I have been intrigued by Austin Allen's bat and potential power since he was drafted and it is not hard to find articles about how hard he works to remain a viable Catcher:
San Diego Padres:
Austin Allen makes his case to stay behind the plate with a career year in Lake Elsinore
By Bobby DeMuro 
Posted on August 26, 2017
Rancho Cucamonga, California –– Talk to any prospect evaluator that is familiar with San Diego Padres catcher Austin Allen, be they public-facing or within an organization, and the prevailing thought is the same: huge power, big guy, almost certain to end up at first base. Scouts are near unanimous in that thought, arguing Allen soon won’t be able to handle the physical duties catching requires. I’ve even pondered the same, assuming he’ll one day find a role catching part-time while playing more first base (and, if he ever gets to an American League organization, finding time as a designated hitter).
In fact, there’s really only one person who believes Austin Allen will stay behind the plate for the rest of his career – and that’s Austin Allen.
“My expectations for myself are higher than what anybody else thinks I can do,” the catcher told Baseball Census in a conversation before the Lake Elsinore Storm’s Thursday afternoon road game at LoanMart Field. This isn’t a new desire, of course; Allen has been very vocal in the past about staying behind the plate, and while time and positional need will ultimately tell the tale, a very good 2017 season buoyed by a strong finish the last few weeks is making the catching case for the San Diego Padres prospect.
“Honestly, I feel great,” Allen said, ironically just hours before he blasted his third home run in three days while also catching Jerry Keel’s complete game two-hitter against Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday night. “Other than the little inevitable dings, the foul balls and stuff, I really feel great. This offseason, I trained extremely hard every single day in order to catch as many games as I possibly can, and [field manager] Edwin [Rodriguez], he’s done a great job of mixing me in at DH, giving my legs a little break.”
“I had a weak stretch right before the All-Star Break where my legs were dead, but other than that brief period, I’ve felt the best I think I’ve ever felt [in pro ball],” he continued, noting the last few weeks have been particularly strong even as the dog days of August wear on around him. “I’ve been managing everything better. Last year helped with this. By August of last year, I couldn’t move. My knees hurt, my arm hurt, I didn’t feel good mentally. I was exhausted. But this year, I’ve looked forward to coming to the field every day and playing as hard as I can.”
That in and of itself is a critical hurdle to jump for any catcher, and especially a broad-shouldered, 6’4”, 225 lb. one like Austin Allen. The San Diego Padres prospect has spent three-quarters of his time in 2017 behind the plate, and learning how to manage his body in a full-season role like this is unquestionably a feather in the cap as he makes a case to the Padres to remain in a catching role as 2018 looms.
“This past winter, I trained for 140 games, and [this coming offseason], I’ll be training for 174 games,” Allen noted. “Remember when [Yadier Molina] came out and commented about him supposedly being tired? He said he trains for 174 games, and I took that, and I was like ‘wow, I should be doing that.’”
If staying on top of the position is particularly key for a catcher the size of Austin Allen, so too is staying below it all – the baseball, that is. Here – watch this video of the San Diego Padres prospect receiving and framing this week during Lake Elsinore’s series in Rancho Cucamonga, and you’ll quickly see the unique way Allen must come set and show a target because of his size: [video]
As you might expect, Allen’s focus centers on picking up strikes across the lowest band of the strike zone – the most important place for his pitchers to work.
“I’ve struggled with that low strike because of my size,” Allen readily admitted, noting knee-high strikes have been his primary focus throughout 2017. “It’s harder for me to get that, so I really have to work on that a lot. My hot zone is up. I know I’ve got a really good chance on getting a call on [higher pitches], even if they are out of the zone, but I’m a little cold on the bottom of the zone.”
There are ways around this, of course, and Austin Allen has found two of them: beating the ball to the spot to help with framing, and experimenting with new lower sets in body position to start low and work up. Both are works in progress, especially considering Allen credits this summer as the first where he’s really honed in on a new level of specific, nuanced defensive work behind the plate. But the development of both more than anything else in his game will dictate whether Austin Allen can stay behind the plate for years to come.
“I’m very confident beating the high pitch to the spot, but sometimes it’s been tough to beat the low ball down to the spot, and the prep before the pitch is the biggest key,” Allen said. “Focusing on prepping down. Not putting my glove on the ground, but starting very low and coming up through it, and timing it right. Some days, it’s easier than others. If you’ve got a guy who has his command that day, you can trust yourself to stay as low as possible for as long as possible and then come up. But that’s been the big focus, beating the ball to the spot.”
To help with that is the second part of Allen’s summer development behind the plate: a significantly lower set than in years past, including going far below the crouch with nobody on base.
“John Nester and Ryley Westman, two of our catching coordinators, they’ve really got me going to one knee as much as possible with no one on base, even on breaking balls,” Allen said. “That gets me lower, it gets the target lower, and it clears the left knee so I have more room to move. I’ve become really comfortable going to one knee no matter who is throwing. I wasn’t comfortable at first in spring training, but they have emphasized doing it as much as possible. And it saves my legs a little bit. That’s huge, because I want to be able to produce offensively all year, too.”
Let's talk a little bit about that offensive production Allen mentions, because lost in this tale of his catching challenges and development is one big aspect of the prospect’s season: he’s putting up impressive numbers at the plate with yet another late power surge now even as August winds down. Entering play on Saturday night, Allen has 21 homers, 29 doubles, and a .505 slugging percentage in 432 at-bats – an impressive showing for a guy arguably robbed of a postseason All-Star nod in the California League this week.
“Our assistant farm director, he came into town one day,” Allen recalled, “and he was like ‘I haven’t looked at your average once, but I do know you’re hitting for more power than last year, you have more doubles than last year, and you’re walking more. We can’t ask for anything else. Keep trending on that, and you’ll be fine.’ Ever since then, I’ve been like, ‘OK, I can buy into that.’”
That’s not the only thing Austin Allen has bought into, either. You can now count him among the game’s launch angle acolytes in fully understanding that his future, regardless of defensive position, rests on how often he can hit the ball hard in the air.
“The whole launch angle thing you hear? I’ve bought into that, because the money is in the air,” Allen acknowledged. “I’ve changed my approach a little bit, not just hitting the ball hard, but looking more so into the flight of the ball. And if somebody says ‘oh, you’re a 15-20 homer guy,’ I want to be a 30-homer guy. If they see me as a .250 hitter, I want to be a .300 hitter. I haven’t really been looking at my stats, but it’s like what we were talking about back at Inland [Empire], my main focus is hitting it hard.”
And hit it hard, he shall.
There’s little question that Austin Allen will keep doing that – but if he continues to prove himself behind the plate against all odds and virtually every evaluation pegging him for first base, watch out; the San Diego Padres may yet have a bona fide catching prospect on their hands here.
http://baseballcensus.com/2017/08/26/sa ... interview/
And ...
This year, Austin Allen is finishing strong
By Jeff Sanders-Contact Reporter
August 5, 2017, 9:35 AM
A .460 hitter at the end of April in 2016, Austin Allen was never going to keep up that blistering pace. To the extent he tired down the stretch in his first full season of pro ball, the 23-year-old Allen is getting stronger as he rolls through this summer.
Allen hit more homers in July (10) than he did in all of 2016 (8) and is hitting .355/.394/.663 at high Single-A Lake Elsinore since the All-Star break. The surge not only earned Allen back-to-back California League player of the week nods, it thrust the left-handed hitting Allen into a four-way tie for the organization lead for home runs with 18.
Austin is a confident kid who’s starting to realize who he is as a player,” said Ryley Westman, coordinator of instruction. “He’s a good hitter, has a good eye at the plate and has a good path through the zone. He’s a strong kid, his body is in better shape than in the past and he is realizing that he just needs to hit what the pitcher provides. When he does that, he’s having a lot of success.”
The body is one reason Allen is picking up steam as the season drags on.
A fourth-rounder as a big-bodied catcher out of the Florida Institute of technology in 2015, the 6-foot-4 Allen shed 15 pounds working out alongside the likes of Francisco Lindor heading into the his first full season. He doubled down on that regimen over this offseason after watching his on-base-plus slugging plummet from an outlandish 1.143 his first month at Fort Wayne to .583 in May and settle at .790 by season’s end.
Through 96 games in the California League, Allen has paired 190 total bases, second-most in the farm system, with a .297/.364/.518 batting line and new career-highs in runs (56), doubles (25), homers (18) and RBIs (68).
The slimmed-down body has also helped Allen behind the plate, where improved quick-burst action enables him to unleash 2.0-second throws to second base when his mechanics are sound. The Padres have also focused on Allen’s hip flexibility, framing borderline pitches as strikes and streamlining his momentum to work toward second base on throws to keep his times from slipping above 2.0 seconds as they occasionally do.
“He came in as a very average body guy, but from the work that he's shown every offseason, he takes the offseason very serious,” Westman said. “It's very valuable to him. He reports back in better and better shape very year. It's fun to see him grow and build.”
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/spo ... story.html
But yesterday during the BA Padres Top 10 prospect chat I learned the real reason Allen is struggling as a backstop:
... Jake (Still not San Diego): The farm seems weak on LHH, any potential big league impactful LHH? Any sleepers to keep an eye on?
Kyle Glaser: Franchy Cordero is a LHH who will play a role on their ML roster for a lot of years to come. In terms of everyday impact Josh Naylor is your hope if he can figure everything out.
Austin Allen can really thump. There are guys there, they just all have question marks.
Jim in Maine (Maine): Will Austin Allen be able to remain a backstop? In your 11-20 range or 21- 30?
Kyle Glaser:
There is not a ton of conviction Allen will because he just can’t control the run game. His receiving in the strike zone is fine and he isn’t a butcher back there, but you can’t allow 119 stolen bases in 150 attempts (as he did in 2016) and follow it up with 100 more allowed in 126 attempts in 2017. That isn’t viable behind the plate.
Johnny (San Diego): Can you talk about a couple of guys we saw in Lake Elsinore this season- Austin Allen showed some pop and Gerardo Reyes throws hard but seems to struggle with command. Where do those two fit in to the MLB picture, whether for San Diego or elsewhere?
Kyle Glaser:
Allen has to control the run game better as discussed. He probably needs a trade to an AL team and can rise as a lefthanded C/1B/DH type. Reyes was not protected on the Padres 40 man for the Rule 5 draft, which I think tells you what you need to know.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/ ... 2stBwzW.99
Emphasis above is mine ... Still inclined to hold onto him and see how he does outside of the California but it looking like he is not a future Catcher for the IBC White Sox ...