it last week, we added Oneil Cruz to our store, featuring him on his 2018 Bowman Draft card. Today we add one of the top pitching prospects in the system, 20-year-old right-hander Quinn Priester.
We recently had an article from Tim Williams looking at Priester’s progress in 2020. He talks about the things he has been working on this season while staying ready to pitch, including increased fastball velocity and better command, working on his changeup and cleaning up his mechanics. Despite the lack of game action prior to joining Altoona last month, Priester has still taken a step forward in his progress.
Here’s the front of the card
As you can see in the top left-hand corner, this is the first Bowman card for Priester. It was released last year, shortly after he was selected by the Pirates in the first round of the 2019 draft. Priester pitched in the Gulf Coast League for his first eight pro appearances, then he was moved up to Morgantown for his final start. This year he was scheduled to begin the season at Greensboro before the baseball shutdown. He was a late addition to the Alternate Spring Training site in Altoona, and he’s currently in Bradenton, awaiting play in the fall league.
Here’s the back
The back has some bio info, splitting it up into a resume section, skills and an up close section. His 2019 high school starts are included at the bottom. The resume section talks about his high school days. The skills section has a short scouting report, which is a little dated after hitting 98 MPH in his first Altoona start.
If Priester doesn’t get your prospect motor running, our Cardboard Bucs section currently includes nine other Pittsburgh Pirates, including four choices for Mitch Keller and three for Ke’Bryan Hayes. More will be on the way in the future, with a new card being released every Monday for the next few months. The 2014 Mitch Keller card is currently out of stock, though we still have them available for our Prospect Guide bundle pack featuring Keller on the cover of the guide.
