Ryan Pepiot, the right-handed rookie pitcher for the Dodgers, made a pretty quick job of it in the minor leagues, with most of his success owing to his phenomenal move. In February, the athlete‘s Keith Law said the following about Pepiot’s move:
“Pepiot has an 80 change, one of the best spots of his kind in baseball right now, along with an above-average fastball, although he didn’t dominate left-handers last year like you’d expect from someone with a change or splitter of this caliber. Instead, he uses it to counter right-handed bats just as often as left-handed ones, and I think he might rush into the majors with some relief now.
This is one scouting expert who says Pepiot’s move was one of the best in baseball — not in the minor leagues, but in all of baseball, including the majors. The scouting term “80 changeup” basically means “as good as a change can be”.
But we’re six starts into Pepiot’s big-league career and we haven’t seen anything approaching an ’80 switch’ from Pepiot. It had brilliant flashes but definitely not with any consistency. When asked for his opinion on Pepiot ahead of Thursday’s series finale in Milwaukee, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had a lot to say:
“The change has taken a few steps backwards. For Ryan, the move was his best secondary play, a plus-plus pitch, but just didn’t play at the moment it is. I don’t know why, that’s why we need to field people to deal with it, but we need to streamline the transition and we need to streamline the fastball command, it’s only going to get better.”
One reporter wondered if Pepiot’s problem wasn’t triggering the changeover for strikes, and Roberts continued:
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“Well it just isn’t on the lane long enough, it’s a ball out of hand whether it’s down or off the plate. He threw a good one for a strikeout yesterday but otherwise they were pretty uncompetitive.”
Roberts isn’t usually quite so outspoken in his public assessments of players, but it’s hard to argue with anything he said. Everyone expected Pepiot’s change to be a big part of his repertoire, and so far it just hasn’t been.
Roberts mentioned that Pepiot’s fastball command needs improvement and that could help his move be more effective. By getting into a good pitcher’s count, Pepiot can use his switch more effectively in situations where a hitter is more likely to be chasing a pitch that shoots from the zone.
There’s also the factor that he’s dealing with better hitters than ever before, so there might be an adjustment period to figure out how close he needs to get to moving into the zone to get chases.
Whatever the reasons, if Pepiot is to realize his potential as a major league pitcher, his move needs to become a key part of his arsenal again. He’ll start with the Dodgers at least once more this weekend — the Dodgers will start at least once after Dustin May’s return on Saturday with a six-man rotation — and Mark Prior and the rest of the coaching staff are excellent at helping pitchers find out things.
Let’s hope they can do the same with Pepiot and his transformation.