2011 Indians Top 50 Prospects: #31 Zach McAllister

Zach McAllister – Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 12/08/1987 – Height: 6’5” Weight: 230 – Bats: Right – Throws: Right

(Photo: Tony Lastoria)

History: McAllister was selected by the New York Yankees in the 3rd round of the 2006 Draft out of Illinois Valley Central High School (IL). He was committed to attend the University of Nebraska, but was signed by the Yankees to a $368,000 signing bonus. The Indians acquired him from the Yankees on July 30th in exchange for Austin Kearns. His father, Steve, is the Arizona Diamondbacks Midwest Area Scouting Supervisor and former infielder who played six years in the minors for the Astros and Pirates from 1981-1986, reaching as high as Double-A.

Strengths: McAllister is a very durable, strong, athletic pitcher who is not overpowering, showing a sinking fastball that consistently clocks in at 87-91 MPH and has topped out at 94 MPH. He has a nice, easy delivery and gets good movement on his fastball and keeps it down in the zone well. He is more of a command and control specialist with a deep mix of secondary pitches: a slider, curveball, and changeup. He relies heavily on his sinker-slider combination as his sinker is the key to his success since he thrives on groundball outs, and while the slider is still developing it is his only above average secondary pitch. He shows a lot of confidence in using his average changeup which is still a work in progress.  His curveball is clearly his fourth best pitch, but one that continues to show improvement and is still developing.

McAllister is a very smart pitcher and an intelligent approach with how he attacks hitters. He is aggressive and is not afraid to pitch in on the hands of right-handers. He is more of a backend, depth rotation arm with excellent athleticism, sort of along the same lines of right-handed pitcher Josh Tomlin but with higher ceiling.

Opportunities: McAllister had a rough 2010 season after a banner year in 2009. His inconsistent command, particularly with his changeup, and a lack of execution when he got ahead of hitters was his downfall last season. He saw a significant dip in his groundball rate as he had just a 0.79 GO/AO last year whereas in his four previous seasons he had around a 2.00 career groundball rate, so with less balls being hit on the ground it led to an increase in harder hit line drives and balls in the air. He was also learning to pickup a cutter and curveball last year on the fly which had some negative affect on his performance. In addition to that he had some issues with maintaining a consistent velocity last season as early in the year his velocity was down, but in the last few months it ticked back up and finished as good or better than it has in the past.

McAllister could also use more separation in the velocity from his fastball and his offspeed stuff. After the rough year, things seemed to finally come together for him in the playoffs as in two starts for Columbus he went 1-1 with a 0.71 ERA (12.2 IP, 11 H, 1 BB, 9 K).

Outlook: McAllister was added to the 40-man roster in the offseason, and is yet more pitching inventory for the Indians. With so much uncertainty with the rotation next year and beyond they are stockpiling arms. This coming season he will work hard to resurrect his success at being a groundball machine, and the Indians will give him every opportunity to do exactly that. He should open the 2011 season in the starting rotation at Triple-A Columbus, and unless a rash of injuries hits the big league starting rotation he doesn’t figure to be with the Indians until rosters expand in September.

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2006	18	GCL Yankees	R	5	2	3.09	11	1	35.0	35	12	1	12	28	.259	3.1	7.2	1.34
2007	19	Staten Island	A-	4	6	5.17	16	15	71.1	80	41	3	28	75	.286	3.5	9.5	1.51
2008	20	Charleston	A	6	3	2.45	10	10	62.1	59	17	3	8	53	.245	1.2	7.7	1.08
2008	20	Tampa	A+	8	6	1.83	15	14	88.2	74	18	6	13	62	.225	1.3	6.3	0.98
2009	21	Trenton	AA	7	5	2.23	22	22	121.0	98	30	4	33	96	.220	2.5	7.1	1.08
2010	22	Scranton WB	AAA	8	10	5.09	24	24	132.2	165	75	20	38	88	.308	2.6	6.0	1.53
2010	22	Columbus	AAA	1	2	6.88	3	3	17.0	20	13	1	7	11	.303	3.7	5.8	1.59
		MiLB Totals		39	34	3.51	101	89	528.0	531	206	38	139	413	.261	2.4	7.0	1.27

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