GREENSBORO’S QUINN PRIESTER NAMED HIGH-A EAST LEAGUE PITCHER-OF-THE-YEAR
Greensboro’s Quinn Priester was named the High-A East League Pitcher-of-the-Year today. The announcement was made by Minor League Baseball.
The 21-year-old Priester went 7-4 with a 3.04 ERA (97.2ip/33er), 39 walks, 98 strikeouts, .225 batting average against and 1.24 WHIP in 20 starts while spending the entire season with Greensboro.
Priester becomes the first Pirates farmhand to take home High-A Pitcher-of-the-Year honors since Tyler Glasnow was named the Florida State League’s Most Valuable Pitcher as a member of the Bradenton Marauders in 2014. Priester was also named to the High-A East League post-season All-Star team as a right-handed starter.
Priester led all High-A East League pitchers in ERA (3.04), batting average against (.225), home runs allowed per 9.0 in- nings (0.74), WHIP (1.24) and winning percentage (.636) while finishing tied for second in games started (20), third in innings pitched (97.2) and tied for eighth in wins (seven).
He also finished with the lowest Batting Average On Balls In Play (.285) in the High-A East League, ranked third in strikeouts per 9.0 innings (9.03), strikeout percentage (24.1) and Fielding
Independent Pitching (4.08) and fifth in walks per 9.0 innings (3.59) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.51) among pitchers with at least 90.0 innings of work.
Priester won his only start of the postseason after limiting Bowling Green to one run in 5.0 innings while also striking out seven batters in Game Two of the High-A East League championship series.
Priester is currently rated as Pittsburgh’s No. 1 pitching prospect and 49th overall among MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects.