Draft Prospects You Should Know: Matthew Allan

When you have the No. 3 overall pick, it’s never too soon to take a quick peek into this year’s MLB draft. This year’s draft class is loaded with excellent hitting prospects, but is relatively weak on the pitching side.

Draft Prospects You Should Know is a new series that features prospects who the White Sox could pursue in this year’s draft. As the June draft nears, we’ll return to many of these athletes and provide updates on whether their stocks are rising (or falling).

Age listed as of Day One of the Draft (June 3).

Matthew Allan

Seminole H.S. (Sanford, Fla.)
Right-Handed Starting Pitcher
Age 18
Bats Right
Throws Right

Rankings

Baseball America 16
MLB 13
FanGraphs 16

Allan is one of three prep pitching prospects that are considered borderline Top 20 picks, along with Daniel Espino, Brennan Malone, and Quinn Priester. While Allan’s stuff isn’t as high octane as Espino’s or Malone’s, he still throws hard enough to merit consideration among that group. Case in point: In his one inning during last year’s Perfect Game All-American Classic last August 12, he fanned all three batters he faced.

At 6´3´´ and 215 pounds, Allan posses a strong, athletic build. His delivery is slow-paced with a big leg raise start, and his mechanics are relatively low-effort. Interestingly, he’s actually shown better stuff and mechanics from the windup. Allan’s fastball consistently reaches 96-97 mph per MLB Pipeline, but is relatively straight. The curveball is Allan’s strikeout pitch, as it’s actually more of a slurve but with consistent location and movement. An 87-89 mph changeup, per Baseball America, completes his repertoire — but it’s still a work in progress as he hasn’t had to use it much during prep ball. It’s a pitch that would likely be more effective if he can take a couple more ticks off to allow for bigger differentiation with his heater.

The biggest concern regarding Allan has been his command, which was inconsistent during the summer showcases. MLB Pipeline grades his fastball as 65, curveball 60, changeup 55, and command 55. Allan is verbally committed to the University of Florida, so someone may have to push some overslot cash his way in order to pry him from the Gators.

Would the Sox consider Allan in the first round? No. The White Sox haven’t drafted a prep pitcher in the first round since 2004 (Gio Gonzalez). But beyond that, (1) the White Sox have typically leaned toward more polished college-prep players, (2) the quality of competition a prep pitcher faces is obviously much weaker than what a college pitcher faces, (3) high school managers often work their star pitchers far harder than they should (remember Kerry Wood?), and (4) prep seasons aren’t nearly as long as college season. That last one is a big factor, because it’s more difficult to tell whether prep pitchers will eventually handle a 150-200 inning workload physically, mentally, and stuff-wise. A fifth reason, in Allan’s case, could simply be that while the righty is quite good, it would be simply be too much of a stretch for someone ranked outside the Top 10 to be unexpectedly selected with the third pick.

Here’s a video of Allan pitching in the Perfect Game National Showcase last June, courtesy of 2080 Baseball:

Here’s a video of Allan’s perfect game on April 13, in which he struck out 17 hitters. The video is courtesy of MaxPreps: