High school coach dismisses arm worries for Pirates 1st-rounder Quinn Priester

The Pirates selected Quinn Priester in the first round of the MLB Draft on Monday. In this podcast, I interviewed his coach, Ryan Passaglia.

Passaglia coached Priester at Cary-Grove High School in Illinois and has been working with the right-hander since he was in middle school.

Priester has committed to play college baseball at TCU, so we talk about where that decision stands now after being picked by the Pirates in the first round.

We dive into how Priester considered playing both football and baseball at Northwestern before electing to focus strictly on baseball.

LISTEN: Quinn Priester's high school coach, Ryan Passaglia

Because of the football-baseball connection, Priester has been compared to Notre Dame product Jeff Samardzija. Passaglia tells us if those comparisons are accurate and whether Priester’s athleticism off the mound was something that drew the Pirates to drafting him, since that’s such a frequent talking point within the Pirates’ organization.

Some are concerned that Priester had some arm soreness when he was a high schooler. Passaglia says that may have come from throwing a football too much early in high school.

“His junior year he had a little bit of tendonitis in his arm,” Passaglia explained. “He was a quarterback before he moved to receiver. I think overuse, and throwing the football, he may have irritated it a little bit. Moving into this year as a senior he had perfect health, never had a problem.”

We also dive into Priester’s renowned two-seam fastball, the rest of his repertoire, any offensive prowess he may have and his prediction for a fast track through the minors.

Oh, and will the kid keep all of his Cubs gear that he collected growing up, or will he burn it?

I think we all know what he should do.