Shorebird of the Week – July 26, 2012

The photos above show the two sides of Wynston Sawyer, a player who’s been useful to the Shorebirds this season as he alternates from behind the dish and over at first base. In fact Wynston’s split time almost equally between the two, ranking second on the team with both his 27 games caught and 31 at first base.

Meanwhile, Sawyer has become somewhat of an offensive threat over the last month. Hitting just .169 at the league’s All-Star break, his .330 clip since has raised his batting mark to a more respectable .234 average. While he’s not been a stellar hitter in the professional ranks so far – Wynston’s current mark is three points higher than his career average (and peak, having hit the same .231 in both the Gulf Coast League and with Aberdeen) coming into the season – the 2010 8th round pick out of Scripps Ranch High School in California has shown an improving on-base percentage and better eye at the plate, with a nice ratio of 31 walks to 40 strikeouts in 2012.

While he was drafted to be a catcher, it seemed for a time that the Orioles were more and more interested in seeing how Sawyer does at first base. One drawback of Wynston’s so far is his lack of ability to throw would-be base stealers out, only nabbing 7 of the 50 who have tried this year after a season in Aberdeen where he only threw out 6 of 58. So the 20-year-old may be making a transition at this level to increase his worth to the team as a whole.

But trading away Gabriel Lino left a catching void in A-ball that Sawyer is attempting to fill. If the Orioles would like to keep Wynston as a backstop it may not hurt him to repeat at Delmarva in 2013 in order to build experience and a rapport with the pitching staff. It’s likely as well that Wynston will see additional time behind the plate for the rest of this year, so he gets the chance to learn and grow both as a hitter and receiver.