Mike Newman at FanGraphs today has a great look at Stetson Allie's return to prominence as a hitter with the West Virginia Power this year. After his two-homer night last night, Allie's tied for the Sally League lead in homers with eight and his season line is a ridiculous .351/.409/.660 in 110 plate appearances. There's quite a bit of conversation with both Allie and Kyle Stark on the transition and where Allie goes from here and it's all a very interesting read if you, like me, have no idea how to rate Allie as a prospect now that he's a 23 year old slugger in the Sally League that was a pitcher a couple of years ago.
I seriously have no concept of what to do with Allie in any way right now. It's hard to tell what to make of this huge power surge, it's hard to tell if the Pirates deserve credit for moving him off of the mound so quickly or blame for drafting him in the first place when it seems clear from this article that he had no intention of being a starting pitcher, it's hard to tell what his ceiling is and where he goes from here since he's had such a weird prospect journey to this point. This is a weird and awfully unique situation given how quickly the Pirates moved him into the field and how quickly he's finding success there. Obviously we need to see more than 110 plate appearances in Single-A ball before knowing what to really make of Allie, but it's clear that Newman thinks that he could become a legitimate corner infield prospect. Reading that from someone with an outside perspective is definitely encouraging.
