June 8th, 2019 at 1:00 pm 
by 0799291000348 First things first, biographical info on the Dodgers fourth selection (third round) of the MLB First-Year Player Draft – pitcher Ryan Pepiot.
- Date of birth: November 2, 2000
- Height: 6’ 3”
- Weight: 205 pounds
- Bats and throws: right-handed
- High School: Westfield High School, Westfield Indiana
- College: Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
A three-sport star in high school, (baseball, basketball, and a well-regarded football quarterback), Pepiot looks larger than his listed weight of 205 pounds. With a strong lower half, he looks more like a linebacker who is in great shape. Watching video of Pepiot pitching, he may remind you of former Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley, who was also a star football player in high school. Pepiot fits the recent Dodgers trend of adding very good athletes who play baseball.
Pepiot has a four-pitch repertoire, including a low-90’s fastball (peaking at 96-mph), a plus-changeup, and fringe-average breaking pitches (curve and slider). When his pitching mechanics are in-sync he commands the strike zone and is a top-notch starting pitcher. But when his mechanics get out-of-whack (a highly technical term) he walks, or hits, large numbers of batters.
(Photo courtesy of The Collegian)
In 2019 Pepiot pitched to a 3.92 ERA, striking out 126 batters in just 76 innings pitched, while holding opposing hitters to a collective .203 batting average. In his college career covering 220 innings, he averaged 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings.
The Dodgers draft and player acquisition strategies include personal behavioral characteristics. They search far and wide for players who will fit well into the team culture that is so very important in the clubhouse. To quote Dave Schrage, Pepiot’s baseball coach at Butler:
“He has worked so hard to give himself this opportunity. It’s great to see the development he made in our program. He is not only a great player, but a great person.”
The Dodgers will most likely use Pepiot as a starting pitcher when he begins his professional career, with the fallback option of using him as a late-innings reliever who can rely on his two best pitches – his fastball and his change-up.
I am looking forward to following this young man’s career as a Dodger.
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Sneaky good pick for the Dodgers, this one was. Read on a few other sites recently that his changeup is among the very best in this year’s draft class as well. They should definitely try him out in a rotation over the next couple years just to see if his overall command improves and if one of his breaking pitches finally takes a drastic leap forward. If both questions are thoroughly answered successfully within that time frame, he’s a surefire mid-rotation lock. If not, I’d immediately convert him to a late-inning reliever with a fairly good chance of him becoming a possible closer candidate in the Trevor Hoffman mold. Now wouldn’t THAT be something to look forward to…
I am excited about this draft; appears that Dodgers did an incredible job. Pepiot signed for $550K; about $21K under slot value
Yeah, in the beginning I was worried about how the Dodgers were gonna approach their drafts after previous scouting director Logan White finally moved on, but Billy Gasparino and his staff have proven to not have missed a beat so far. 2016 will pretty much go down as THE best Dodger draft of the new millennium, thanks in large part to the work his folks have put in targeting players that might’ve gone overlooked by other teams heading into it. This year remains another solid showing as well, glad to hear Pepiot didn’t waste time signing. At least he “gets it” regarding how the Dodgers roll these days…
😉