Zander Wiel - 2016

[Seth Stohs]

Zander Wiel 

1/11/93

First Base

Twins 12th round pick in 2012 out of Vanderbilt. 

 

He began with Elizabethton last year but missed a month with a broken hand after being hit by a pitch. His father played basketball at North Carolina and has been a basketball coach in the US and professionally around the globe.

[Shane Wahl]

Wiel's 2016 statistics at Cedar Rapids:

147 PA, .238/.329/.341 (.670), five doubles, four triples, 18 walks, 35 strikeouts, four stolen bases

 

 

Wiel was the 12th round pick in the 2015 draft.

[Guest]

One thing Wiel has demonstrated is pretty decent speed for a 1B. He has 4 triples already, for example. Probably needs to develop the power tool, though, if he's going to advance up the ladder.

[goulik]

May 23rd TD MiLB hitter of the day with a walk off homer for Cedar Rapids, his third of the year. Zander leads the Kernels in games (41), at bats (160), runs (24T), triples (4T), And stolen bases (4T). He's now hitting a respectable 275/352/406 (758). He has spent all 368 of his innings at 1B with 3 errors for a 992 fielding %.

 

As SD Buhr pointed out, one would want more than the 3 career homers from a 1B prospect but he is putting up decent numbers otherwise. Does anyone have a scouting report that would show his power potential?

[goulik]

Now hitting 254/332/399 with 13/4/4 2b/3b/hr. He is still at 4 stolen bases. He has struck out 52 times in 228 AB with 27 walks. All 516 of his innings on defense have been at first with 5 errors for a .991 fielding percentage.

[goulik]

Zander is now hitting 249/324/432 in 329 at bats. He leads CR with 52 RBI's and his 44 Runs is second to Arraez(45). Zanders 5 Triples and 10 home runs also lead the team but 20 doubles has him again in second place to Arraez(21). Unfortunately, he also leads the team with 81 Strike outs to 37 walks. His 5 stolen bases has him in a 3 way second place tie behind Sean Miller (6). Defensively, Zander has played all 743 innings at first with 11 errors for a .981 FPCT.

[goulik]

In the first half of the year we were a little concerned about Zanders ability to hit home runs and the fact that he had not hit many. Now, he hasn't become a prodigious home run hitter yet but He does have 14 and with an additional 25 doubles and 8 triples we can see the potential is developing into reality for Zander to be a solid slugging offensive 1B. 256/334/448 is a solid slash line to go with that for a respectable 782 OPS.

 

Defensively he has a 985 FPCT with 15 errors in 1017 innings at 1B. He has not played another position this year or last year.

[Shane Wahl]

2016 Summary

 

Inexplicably spending the full season at Cedar Rapids:

 

568 plate appearances, .259/.333/.459 (.792), 27 doubles, eight triples, 19 homers, 55 walks, 125 strikeouts, seven steals, one time caught stealing

 

He did make 17 errors at first base.

 

 

2017 Outlook

 

I am not sure about the errors, but Wiel certainly looks like he can hit. He will be 24 next January, so hopefully he gets off to a hot start for Fort Myers and get a promotion to AA by July.