Jonathan Sánchez Sp Giants (1 Viewer)

[ChrisCooleyFan]

What should I know about this guy, other then he'll get little run support.

 

[Regular Crust Pizza]

First I'll admit I've been a fan of this guy for a while, so I readily admit I'm biased.

Lefty with a 3/4 delivery. He's somewhat wild, but great stuff. He works 91-93 usually, 95 is not unheard of, and rarely you'll get a little higher. He's got a good fastball that explodes late on hitters and from what I've seen hitters have trouble getting it. Throws a slider and change as well, the change being a good offering, while the slider is inconsistant. I heard someone mention today that he's got a splitter too. I've never payed attention to it, but next time I see him pitch I'll pay more attention.

The story behind him though has always been his ability to strike out batters, and the Giant's horrible mis-management of him the last two years. I lost count, but over 2006/2007 not only was he repeatedly sent back and forth from the minors, but he was repeatedly bounced from rotation to bullpen in both the minor and majors. I would estimate that over the last 2 years he's been moved between the pen and rotation with instructions from management this would henceforth be his 4 or 5 times. He was never allowed to develop in a role with any manner of consistance.

Reasons for concern: He's wild and up till now inconsistant. Hopefully the inconsistancy is deminishing, but there will be growing pains. People are also concerned for his health due to his wildness, 3/4 delivery, and mis-management. But it should be mentioned that as far as I can remember I've never heard him missing a start, going to the DL, complaining of pain, etc.

Reason for optimism: He was rated the #2 prospect in the Giants system by BA in 2006and top 60 overall. The shiny 11.9 K/9 career ratio in the minors and 11.9 K/9 ratio this year in the majors (For comparison Lincecum has a 11.05 this year, two of the best so far). Last year's 5.88 ERA was accompanied by .367 BABIP.

If you're in a deep mixed league/NL he'll help in K for sure, possibly ERA, but don't expect many wins. His whip and ERA might just be average, but you might still be able to get him for cheap. I think in those leagues he's worth a spot at this point in time. In other leagues I would say just keep watching to see if this continues. I went out of my way last year to trade for him a deep deep keeper league last year, so I hope he keeps this up.

It appears now that he's earned his opportunity and hopefully position in the rotation by this point in time. He considers himself a starter though, and seems happy now that it looks like he's going to have go Zito to get boot from the rotation.

Wait, what Zito's still in the roation? Ah, crap.

 

[NY/NJMFDIVER]

First I'll admit I've been a fan of this guy for a while, so I readily admit I'm biased.Lefty with a 3/4 delivery. He's somewhat wild, but great stuff. He works 91-93 usually, 95 is not unheard of, and rarely you'll get a little higher. He's got a good fastball that explodes late on hitters and from what I've seen hitters have trouble getting it. Throws a slider and change as well, the change being a good offering, while the slider is inconsistant. I heard someone mention today that he's got a splitter too. I've never payed attention to it, but next time I see him pitch I'll pay more attention. The story behind him though has always been his ability to strike out batters, and the Giant's horrible mis-management of him the last two years. I lost count, but over 2006/2007 not only was he repeatedly sent back and forth from the minors, but he was repeatedly bounced from rotation to bullpen in both the minor and majors. I would estimate that over the last 2 years he's been moved between the pen and rotation with instructions from management this would henceforth be his 4 or 5 times. He was never allowed to develop in a role with any manner of consistance. Reasons for concern: He's wild and up till now inconsistant. Hopefully the inconsistancy is deminishing, but there will be growing pains. People are also concerned for his health due to his wildness, 3/4 delivery, and mis-management. But it should be mentioned that as far as I can remember I've never heard him missing a start, going to the DL, complaining of pain, etc. Reason for optimism: He was rated the #2 prospect in the Giants system by BA in 2006and top 60 overall. The shiny 11.9 K/9 career ratio in the minors and 11.9 K/9 ratio this year in the majors (For comparison Lincecum has a 11.05 this year, two of the best so far). Last year's 5.88 ERA was accompanied by .367 BABIP. If you're in a deep mixed league/NL he'll help in K for sure, possibly ERA, but don't expect many wins. His whip and ERA might just be average, but you might still be able to get him for cheap. I think in those leagues he's worth a spot at this point in time. In other leagues I would say just keep watching to see if this continues. I went out of my way last year to trade for him a deep deep keeper league last year, so I hope he keeps this up. It appears now that he's earned his opportunity and hopefully position in the rotation by this point in time. He considers himself a starter though, and seems happy now that it looks like he's going to have go Zito to get boot from the rotation.Wait, what Zito's still in the roation? Ah, crap.

Great breakdwon here! Much obliged!

 

[Statorama]

The only pause I had on the guy was that he was the most probable to get bounced to the pen when Lowry returns. With that return date looking deeper into May, and the recent injury to Corriea, I picked him up.

