Alex Wood is a 24 year old lefty hurler for the Braves. Standing 6'4" and weighing about 215, the lefty has had a fairly impressive start to his big league career. Armed with solid stuff, and a herky-jerky motion that makes in inherently difficult for the batter to pick up the ball, he stands on the precipice of fantasy dominance. 

THE MINORS

2009: Had Tommy John surgery.

2012: Drafted in the second round of the Entry Draft by the Braves after attending the University of Georgia. Appeared in 13 games at Single-A ball going 4-3 with a 2.22 ERA, 1.01 WHIP with 52 Ks in 52.2  innings. 

2013: Made 11 starts at Double and Triple-A. Went 5-2 with a 1.31 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 62 strikeouts in 62 innings. 

2014: Started twice in Triple-A posting a 1.08 ERA and 1.32 WHIP over 8.1 innings.

TOTALS: 9-5, 1.68 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 8.9 K/9, 3.49 K/BB ratio over 123 innings

THE MAJORS

2013: Made 31 appearances, starting 11 times, lasting 77.2 innings for the Braves. Wood went 3-3 with a 3.13 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and 8.92 strikeouts per nine innings. 

2014: Made 24 starts amongst his 35 outings. Went 11-11 with 170 punchouts in 171.2 innings. Also managed an impressive 3.78 K/BB ratio and 1.14 WHIP. His effort included a 2.43 ERA over his final 17 starts after he was recalled from a two week demotion to the minors. He had the third lowest run support of any NL hurler who threw 162 innings. 

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THE SKILLS

So you want to see the herky-jerky motion that Wood throws at hitters? Check this out. Make sure you haven't eaten a big meal or you might get nauseous. This is one of the keys to Wood's performance. Batters can't pick up the ball as his release point is extremely hard to pinpoint. Less than fully focused hitters might also be taken with all the arms and legs flying everywhere giving him another minor advantage. This is important. Why? Because while his stuff is solid, he's certainly not throwing up there  elite heat. Through his nearly 250 big league innings his fastball is sitting at 90.5 mph and his curveball 79.2. That's a solid 11 mph difference between the two, right in the happy zone that pitchers target, but neither is coming with velocity that stands out. Alas, his changeup is 83 mph, and that's too close to his fastball (ideally you would like 10-12 mph). Since it's unlikely he will pick up 2-3 mph on his heater it would be beneficial if he found a way to knock a few mph off his changeup. 

Speaking of his curveball, a question coming into his big league career, Wood started to gain more confidence in the pitch. As a result, he threw it more often. After tossing the pitch 14.3 percent of the time as a rookie he upped that mark to 22.7 percent in year two. He was also more effective with the pitch. In year one batters produced a 20.0 percent line drive rate on the pitch while in year two the mark dipped to 16.9 percent. The OPS against Wood on the pitch also fell .031 points. As importantly, his strike rate on the pitch increased as his walk rate dipped. Lot to like there.
 
With the increase in the use of his offspeed pitch, and that deceptive motion, Wood has brought the strikeout ball with force during his professional career. In the minors he struck out 8.9 batters per nine innings. As a rookie he struck out 8.92 batters per nine innings. In his second season he struck out 8.91 batters per nine innings. Pretty fair to think he's going to strike out about a batter per inning, is it not? Also saw a slight uptick from 9.2 to 9.7 percent in his swinging strike rate from year one to last season.

Does he walk batters? In his brief minor league career he walked 2.6 batters per nine. As a rookie that mark was up at 3.13 per nine, but guess what he did in '14? He walked just 2.36 batters per nine innings (the lack of free passes allowed Wood to toss out there a 1.14 WHIP last season, an impressive mark). The result last season was a 3.78 K/BB ratio in 2014. Let's build a picture.

In 2014 there were eight men in baseball who posted an ERA under 2.80 with a WHIP under 1.15 an a K/BB ratio of at least 3.75. Some pretty damn huge names are on this list: Clayton Kershaw, Corey Kluber, Felix Hernandez, Jon Lester, Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister, Chris Sale and Wood.

In addition to the above success, there is also this with Wood; he generates grounders. As a minor leaguer  Wood posted a ground ball ratio of 55.1 percent. Through two years in the big leagues Wood hasn't hit that mark, but the 47 percent rate he's posted with the Braves is still a strong number, as is his 1.45 GB/FB ratio. 

Wood has displayed no lefty/righty splits of note at all through two campaigns.

vs. lefties: .248/.310/.341 with a 4.00 K/BB ratio
vs. righties: .238/.301/.358 with a 3.23 K/BB ratio

Finally, through 249.1 big league innings Wood also owns a .308 BABIP, 20.8 percent line drive rate and 8.7 homer-to-fly ball ratio. All of that is all league average stuff and doesn't suggest in the least that the numbers that Wood has posted to this point aren't earned. 

PLAYING TIME CONSIDERATIONS

Wood is locked into the rotation behind Julio  Teheran, Shelby Miller and Mike Minor. He should slot in as the Braves 4th starter with the likes of Wandy Rodriguez, Eric Stults, Manny Banuelos and Chien-Ming Wang vying for the 5th spot. 

CONCLUSION

One of the potential breakout stars on the hill in 2015 is Wood. Heck, he was pretty much there last season with a 2.78 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. Know how many pitchers hit or bettered both of those marks last season? The answer is just nine if we include Wood. Check out the names: Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, Chris Sale, Johnny Cueto, Adam Wainwright, Doug Fister, Garrett Richards, Corey Kluber and Wood. If he merely replicates his effort from last season, throws 30 more innings, and gets some more run support, he'll be that star on the hill. 

10 team lg: Draft him as your third starter and watch the success follow.

12 team lg: Right at the bottom of the SP2 rankings. If you can pair him with a stable veteran type - James Shields or Jon Lester - he's a solid option as a second starter. If he's your third SP in this format --- cartwheels. 

15 team lg: With the skills to hold on to the ratios he posted last season, along with the ability to strike out a batter per inning, why wouldn't you want him as your second starting pitcher?

NL-only: After reading the above you know what I'm going to say. Crack open a beer, bid away and feel good about both - as long as the beer is a cider and not a lager.