Sometimes it all comes together. Sometimes the command needs work. Meet Jackson Wolf.
- Born: April 22, 1999
- B/T: Left/Left
- 6’7″, 205-lbs
- Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft from West Virginia University
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
Wolf was drafted out of college, and being a older prospect for Rookie ball faced just 13 batters there and showed he needed to move to a higher level. So A ball it was and he struck out just as many, but his command was off and it hurt his WHIP and xFIP.
He started 2022 at High-A and spent most of the season there. Did pretty good too. The walks improved, and the strikeouts were lower but still good enough to have decent results.
Late in the season he moved to Double-A and struggled to end the year.
Monthly Splits
April was good with too many walks.
May was good with too many walks.
June also had the walk problem and the strikeouts tanked.
July it all came beautifully together.
August and September saw those pesky walks again while his K rate slid off the cliff.
Handedness K% and BB%
A+ (vs RH): 26%K and 10%BB. (vs LH): 31%K and 7%BB.
I won’t count Double-A since it’s too small a sample. But so far we see that he likes facing lefties more than righties.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: Not on their Top 400
- Fantrax: Not on their Top 400
- RotoProspects: Not on Top 500
Warnings
He gets the strikeouts, but the walks are an issue.
He’s also an extreme flyball pitcher, so home runs could be an issue in the majors.
He had a small taste of Double-A, but we’d like to see him succeed there in 2023.
Conclusion
He has the pitches to be a starter, but his fastball isn’t dominant, and his changeup is below average. That puts a lot of pressure on his slider and curve to be effective. It can work, and as we saw above he will have months that are great.
If the starting gig doesn’t work, he’d be effective in the pen against lefties. He has a low arm slot and interesting delivery that messes with LHB timing.
And here’s a nice interview with Jackson Wolf.