Get to know: Rocket City Trash Pandas pitcher Zac Kristofak

Rocket City Trash Pandas pitcher Zac Kristofak took the time to speak with me for a Q&A about his recent move from High-A to Double-A for the 2023 MiLB season. The Los Angeles Angels affiliate recounted how his college experience helped ready him for the next level, pitch clock rules, what is working well for him this season and who has helped his development along the way. This interview was edited for clarity.

Q: How did your career at UGA prepare you for professional baseball? 

A: My time at Georgia prepared me to be a professional baseball player by creating a routine. Everything is very micromanaged. When you’re in college, you wake up, you go to class, you go to practice, and after practice, you go work out. Following that structure, I think, really helped me for professional baseball. [You] don’t have strength coaches, tutors, academic advisors, breathing down your neck in a way. But it set me up that I can really trust myself to do that [myself], I think. 

Q: Do you wish you would have stayed at UGA to play your last year of eligibility, not knowing that COVID was going to happen the following spring?

A: No, no to be honest, I’m very happy in the situation that I am in currently. And if I did stay another year, and COVID happened like it did, I could be in a very different situation. I’m very happy with where my feet are at and I’m very happy for the decision that I made. 

Q: How was your transition from High-A to Double-A?

A: It’s been, it’s been easy, because simply of the people that I’m surrounded with. I’m around a lot of people that I came up with, players and staff included and the group of people that I’m around, they make it easy everyday, [they] make it very fun to go to the field. Because when you’re on the field, and when you’re competing, it’s the same game. Some of the players are a little better than what you face in High-A. All in all, I think it’s the community of people that you surround yourself in, day in and day out that makes going out on the field and competing very easy. 

Q: Have you noticed a main difference between pitching in High-A versus Double-A?

A: I would say yes, I think the main difference is that you have to be better at using count leverage. I have to get ahead in the count, better and more often, because when I fall behind in the count, in High-A I feel like you can get away sometimes with being 2-1 or 3-1 and still getting outs. But at this level, when you’re behind in the count, and you’re in a hitter advantage count, they are less inclined to make mistakes and if you throw them their pitch, they’re going to do some damage on it.

Q: I was looking at some of your stats and I saw that you had a 3.82 ERA last season and your current ERA is a 1.29, what changes have you implemented to reflect that improvement?

A: I think I’ve just gotten off to a good start. It’s very early on in the season still and a lot can happen, but I think this offseason, I improved on a couple of my pitches. I think my fastball got better, my changeup got better, which I didn’t really throw my changeup a lot last year. So the fact that I’m throwing it more has, I think, challenged the hitters to look for something else. That automatically makes my fastball and slider better because I can throw my changeup for a strike and it’s also a swing and miss pitch as well. 

Q: How has the adjustment been to the new pitch clock and pick-off rules? Have they impacted your rhythm at all? Or have you had any kind of weird situations with the new rules?

A: I personally have not, because we used these rules last year when I was in High-A. So I was a little ahead of the curve on people who did not use the pitch clock. But, I personally think that the pitchers kind of have the advantage especially [because] I feel like I always worked at a quick pace, at a quick tempo, so it doesn't really affect me. I think the hitters are the ones that kind of have to make the biggest adjustments. 

Q: So it hasn’t been too bad with the rules, you kind of got to test the waters last season. 

A: Yeah, exactly. I felt kind of comfortable going in and I ultimately think the hitter has to adjust because instead of calling time multiples per at bat, they gotta get right back in the box and they only have one time-out per at bat. So I definitely think the pitchers are in the driver’s seat with these new rules. 

Q: What is one aspect of your performance you feel you could improve on?

A: One aspect that I can improve on I think is controlling the running game. I guess that is the one downside to the pitch clock and the pick-off rules, is that the runners can take advantage of that. If you use your two pick-offs during one at bat with one runner, I feel like it’s a lot easier for them to time you up, especially with the clock and steal some bases. 

Q: I can see how that would be a challenge for sure. Sometimes when I’m watching games, I feel like I don't even have time to process the last pitch and then the next one is already starting. 

A: Because there’s a lot of time in between plays, sometimes the people in the booth that are controlling the clock will start it early and if you get a really good umpire, he’ll call time and make them restart the clock. But a lot of times it can get really squirrely out there for sure.

Q: Who within the Angels organization do you feel has helped your career the development the most? 

A: My pitching coach from High-A. I had him the past two years, his name is Doug Henry. Doug played in the big leagues from 1991 to 2001, he’s been a pitching coach for, I want to say close to 20 years now. He was a bullpen coach on the 2015 Kansas City Royals major league team that won the World Series. He’s just got a lot of experience, he’s an old school dude, which there really aren’t a whole lot of those guys around anymore, especially with the new day and age technology. But Doug has always provided me with a wealth of information and I think he really has helped my mindset. I would not be here without Doug Henry. 

Chloe Webb is a student in the Sports Media Certificate program at the University of Georgia's Carmical Sports Media Institute.