The Pirates have converted much-hyped pitching prospect Stetson Allie to hitting, Dejan Kovacevic reports. Allie had one of the best arms in the 2010 MLB Draft, and the Pirates gave him a $2.25 million bonus. Unfortunately, the results there were horrific -- he walked 29 batters in 26 innings as a 20-year-old in State College in 2011, then walked eight batters in a disastrous two-thirds of an inning for West Virginia this year.
↵Allie was regarded as a good hitting prospect coming out of high school, although he probably wouldn't have been a second-round pick as a hitter, and he certainly wouldn't have received a multimillion-dollar bonus. Kevin Goldstein writes that he had "crazy raw power and a ton of swing and miss," so he'll probably be a project as a hitter, and that's even before considering that he's spent the past two years not hitting.
↵It's not surprising that the Pirates gave up on Allie as a pitcher. The results speak for themselves. But it is a little surprising that they gave up on him this quickly.
↵For more on the Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout.