Prospect Watch: Joe Jacques Uses Deception to Climb Minor League Ladder
Throughout a Minor Leaguer's career, they will move across the country several times over as they try and perfect their craft. From promotions to demotions to trades, a player will have pitched in hundreds of cities before he throws one pitch at the Major League level. This is especially true for Pirates Minor League pitching prospect Joe Jacques in his first two seasons of professional baseball. In his two seasons, he has played for five different teams across five different levels of Minor League baseball and is now looking for a shot with Double-A Altoona in 2020. However, his two seasons have been like night and day, as the young pitcher is trying to find out who he is as a pitcher and just how effective his stuff can be.
Last season, Jacques pitched at three different levels for the Pirates spending time in Low-A, Advanced-A, and Double-A. He more than doubled his workload from the season before, but cut his season ERA by more than half with a 2.58 ERA in 66.1 innings of work out of the bullpen. His control could have been better, but he was able to strike out batters at a high rate with 59 over the course of the season. He has made a few starts during his Pirates minor league career, but most of his work is coming out of the bullpen, and that is where he seems to be most comfortable.
Jacques had a different path coming out of high school than most college pitching prospects. He didn't earn any scholarships coming out of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and ended up being a walk-on at Manhattan College. Through hard work, he was able to earn a starting spot on the team and had a decent season posting a 4.29 ERA for the Jaspers in the Mid Atlantic Athletic Conference. It was a good start to his college career, but Jacques was looking to not just be a good pitcher, but be a great pitcher with a chance to keep his dream of playing professional baseball alive.
Jacques would find the answer in his delivery, going from a high arm slot and dropping down to throw from the sidearm. The move would work as he became one of the best pitchers for the Jaspers during his sophomore season. In a year where the pitching staff posted a 5.57 ERA, Jacques pitched to a 3.13 ERA while striking out 42 batters in 46 innings of work. His new motion added an element of deception to his game and made his stuff even that much more effective. With a fastball topping out in just the mid-80s, Jacques needed a way to fool hitters, and his funky wind-up was the way to do it.
He tried to go back to the higher arm slot his Junior year, but his numbers would decrease and he was back to sidearming it by the end of the season. And injury during his Junior season would make him red shirt, and he would come back to pitch two more seasons in a Jaspers uniform. In total, he went 11-17 in a Jaspers uniform and had some of his best years working as a sidearmer. It was his motion and his strikeout ability that caught the Pirate's attention. The Pirates thought that more speed would come as he matured and grew through the Minor League system. The Pirates ended up taking Jacques in the 33rd round of the 2018 MLB Draft and got to work right away with the Bristol Pirates of the Appalachian League.
The transition wasn't so easy for the then 23-year-old as he had a 6.33 ERA in 21.1 innings of work for the Pirates. The main problem for Jacques was his poor control as he walked 19 batters in those 21.1 innings of work, and many of those free passes would come around to score. However, when he did hit the strike zone, his stuff was effective as he struck out 21 batters and allowed just a .232 opponent batting average against. After a rough start to his professional career in late June and July, Jacques turned it around as the calendar flipped to August. In seven appearances during the month, Jacques gave up just one earned run in 11 innings of work. He was still plagued by the control issues that he saw early in the season, as he walked seven batters in those 11 innings, but he wasn't allowing those free passes to find a way to score.
Jacques would get a promotion at the end of August and earned a short stint at Class-A Short Season West Virginia at the end of the 2018 season. He would appear in just one game for the Black Bears and had an ok outing to end 2018. He appeared out of the bullpen and threw three innings of work allowing three runs on five hits while walking one and striking out one. It was good to see him not walk many batters and allow his stuff to get outs. It was a big confidence booster for the young right-hander heading into the off-season and he was determined to turn things around.
He received another promotion to start the 2019 season as he would go to Class Low-A Greensboro. It was like night and day for Jacques as he posted a 2.96 ERA in 24.1 innings of work. He still had some work to do in the control department as he walked 15 batters but his strikeout rate was better than the year before with 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Jacques had a strong month of May for the Grasshoppers, allowing one run or less in 12 of his 13 outings while holding opponents to just a .176 batting average against. With Jacques finding his footing in professional baseball, Jacques would continue to climb the Minor League ladder and moves to Advanced-A Bradenton.
Jacques's work with the Marauders was even more impressive than his work with the Grasshoppers, and he got better with his control walking just 16 batters in 41.1 innings of work. As a result, he saw his ERA at Advanced-A drop to 2.41 and he picked up his first career save. He also had his strikeout pitch working as he racked up 39 strikeouts over the course of the season. Jacques showed with Bradenton that he could work multiple innings as a reliever and routinely went two or more innings, sometimes as much as four innings, in each outing. He never allowed more than two earned runs in an outing and opponents hit just .213 against him.
Jacques would make one appearance with the Altoona Curve at the end of 2019, much like he did the year before. It was just a one-inning appearance for Jacques, but he did not allow a run while giving up one hit, walking two, and not striking out a batter. It allowed the sidearmer to see what he would be facing in the Eastern League as he continues towards his goal of making the Pirates bullpen. With Jacques being a sidearmer, he doesn't have the flashy stuff that lights up the radar gun, but his funky motion makes him effective. The question is whether that uniqueness can continue to get him by at the next level.
As he heads towards 2020, Jacques is now trying to fight for a full-time spot in the Curve bullpen. Last season, he was able to even his splits against righties and lefties, but that is something he will have to try and continue at the next level. With lefty specialists making their way out of Major League Baseball, it is more important now than ever to be able to do well against both hitters and get outs either way. With Jacques's stuff being slower than most, it will probably take a few more years for him to develop and I could see him being in a Pirates uniform by the 2022 or 2023 season at the earliest. Until then, he will look to keep deceiving hitters at every level of the Minor Leagues.
It is still uncertain as to when the 2020 MLB season is set to begin, but we at Buccos Cove are determined to continue to bring you strong content. Until the 2020 season begins, we will continue looking at the players who make up the 2020 Pirates organization and how they will impact the organization this season.
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