Prospect Watch: Kyle Allen

According to http://www.metsgeek.com/ and http://flhsbaseballreport.com/:

Kyle Allen was born on February 12, 1990 in Portugal and went to High School in Bradenton, Fl at Pendleton High School where he was a well regarded 2-way player who won Rawlings/Perfect Game All-American as a 2-way player.

Kyle was drafted in the 24th round (734th overall) of the 2008 First Year Player Draft who had 2nd to 4th round talent/potential but fell due to signability concerns because of his commitment to NC State.

Allen has baseball bloodines as his uncle Ray Semproch was a Major League RHP and his cousin Matt Allen was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 40th round of the 1999 First Year Player Draft.

Because of Allen's size, 6'3 and 195 lbs, theres plenty of projection and potential as he already has a pretty good repetoire that consists of a 90-92 MPH 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs, 80-84 MPH slider and 79-86 MPH changeup.

This season for the Gulf Coast Mets Allen had a 1-1 record with a 2.12 ERA in 11 games and 5 starts. Kyle also notched 2 saves in his 34 innings while allowing only 24 hits and 10 BB's for a nifty 1.00 WHIP. Not to mention that Allen only gave up one home run, to the 3rd ranked Minor League Prospect in Baseball, Colby Rasmus. He also struck out 45 batters in the 34 innings, good for a 11.91 K/9.

Kyle Allen seems to have a good mentality and head on his shoulders,as evidence by this quote:

" I want to thank all the coaches who've ever been involved with my development and specifically the former coaches at Tampa Catholic, Tom Reidy (Former Florida Southern Player and USF Asst Coach) and Keith Strickland (former USF and PSl player). They have been very instrumental in my life. Not only because they started me from Day 1 of my 9th grade year on a senior/junior loaded team, but because they taught me a lot about life away from baseball and still to this day continue to give me great advice."

" I come to play, compete and win. I want to leave it all on the field. I want the ball to come to mewhen that guy is trying to tag up from 3rd, so i can try and throw him out, although I'd love to see my pitcher strike him out, but either way, I love the action. I want to be the guy with the at bat when we have the winning run at 3rd. I just love to play the game and be involved. That's the strongest part of my game".

The quotes are from high school when he was a 2-way player as both an outfielder and a right handed pitcher.

As you can see by the numbers and projection the sky's the limit for the 18 year old kid and he's someone I will be watching closely next season and he could rise through the system quickly.