Yesterday I posted video of Stetson Allie working a simulated game at Pirate City. Allie was rotating with Bryton Trepagnier, who was the 41st round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010. Trepagnier is a tall pitcher with a projectable frame, at 6′ 5″, 180 pounds. He signed out of high school in 2010, and is pretty much a project at this point.
He was throwing in the 87-89 MPH range, and as you can see, his control was a little off. It’s important to note that the Pirates seemed to be focusing on hitting specific spots, mainly where the catcher was lining up. You can see that with certain batters, Trepagnier is only working on the inside corner of the plate. On other batters, he’s working the outside corner. He mostly threw fastballs, but displayed a nice curveball in the early part of the video.
Allie’s video yesterday showed similar control issues, and I’d chalk both up to working on hitting specific locations. This basically means that they don’t have pinpoint control at this time, and it also doesn’t look like they’re close. I’d expect each pitcher to start the season in extended Spring Training, then potentially move to State College around mid-season, working the entire year on this issue. For Trepagnier, hopefully the focus on fastball command will work, but the more important thing is whether he can fill out his projectable frame and add velocity to his high-80s fastball.
