Indians Top 100 Prospects: #77 Robbie Alcombrack

77. Robbie Alcombrack - Catcher
Born: 06/10/1988 - Height: 6'0" - Weight: 205 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2006	18	GCL Indians	R	32	101	9	20	5	0	0	9	5	31	0	.198	.231	.248	.479
	18	Burlington	R	3	7	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	.286	.286	.286	.572
2007	19	GCL Indians	R	38	127	20	31	10	0	7	23	14	41	2	.244	.345	.488	.833
	19	Lake County	A	2	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	.143	.143	.143	.286
2008	20	Mahoning Vy	A-	49	165	19	41	11	0	1	13	16	52	0	.248	.322	.333	.655
		Career		124	407	50	95	26	0	8	45	35	130	2	.233	.305	.356	.661

History: Alcombrack was a 7th round pick in the 2006 Draft out of Bear River High School (CA). Going into the draft, he was a pre-season Top 100 high school player according to Baseball America, and was ranked as a top five catching prospect. He signed quickly, which is a rarity for a high school kid with such lofty draft status and a full scholarship to Arizona State already in his back pocket, but he wanted to get his professional baseball career going right away.

Strengths & Opportunities: Coming out of high school, Alcombrack was highly coveted by scouts because of his power potential at the plate to go along with his defensive abilities behind it. One of his biggest strengths is his soft hands to go along with his ability to call a game, handle a pitching staff, the ability to receive and block balls and throw runners out at such a young age. He showed the power potential in 2007 in the Gulf Coast League where he slugged 7 home runs and 10 doubles for a .488 slugging percentage, but it appeared to evaporate overnight as he hit just one home run last year at Mahoning Valley and had a .333 slugging percentage.

Alcombrack is still in the lower levels of the system and very young, so he still has a lot to learn. He continues to get bigger and stronger, but there have been some conditioning concerns over whether he is putting on the right weight. He has a lot of room to grow, particularly in making more consistent contact (130 Ks in 407 career at bats). He is a dead-pull hitter, so he needs work on covering the outside part of the plate and staying on and hitting breaking balls better. He is still learning his swing and what he needs to do to be successful, and going forward he has to continue to make some adjustments to stay more in the middle of the field. From a defensive standpoint, he needs to continues to work on how to attack certain hitters and receiving the ball, and work on his footwork when attempting to throw runners out. There is also the possibility he may start playing more first base, a position he played some last year at Mahoning Valley.

Outlook: Alcombrack is no longer the very young projectable catcher he was two years ago, so now that his age has caught up with his level, this coming season he will need to start showing some advancement with his abilities and some production with his bat. He will likely open the 2009 season at Single-A Lake County.

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr

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