Indians Top 100 Prospects: #14 John Meloan

14. John Meloan - Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 07/11/1984 - Height: 6'3" - Weight: 230 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2005	20	Ogden	R	0	2	3.69	16	6	1	39.0	30	16	4	18	54	4.2	12.5	1.23
2006	21	Columbus	A	1	1	1.54	12	0	1	23.1	9	5	4	7	41	2.7	15.8	0.69
	21	Vero Beach	A+	1	0	2.50	4	3	0	18.0	15	5	2	4	27	2.0	13.5	1.06
	21	Jacksonville	AA	1	0	1.69	5	0	0	10.2	3	2	1	5	23	4.2	19.4	0.75
2007	22	Jacksonville	AA	5	2	2.18	35	0	19	45.1	24	11	3	18	70	3.6	13.9	0.93
	22	Las Vegas	AAA	2	0	1.69	14	0	1	21.1	12	4	2	9	21	3.8	8.9	0.98
	22	Los Angeles	MLB	0	0	11.05	5	0	0	7.1	8	9	1	8	7	9.8	8.6	2.18
2008	23	Las Vegas	AAA	5	10	4.97	21	20	0	105.0	119	58	7	60	99	5.1	8.5	1.70
	23	Buffalo	AAA	0	1	4.30	12	0	0	14.2	12	7	1	9	12	5.5	7.4	1.43
	23	Cleveland	MLB	0	0	0.00	2	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	1	2	4.5	9.0	0.50
		Career (minors)		15	16	3.47	119	29	22	277.1	224	107	22	130	347	4.2	11.3	1.28

History: Meloan was a 5th round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2005 Draft out of the University of Arizona, and was later acquired by the Indians in July 2008 in the Casey Blake trade. The Dodgers toyed with him as a starter some last year, but he profiles as a reliever where he has been absolutely dominating in the minors where in 80 career minor league relief appearances he has a 2.08 ERA (28 ER, 120.2 IP) and allowed just 63 hits (4.7 H/9), 50 walks (3.7 BB/9) and struck out 172 hitters (12.8 K/9).

Strengths & Opportunities: Meloan throws a fastball that tops out around 94-95 MPH, and he complements it with a nasty slider that is an out pitch. He also throws a cutter, changeup and curveball which are all good pitches, but are more show-me pitches to set up his fastball and slider. In addition to his talent, one of the big selling points for Meloan is how much of a competitor he is on the mound and his off the charts makeup. With his pitching repertoire to go along with his makeup and composure Meloan has the makings of a dominant backend reliever down the road, perhaps even a closer.

The Indians believe Meloan's best role is as a reliever, and upon acquiring him from the Dodgers they moved him back into his more familiar relief role after he had been starting for the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate. He certainly has the arsenal to be a starter and was a starter in college where he was actually dominant in that role, but the Indians feel like with the type of strikeout pitcher that he is and that he can get a little more velocity on his fastball in the bullpen that he has a much greater chance of impacting their team in a relief role at some point. He was moved to a starting role in 2008 because the Dodgers felt like they needed some depth there, and he supposedly was experiencing a drop in velocity when being used on back-to-back days. However, according to the Indians - who have followed him since 2005 when he was first drafted - they saw a lot of his performances on back-to-back days as a reliever and don't think there was an issue with a drop in velocity as has previously been reported in other places. He has a little bit of a maximum effort delivery, so it is kind of better suited for the bullpen anyway.

Outlook: The Indians have a plethora of young bullpen depth ready to contribute at the major league level, and with the offseason acquisitions of Kerry Wood and Joe Smith to fill out the bullpen, the young stable of arms they have will be hard-pressed to make the big league team out of spring training. Meloan should open the 2009 season in the Triple-A Columbus bullpen, but will likely be the first bullpen option the Indians turn to when a need arises at the major league level. He should see significant time in Cleveland this season.

Photo courtesy of Carl Kline

John Meloan MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page

John Meloan Baseball-Reference page

John Meloan MinorLeagueSplits.com page

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