Atlanta Braves Mid-Season Prospect Reports, Part 2
Baseball on the pitchers mound before the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
12. Ricardo Sanchez
The Good:
The stuff is just sick to watch (and I mean sick in a very, very good way). It’s hard to look away, yet at the same time, when he’s been on, you feel terrible for the batters in the box against his stuff.
The Not-So-Good:
It is difficult to measure players of this age, and thus we were wary of putting Sanchez this high on the list as he was 17 when he started the season with Rome. He’s got tremendous stuff from the left hand side, but an 18 year-old with stuff without polish could face tough times in full season ball, and he has.
Sanchez’s walk rate is 11.7% while he’s striking out only 17.2%. The walk rate is too high, but only barely so if he’s striking out 25% of the guys he’s facing, but that strikeout rate is an indication of the trouble he’s had locating his pitches this year. He seems to stay in the zone, but he often misses his catcher’s target within the zone, often leading to balls being called, even if the pitch caught the plate.
Stats:
- Rome (A, 10 starts). 40 innings, 5.45 ERA, 7 K/9, 4.76 BB/9, 6 HBP, 2 WP, 5 Balks, 37 hits.
TRENDING:
Sanchez is young, and any viewing of a start of his will show you the dynamic stuff he has. We’d like to have seen him finish the season strong in Rome and start 2016 there as well with an eye to Carolina quickly if he dominates in Rome. Right now, he needs to work to miss more bats with that solid low-zone stuff.
Alas, that dream of a strong finish was stopped short: Sanchez was placed on the disabled list on July 14th, and has not been activated since then. He also didn’t pitch during the entire month of May (tight calf sprain). No word on the cause of this latest hiatus, though baseballamerica pointed out that it came after an 11 walk burst in his last 3 starts over 12 innings.
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