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Aaron Sanchez
Born: 07/01/1992 (Age: 21) |
| Bats: Right |
Throws: Right |
| Height: 6' 4" |
Weight: 210 |
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| ¾ arm slot; loose, efficient delivery; doesn’t strain to create velocity; fast arm; soft landing; tends to stay high during finish of delivery; inconsistent throwing downhill; quick out of the stretch; short stride – not much lower body. 1.32-1.43 out of stretch; kept focus with men on base; held velocity deep into outing; doesn’t wear himself |
| Chris Mellen |
| 05/03/2014 |
| New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA, Blue Jays) |
| 04/28/2014 |
| 65 |
| 2015 |
| No |
| FB |
65 |
91-95 |
96 |
Command: average; Movement: hard arm-side run, with some sinking action; displays movement throughout velocity band.
Notes: Pitch explodes out of hand; very difficult to square up in lower tier of the zone; downright nasty when spotted below top of the thighs and finishing delivery; not as effective in upper tier; throws to arm-side better than glove side; tended to overthrow when in the stretch; needs work consistently spotting pitch and staying out of middle of the plate; pitch can have a mind of its own.
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| CB |
70 |
79-83 |
83 |
Command: plus; Movement: deep overhand break with power and teeth.
Notes: Capable of getting both swing-and-misses and freezes; easy present plus-to-better offering; will change shape when situation calls for it; highly confident in pitch – will throw at any point in the count; throws to both sides of the plate; will roll from time to time; throws from same angle as fastball; legit out pitch.
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| CH |
50 |
86-89 |
89 |
Command: Below-average; Movement: arm-side fade; can also bottom out.
Notes: Will slow arm down and telegraph; inconsistent turning pitch over; floats when fading; better look and action when thrown glove-side; more of a contact inducing pitch due to firmness and lack of action; got better as outing progressed; currently lags behind fastball and curveball.
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Sanchez’s fastball has the velocity and movement to dominate outings when consistently spotted down in the zone. The combination of run and heavy action make it a very difficult offering to square up in the lower tier of the zone. I liked the overall look of the pitch, and feel it’s a fastball that can continue to play at the highest level. The pitcher is inconsistent finishing his delivery, especially out of the stretch in this outing, and it caused the heater to stay up. While this particular lineup didn’t do much damage, it’s an area where the pitch tends to be easier to square and better hitters are going to be able to handle it.
I see Sanchez always having to work and fight to reel his fastball in. First, the right-hander isn’t that great at throwing downhill. He tends to stay more upright in his delivery, which leads to having trouble staying above the fastball. This showed inning-to-inning and at times batter-to-batter. Also, the natural movement of the pitch actually gives him less margin of error. Sanchez needs to be more precise and consistently account for the movement when trying to spot it. Overall, I see it more likely that the command hovers around average or so.
In this outing the righty didn’t throw a secondary offering until the 4th inning, but the curveball immediately showed as a premium offering. The depth and shape of the pitch are excellent, with Sanchez displaying strong feel for it. I see the potential to miss a lot of bats and neutralize hitters with the curve, along with it to be considered one of the better ones in the league. His ability to consistently throw it for strikes in different shapes is impressive. The changeup looked a lot better when thrown to the glove-side. The action was deeper. This pitch will be a third offering in Sanchez’s repertoire, but can be viable if strategically worked into sequences.
This pitcher has high-end stuff, and is capable of putting dominant stretches together, especially if he is working down in the zone with his fastball. I see Sanchez likely to battle inconsistencies due to the aforementioned things above, but having the potential to impact a team as an above-average player over the long haul of a career. My gut says the upside is a third starter, with the ability to have a career year or two above that.
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