Dodgers News: Roberts Critical of the Pitch Scouts Said was Prospect's Best
Ryan Pepiot, the right-handed rookie pitcher for the Dodgers, made pretty quick work of the minor leagues, with most of his success due to his phenomenal changeup. In February, The Athletic's Keith Law said this about Pepiot's changeup:
"Pepiot has an 80 changeup, one of the best pitches of its type in baseball right now, along with an above-average fastball, although he didn’t dominate left-handed batters last year as you’d expect for someone with a change or splitter of that caliber. Instead, he uses it as much to neutralize right-handed bats as left, and I think he could pitch in the majors in relief right now."
That's a scouting expert saying Pepiot's changeup 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 translates to "as good as a changeup can be."
But we're six starts into Pepiot's big-league career, and we haven't seen anything approaching an "80 changeup" from Pepiot. It has had flashes of brilliance, but definitely not with any consistency. When asked for his thoughts on Pepiot before Thursday's series finale in Milwaukee, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had plenty to say:
"The changeup has taken a couple steps back. With Ryan, the changeup was his best secondary, a plus-plus pitch, but right now, where it's at, it just hasn't played. I don't know the reason behind it, that's why we have pitching people to kind of dig in on that, but we've got to tighten up the changeup and we've got to tighten up the fastball command. But, as far as yesterday, the compete is there, and he's only going to get better."
A reporter wondered if Pepiot's issue was not throwing the changeup for strikes, and Roberts continued:
"Well, it's just not in the lane long enough, It's a ball out of hand, whether it's down or it's off the plate. He threw a good one yesterday for a strikeout, but outside of that they've been pretty non-competitive."
Roberts usually isn't quite this blunt in his public assessments of players, but it's hard to argue with anything he said. Everyone expected Pepiot's changeup to be a huge part of his repertoire, and thus far, it just hasn't been.
Roberts mentioned Pepiot's fastball command needing to improve, and that could help his changeup be more effective. By getting into a good pitcher's count, Pepiot might be able to more effectively use his changeup in situations where a hitter is more likely to chase a pitch that darts out of the zone.
There's also the factor that he's facing better hitters than he ever has before, so there might be an adjustment period figuring out how close he needs to get the changeup to the zone to get chases.
Whatever the reasons, if Pepiot is going to reach his potential as a big-league pitcher, his changeup needs to become a key part of his arsenal again. He will make at least one more start with the Dodgers this weekend — the Dodgers will go with a six-man rotation at least one time after Saturday's return of Dustin May — and Mark Prior and the rest of the coaching staff are excellent at helping pitchers get things figured out.
Let's hope they can do the same with Pepiot and his changeup.
