Ryan Pepiot

Pepiot is a pitcher who follows a familiar Rays blueprint: fastballs up, change-ups down and mix in something to the sides. Pitchers who feature those two primary pitchers tend to be better against lefties than righties and also give up a fair share of home runs. Much like James Shields and Jeremy Hellickson before him, Pepiot was both. He held lefties to a .175 average, but allowed 26 home runs overall, 16 of which came against righties. The prevailing thought might be that Pepiot should do much better moving back into Tropicana Field because Steinbrenner Field was too punishing for him, yet those same managers would be surprised to learn Pepiot pitched to a 3.41 ERA at home and a 4.38 ERA on the road. Seventeen of the 26 homers did come during home starts, but he was otherwise already tougher to hit at home. His postbreak ERA was more than a run and a half higher than his prebreak ERA, due more to rotten batted ball luck than home runs. Pepiot's ability to reach another level hinges entirely on him finding a reliable third pitch. His slider shows promise of becoming that pitch. Read Past Outlooks