Top Pirates prospect Stetson Allie will make his first professional start on Monday for the State College Spikes, the Trib reports.
↵Allie was the Pirates' second-round pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, but he was expected to go much earlier than that, having fallen due to bonus demands. The Bucs signed him and have stored him away at extended spring training since March.
↵Allie throws very hard and has a good slider, but doesn't have much of a changeup, and he is supposed to have had troubles controlling the ball. He has great potential, but so far he seems like a project. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates have a Nuke LaLoosh on their hands right now, or whether Allie has success right away. Of course, those two things might not be mutually exclusive - Allie probably could throw only fastballs and sliders and have no idea where they're going, and still have success against low-minor-league hitters. We'll see.