Stetson Allie Turning Heads at West Virginia

Allie making a smooth transition from power pitcher to power hitter. Image: wvgazette.com

Remember Stetson Allie?

It wasn’t all that long ago, 2010 to be exact, that the Pittsburgh Pirates used a second round pick on a high school right hander with upper-90s velocity. That pitcher was Stetson Allie and he was regarded highly enough to land at number 79 on Baseball America’s top-100 prospect list entering the 2011 campaign.

Of course, the reason Allie is so easily forgotten is that he couldn’t throw strikes and spent all of 17 professional games spread across two seasons as a pitcher before converting off of the mound and to first base.

Now, at age 22, Allie is not only threatening to make a return to a top-prospect list near you, but he’s vying for the minor league lead in home runs while hitting cleanup for the Class-A West Virginia Power.

Allie struggled in 2012 after taking nearly two years away from the batter’s box, managing only three home runs in 150 at bats split between two levels. Having a full off-season to prepare as an everyday player has made a huge difference this season, however, as he’s already crushed 13 round-trippers and driven in 45 runs in 46 games for West Virginia. He’s been so good that Baseball America has once again taken notice, this time Allie earned a place on their weekly Hot Sheet.

What did he do to celebrate? Just a ho-hum 4-for-4 day as the Power stormed past Lakewwod on Friday. Allie doubled and drove in four on the day. The huge game lifted his line to .345/.427/.650 through 205 plate appearances.

Allie is still very young in terms of seasoning as a professional hitter and while his strikeout rate is high at 28 percent, he’s also drawing a very good walk rate at nearly 12 percent. Given his success in the South Atlantic League, I would imagine that Allie will be due a promotion to High-A at some point soon