 

[boom king]

i dont know where i heard it, but someone said he has a very straight fastball that wasnt that hard to pick up. ill try and find where i read that. it was enough to keep me from picking him up though...

 

[Regular Crust Pizza]

My man-crush continues to grow...

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/4/29...-sanchez-for-re

Is Jonathan Sanchez for real?

by Peter Bendix on Apr 29, 2008 6:00 AM PDT

The short answer is: yes.

Jonathan Sanchez has an impressive minor league track record and has shown the ability to strike out a lot of batters at the major league level. This year, Sanchez has posted a 3.54 ERA through five starts. Unlike many other pitchers who get off to a surprisingly fast start, Sanchez’s start to the season is legitimate and he very well could keep it up.

Throughout his minor league career, Sanchez has shown the ability to strike out batters at a very high rate and prevent homers, two extremely important predictive skills for pitchers. Sanchez has always has a relatively high, but not incredibly high, walk rate. For several seasons, the Giants could not decide what to do with him, and moved him between the bullpen and the starting rotation. However, whenever Sanchez pitched, he has dominated: throughout 252 minor league innings, he has struck out 333 (that’s nearly 12 hitters per nine innings), while walking 98 but allowing only 12 homers.

Sanchez was first promoted to the majors in 2006 to work out of the Giants’s bullpen. In 40 innings, he posted a 4.95 ERA and walked 23 hitters, but he also struck out 33 and allowed only two homers. In 2007, Sanchez’s ERA rose to 5.88 in 52 innings (4 starts, 29 appearances out of the bullpen). He allowed eight homers and walked 28, but he struck out 62 batters as well.

This year, the Giants have decided to once again try Sanchez in the starting rotation. Still only 25 years old, so far Sanchez has rewarded the Giants for their decision. In his first start of the season, Sanchez allowed seven runs over four innings against the Brewers, but he also only walked two and struck out eight. His most recent start was his best of the season, when he struck out 10 Cincinnati Reds over eight innings while walking just one and allowing only one run.

Through 28 innings this season, Sanchez has struck out 36, walked 11, and allowed three homers. His BABIP thus far is .292; he has stranded 72.9% of the men who have reached base against him; and 12.4% of his fly balls have become homers. None of these numbers are at all out of line with what we’d expect from a pitcher – in other words, Sanchez has not gotten particularly lucky (or unlucky) thus far.

Rather, it seems that Sanchez simply has excellent stuff. He has struck out 11.6 batters per nine innings – a very high number, but Sanchez has shown over and over throughout his career that he has the ability to strike hitters out in droves. A quick look at his pitch data shows that Sanchez induces a ton of swings and misses. 75% of Sanchez’s strikes are swinging strikes, and batters fail to make contact on 31% of their swings. Sanchez still somewhat struggles to throw strikes – only 62% of his pitches are strikes – but the fact that he gets so many swings and misses suggests that his stuff is extremely good.

As is not particularly surprising for a strikeout pitcher, Sanchez is a ground ball pitcher. However, Sanchez does get approximately as many ground balls as fly balls, and he plays in a home park in which it is difficult to hit homers, thus boding well for keeping the ball in the park.

Sanchez pitches primarily off of his fastball, which averages 91-92 MPH. He can pump it up to 95-97 when necessary. Sanchez has thrown his fastball 67% of the time this season. The key appears to be that Sanchez gets a lot of movement on his fastball: it moves both 8 inches vertically and horizontally. Sanchez’s main secondary pitch is his changeup, which he throws 21% of the time and which also has a ton of movement, thus making up for the fact that he throws his change around 86 MPH – not that much slower than his fastball. His slider and curveball are thrown the other 11% of the time – more often to lefties than righties. Interestingly, Sanchez throws his fastball 76% of the time against lefties, while only 64% of the time against righties, instead relying more often on his changeup to get right-handed hitters out.

In summary, it appears that Sanchez does nothing fancy: he throws his fastball and changeup, both of which have a ton of movement, and batters simply can’t hit them. There are few pitchers around baseball who can boast the same track record of wracking up strikeouts as Sanchez. He has also shown the ability to prevent homers. If he can harness his control well enough to keep his walks under four per nine innings, Sanchez should be able to maintain the success he has had so far this season.

 

[Eephus]

Sanchez impressed me yesterday, although his outing was nothing special by fantasy standards. He didn't have his best stuff or command. He pitched out of trouble in every inning until the Rockies tagged him with 2 in the 5th. His pitch count was driven up by a lot of long ABs but Bochy and Rags left him in for 109 pitches. He had multiple opportunities to fall apart but managed to hold it together. The Giants are overusing the "gamer" term to death but it fits for Sanchez yesterday.

 

[lgamble82]

Calm down little buddy... Everyone seems to be giving up some runs to the Pirates lately... lets work on at least getting some K's