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He had a breakout season with 155 IP, 165K, 53BB, 3.37 ERA, 3.32 XFIP, and 55.3% Groundballs with an 8-9 record and 14QS.
From Baseball Prospectus: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...mmand-conquer/
And Nick Pollack is pretty high on him too: http://www.pitcherlist.com/top-40-st...hers-for-2018/
What does the Pen think and what would you be willing to invest to own him?
From Baseball Prospectus: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...mmand-conquer/
It turns out that the recipe for success is as simple as it is fragile: it doesn’t really matter where you throw the ball as long as you can get the batter to do the wrong thing most of the time. Where this leaves Godley as a breakout star is a matter of outlook. Godley isn’t exactly an outlier in any one of these areas, but combining them all is a bit of a tightrope act; it’s easy to envision one piece of the foundation giving out, and the whole structure crumbling down. Or, for the optimistically inclined, you could counter that Godley has accomplished all of this without actually really handling the most basic element of pitching, throwing strikes, and thus is afforded plenty of room to grow as he gets older.
21. Zack Godley (Arizona Diamondbacks) – I find Godley to be a polarizing arm, but after adding a tick of fastball velocity and ramping up the usage on his deadly curveball, it’s hard not to be a believer in the miracles Zack brings to your team. It starts with his sinker that features above average drop and induces a whopping 64.3% grounders on his own, paving the way for his fantastic 47.0% DB rate – i.e., balls in play that are hit into the ground that mostly result in outs – while his curveball was much better than you realize, featuring a 21.7% whiff rate, 50.3% O-Swing, and inducing a pitiful .155 BAA across 862 thrown. One of the more elite deuces you’ll come across. The major question is Godley’s walk rate, though. His harder stuff features a split of cutters and sinkers with neither pitch exceeding a 46% zone rate, meaning he’s banking on batters getting themselves out through weak contact or chasing pitches out of the zone. I’m not going to tell you that things will get better here and it’s the sole reason I’ve lowered Godley to the #21 overall spot as opposed to the comfortable Top 20 ranking I had in October. His 8.5% walk rate could improve, but it will take a major shift in approach to give in with his cutter and/or sinker to do so…and I’m not sure we’re going to see that. Now, the humidor’s inevitable arrival will also help things for Godley – a 14.7% HR/FB should theoretically decline – but it’s not as much of a necessity for Godley as it is for Zack Greinke or Robbie Ray as Godley only allowed 26.2% flyballs last season. Still, I love me some Godley as his skillset to miss bats and induce weak contact is top notch, paving the way for success even if it does come with a clear flaw via free passes.
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