Meanwhile down on the farm-Josh Winder

[goulik]

Moving on down to the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Right on top of the innings pitched leader board sits Josh Winder with 21.1 innings pitched and a 2.53 ERA. Who's this guy? A quick glance at his stats shows me some interesting numbers and here we go with another "down on the farm"

 

Winder was a 7th round pick last year out of Virginia Military Institute and he signed for slot value, $198,700. A quick search found me this scouting report:  Go ahead, click on it, read away and we will wait right here for you...

 

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=15129

 

Now I'm thinking we found something Right?

 

Going back to his Minor League page, I find that Winder spent the rest of the summer of 2018 in Elizabethton where he started 9 games and gave our squad 38..2 innings. He struck out 42 compared to 6 walks (7 to 1 ratios are nice!) while creating a 0.64 GO/AO. (Wait, that's a lot of fly balls...) Going back to the 2019 stats I find a GO/AO of 0.44. Winder has struck out 23, has not allowed a home run, and has only walked 6 batters this year and in 60 total innings has only given up one home run. Is he just getting lucky? Stats guys have informed me that 10% of fly balls leave the park so he is beating those odds by a long ways. Is that sustainable? As he moves up, that's doubtful.

 

I know my other down on the farms painted optimistic pictures of diamonds in the rough and I do not want to lose that potential. Winder is not giving up walks and apparently has great control. It is only 60 innings in the minors so far but 0 Hit batters is a pretty solid start especially when paired with a K rate over 1 per inning.

 

My final opinion? The kid is way down in Cedar Rapids so there is plenty of time for growth and the fact that he is in low A, expectations that growth is needed. And lets not forget, he is beating the current competition, but unless he can improve his ground ball rate, this control pitcher is going to take some lumps as he moves up. Still, there are a lot of shiney things to look at here so lets not lose hope before we get started. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Moving on down to the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Right on top of the innings pitched leader board sits Josh Winder with 21.1 innings pitched and a 2.53 ERA. Who's this guy? A quick glance at his stats shows me some interesting numbers and here we go with another "down on the farm"

 

Winder was a 7th round pick last year out of Virginia Military Institute and he signed for slot value, $198,700. A quick search found me this scouting report:  Go ahead, click on it, read away and we will wait right here for you...

 

https://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=15129

 

Now I'm thinking we found something Right?

 

Going back to his Minor League page, I find that Winder spent the rest of the summer of 2018 in Elizabethton where he started 9 games and gave our squad 38..2 innings. He struck out 42 compared to 6 walks (7 to 1 ratios are nice!) while creating a 0.64 GO/AO. (Wait, that's a lot of fly balls...) Going back to the 2019 stats I find a GO/AO of 0.44. Winder has struck out 23, has not allowed a home run, and has only walked 6 batters this year and in 60 total innings has only given up one home run. Is he just getting lucky? Stats guys have informed me that 10% of fly balls leave the park so he is beating those odds by a long ways. Is that sustainable? As he moves up, that's doubtful.

 

I know my other down on the farms painted optimistic pictures of diamonds in the rough and I do not want to lose that potential. Winder is not giving up walks and apparently has great control. It is only 60 innings in the minors so far but 0 Hit batters is a pretty solid start especially when paired with a K rate over 1 per inning.

 

My final opinion? The kid is way down in Cedar Rapids so there is plenty of time for growth and the fact that he is in low A, expectations that growth is needed. And lets not forget, he is beating the current competition, but unless he can improve his ground ball rate, this control pitcher is going to take some lumps as he moves up. Still, there are a lot of shiney things to look at here so lets not lose hope before we get started. 

 

I think there's hope with Winder. He's got good size. He does have the pitches. He's strong. Obviously we can assume some sort of work ethic with his background. I also think it's fair to wait until after a full season to evaluate full, as you mention. I think that first year in E-Town is about throwing a few innings and adjusting to pro life. They didn't have pitchers perform in Instructs last fall. So he went from the development camps to spring training to the season. That's why I try not to worry too much about things quite yet. I'm sure they'll look at that fly out rate and try a few things throughout the season, so it'll be interesting to see if those numbers change soon. 

 

I think he's one to watch... but if there weren't question marks, he wouldn't have fallen to the 7th round. 

 

Good stuff... I've enjoyed these!

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

 

Good stuff... I've enjoyed these!

 

I want to second this... these have been very nice pieces to read. Keep up the good work Goulik.