Struggle of Sanchez



Well, that one stung.

I'm trying not to make a habit of responding to silly things written in Stoeten's comment section, but tonight it was fruitful:

I thought Sanchez was fuckin awful tonite (sic). Disappointment based on the way he thru(sic) last year. His fastballs were mostly 91-93 with little movement compared to last year and his command was horrid-missing targets by a huge amount. I mean,how many times did Martin call for the ball outside and he would sling one about 2 feet over the INSIDE part of the plate. I think him throwing 92 or so affected the movement of his pitches to his detriment. So, if he needs to throw 97-99 to be successful, it would appear to me that it is going to have to be in the bullpen because 91-93 is no big deal as a starter especially with poor command and a poor curveball. 
He may get one more start but similar results and it is back to the pen you go, where I think he belongs and the Jays could have a three headed bullpen monster to rival KC's.
They will likely have to move Estrada into his SP spot unless Santana develops a new arm. The Jays could not have been very pleased with that effort tonite and they cannot afford to piss away 5 or 6 games while he figures it out ( sort of like Mcgowan as a starter last year all over again)

Ok. I do agree that Sanchez was pretty bad last night, and that his fastballs were low 90s with little movement (other than maybe drifting lovingly to the middle of the plate.) But that's the end of our agreement.

This was Sanchez's first big league start.

We've been spoiled so far with 20 year olds who pitch like they are 10 year veterans, but that's not the norm.

I have no idea what you are on about "throwing 92" affects the movement of his pitches. According to Baseball America, Sanchez is"armed with a high-octane fastball, a plus curveball and a solid changeup, he has the arsenal, at least, to be a weapon at the front of a rotation." That sounds like plenty of stuff to be in the rotation but he needs to work on his control. A slower fastball might've been an effort to do that. Of course, if your fastball is 92 and your change is high 80s, it's pretty useless. Again, I'm not arguing that he was good last night.

It is not comparable at all with the McGowan situation last year because McGowan was an oft-injured pitcher who was trying to make a comeback after some success in the bullpen. Sanchez is fresh off the lot. McGowan was a top prospect for the Jays 10 years ago. Sanchez is a top prospect as of last year.

There is no evidence that Sanchez will need 5 or 6 starts to figure it out. The Jays likely aren't very pleased with the result of last night's game, but they probably aren't going to start wailing  at the kid about how he needs to just pitch better, damn it. If you think Estrada and the 29 homers he gave up last year are somehow going to be better,  you are delusional. Be serious, as Stoeten would say.

But yeah, let's shove the top prospect in the pen after one big league start. That won't have any effect on his development or his confidence at all. And that's an issue because what I witnessed tonight was a dude who wasn't trusting his stuff. Or as my buddy Wade (@Every5thDay) put it perfectly:

Or as the kid himself put it:

“I think I felt too good,” he said. “I think it worked against me. I tried to slow everything down because I didn’t want to be all over the place, and that turned into guiding and aiming instead of just attacking.”

Sanchez needs to work on another pitch he can throw for strikes, whether it's the slider he calls a "work in progress" or the curve he hasn't been able to command consistently.

How Sanchez bounces back and moves forward from this is the next step will be vital in how he progresses this year.

"I guess just be out there and experience it. Obviously, tonight was something that I experienced – it was my first start in the big leagues. I’ll take the good from this and I’ll move on. The bad, I’ll learn from it.”

We march on.