[image title="mcallister" size="full" id="4019" align="right" ]Age: 21
Height: 6’6″
Weight: 230 lbs
Position: Starting Pitcher
The Fifth Commandment movie Throws: Right
2008 Team: Tampa Yankees
Current Team: Trenton Thunder
The Good: McAllister is a big guy, and throws like one. He was blessed with tons of natural sink due to his height and natural motion in high school. Although he threw a 4-seam fastball, it was commonly mistaken for a 2-seamer. The Yankees got him throwing a 2-seamer exclusively, and worked to make his 4-seam fastball more of a power offering. The result has become a deadly combination of movement and velocity. McAllister can throw a live 93 mph 4-seamer up in the zone, and follow it up with a 90-91 mph sinker at the knees. His control is superb. All else being average, McAllister’s control would make him a major league pitcher. His slider and changeup are average or better. McAllister is well-rounded as a pitcher, and has no tragic flaw.
The Bad: He does not strike a lot of batters out. Part of this was due to the tumultuous development of his breaking pitch. McAllister was drafted as a classic sinker-slider pitcher. The Yankees wanted to make him in to more of a power pitcher, so they shelved his slider in favor of a curveball. He spent much of 2007 and 2008 throwing the curveball, but he never mastered it. His slider is now his primary breaking pitch. We’ve already seen a boost to his strikeout rates in 2009, and I’m willing to bet he remains at the 7.5-8.0 K/9 rate for the season.
Projection: It seems like McAllister has been around forever, but he does not turn 22 until December. We haven’t yet seen the best of the young pitcher. McAllister probably does not project, in the best of worlds, as an ace. He doesn’t strike out a ton of batters, and lacks any truly overwhelming qualities. He isn’t a true ground ball machine like Derek Lowe, but he also doesn’t strike out a ton of batters. In many ways, he resembles Carl Pavano. Pavano was another big, tall guy with strong control, ground ball tendencies, and an average strikeout rate I could see the same for McAllister.
Optimism: I usually don’t put a lot of stock in minor league ERAs, but McAllister has maintained a steady ERA under 2.00 for a season and a half now. Since hitting the the full-season leagues, he has the second-lowest ERA of any pitcher across the bottom three full-season minor league levels as far as I can tell. Madison Baumgarner is first. He just isn’t allowing runs to cross the plate, despite the limitations of bumpy minor league infields and less-than-surehanded infielders. That is a major accomplishment.
Pessimism: There is little to be pessimistic about with McAllister. He doesn’t appear to have ace-type stuff, so his ceiling isn’t quite as high as guys like Brackman, Betances, Hughes, or Chamberlain. He is more like Ian Kennedy.
Bottom Line: Zach McAllister is a strong all-around pitcher who could eat a lot of innings for the Yankees.
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17 Responses to Prospect Profile: Zach McAllister
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TIQ IQ
I think he will be a solid #3 guy.
He always seemed like he had similar stuff as Marquez and he plateaued after AA (and seemed to regress lately. Anything in his profile that gives him an edge over Marquez (other than size (Z-Mac is much bigger))?
Always sounded more like Wang than MArquez to me.I think he’s a top prospect.
Not sure what your reasoning is there, Larry. Z-Mac and Marquez both throw about 90-91 while Wanger throws 95.
Tom, when do U project Z-Mach to be called up?
Hey, it’s possible we’ll get a look-see when the rosters expand, but I can’t imagine a legitimate call-up until mid-next year at the earliest maybe as a spot start for an injury. And that’s only if he continues to blow away both AA this year and AAA next. I don’t think there’s any rush with him. You agree, EJ?
Good write-up, EJ. BP had a piece yesterday about how Yankees prospects are usually overhyped, but McAllister has somehow flew under the radar. I look forward to seeing him in AAA soon.
McAllister is your prototypical 4th or 5th start it looks like. Guys like that still have a lot of value though
So, I understand why you are comparing McAllister to Marquez. I don’t think its a fair comparison, although Marquez was a pretty good prospect in his day. He was a 1st round supplemental pick too.
Marquez always had the good sinking fastball, but had real problems striking batters out at the high level. His K/9s were in Chien-Ming Wang territory once he got to the higher minors. He never really figured out how to throw a breaking pitch, and instead relied on a very good changeup.
McAllister has better stuff, control, a better record, and most of all a functional breaking pitch.
That’s cool. I hope you are right. Maybe I’ll take a trip down to Trenton to check him out. Until then, I remain a little skeptical as I could have sworn that many scouting reports once upon a time had Marquez equipped with all those tools before he was exposed. This one reviewer said he had “a very good curveball” and he “commands his fastball and changeup extremely well”
http://yankeeprospects.blogspot.com/2006/12/prospect-profile-jeff-marquez-12.html
:-) just being goofy – no offense
He is a very good trade asset.
Agreed. This is exactly the kind of prospect teams trade when looking for mid-season help. He isn’t regarded as in the top tier of pitching talent (lacking the upside of others such as Betances or Brackman) and he could bring a useful return. I would be surprised if he stays around long enough to pitch in the Yankee rotation.
I was at the Trenton Thunder’s game on Sunday, and McCallister pitched very well. His control was excellent, and he pitched out of a couple of jams. I don’t think he’s going to be fazed by the competition when (not if) he reaches the majors. And I do NOT think he should become trade bait, under any circumstances. You can never have too much pitching — unless you’re batting against it!
Over the last year EJ and I have been back and forth on ZMc and my preferred prospect, George Kontos. Like Tom, I also have expresssed concern that ZMc’s stuff will not translate well into the bigs but I can’t disagree with the Pavano comparisson as his best case. Worst case is another Marquez. If I had to choose, I think that this guy will be Pavano-like. We should move him up quickly to figure it out. I note that over the last four starts ZMc has an ERA of about 1 at AA and Kontos 1.49 at AAA (including yesterday’s loss). Both are doing very well. However,Igawa occassionally throws 7 shutout innings as he did a few nights ago and that serves as another reminder that the step between AAA and the bigs is trully the biggest step in all of sports.
I wonder what ever happened to the splitter. Kevin Brown was a power sinkerballer for the first few years of his career who had mixed results. He learned the splitter, his K/9 rates skyrocketed and he became an elite pitcher.
Wang throws a splitter, but its just not a very good one. I wonder if Z-Mac has ever fooled around with it.
BTW-Nice post, EJ. L-O-V-E the prospect profiles.
Haha thanks.