ZACK DODSON | LEFT HANDED PITCHER |
 | Born: July 23, 1990 Height: 6′ 2″ Weight: 190 Bats: Left Throws: Left Drafted: 4th Round, 115th Overall, 2009 How Acquired: Draft High School: Medina Valley (Castroville, TX) Agent: Peter Vescovo, Select Sports Group |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| Baseball America listed Dodson as the 27th best prospect in Texas, but he was not ranked in their top 200 overall. Dodson played the outfield in 2009 and hit .465 with 11 HRs, but scouts liked him more as a pitcher. He can reach the low 90s and has a good curve, but had an inconsistent 2009 season that hurt his draft status, or at least that’s how Baseball America characterized it. It’s hard to see much inconsistency in those stats. Dodson had a commitment to Baylor and supposedly wanted a seven-figure bonus, but he signed with the Pirates for $600K a little over a week before the deadline. 2009 Pitched one inning on the last day of the GCL season. 2010 Spent season at State College and showed promise, but struggled with his control. He made steady progress, with his ERA and walk rate dropping each month. In June and July, he walked 17 in just 26.1 IP, but in August and September he walked only 10 in 31.1 IP. He didn’t get many grounders, as his groundout to air out ratio was only 0.83, and his K rate was low. On the plus side, he allowed only two longballs. Baseball America rated him the NYPL’s 17th best prospect. 2011 Dodson pitched very well at West Virginia, but his season was interrupted by a broken hand in May. He missed over a month and then went on a seven-start rehab stint in the GCL and at State College. In 13 starts with the Power, he had a good ERA and WHIP, with low walk and K rates. He threw in the low 90s, reaching 93, early in the season, but was hitting 88-90 after the layoff. He was more of a groundball pitcher, with a groundout to air out ratio of 1.44. Left- and right-handed batters hit for the exact same average against him (.246). Dodson managed to get in 93 innings despite the DL stint in 2011, so he should be ready to take a regular starting turn for most or all of 2012. A little surprisingly, he’ll return to West Virginia to start the year. This probably is a result mainly of a logjam in the Bradenton rotation, which in turn resulted partly from Hunter Strickland and Quinton Miller being healthy in spring training. |
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| Baseball Reference–Minors Fangraphs MiLB.com
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