Jonny Sanchez

[sfgdood]

Murph and Mac asked Krukow on his radio show about an MLB.com report that teams are again interested in are old pal Jonathan Sanchez. Kruk reported that the 31-year-old Sanchez finished up the season going 7-3 in Albuquerque with a still high ERA of 5.13 but not as bad as he was in KC and Pittsburgh. The thing that has some scouts interested is that Jonny was clocked as high as 95 on the gun. It appears Dirty Sanchez might just have a comeback left in him.

~Dood

[Islandboagie]

With the lack of lefties this year, I wouldn't mind if the Giants invited him to spring training.

[klaiggeb]

With the lack of lefties this year, I wouldn't mind if the Giants invited him to spring training

---boly says---

I THINK I heard them report on XTRA out of San Diego/Tijuana, that he signed a minor league contract with Pittsburgh.

boly

[allenreed]

The fact that he posted a 5.13 ERA and you consider that encouraging tells you all you need to know.

[sfgdood]

Hey I always liked Jonny so I'm rooting for him. And his mechanics must be pretty near worked out if he's hitting 95 now. 5.13 is a lot more encouraging than 11

~Dood

[rxmeister]

I don't care how hard he throws if it's not over the plate. I like the guy and hope he makes a successful comeback, but even when he was pitching well it was painful to watch him, with all the walks and high pitch counts. Let him make his comeback elsewhere. Bad enough I still have to watch Vogelsong! Watching Tim Hudson this year will be a pleasure. Ten pitches, three groundouts and back to the dugout!

[allenreed]

Sanchez signed a minor league deal with the Cubs.

[sharksrog]

Allen -- The fact that he posted a 5.13 ERA and you consider that encouraging tells you all you need to know.

Rog -- Randy can certainly speak for himself, but I think the fact that Jonathan is throwing 95 is what encouraged him. Even in 2011, Jonathan threw just below 90 on average.

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[sharksrog]

Sanchez remains a mystery. As has been pointed out here many times, he pitched well from his no-hitter right before the 2009 All-Star game and the end of May of 2011. That's nearly two full seasons.

Since then though, he has fallen apart with the Giants, and posted ERA's of 7.76 with the Royals, 9.53 with Colorado, and 11.85 with the Pirates.

I would really like to know what happened to Jonathan around the end of May, 2011. Since that time, he has fallen apart even worse than Tim Lincecum.

[allenreed]

He's a headcase who could never pitch to his ability. What's the mystery?

[sfgdood]

It's an easy thing to just say he's a "headcase" because it doesn't force you to really look for real solutions. And since he's not a Giant anymore it isn't really our problem to work through now. However, Jonathan is far from the first pitcher to go through mechanical issues that got in his head. To say he never pitched to his capability is false because we all know he had some very good years as a Giant. His BA against was pretty dominant for a few years here. It is true that he had years of bitter disappointment also. But I don't remember a time when he was throwing as hard as 95. If his delivery is still deceptive that would be amazing, but something tells me he had to alter it in order to get the velocity that high. Just to clarify, I didn't start this thread hoping the Giants would bring him back, although a minor league deal wouldnt have been risky at all...I merely heard Krukow talking about him on his show and thought it interesting. By the way, Krukow says the Cubs were/are interested in Jonny as a reliever and in that role he has a chance to be very effective.

~Dood

[allenreed]

The Giants (and the other teams he was with) found the solution. They got rid of him.

Jonathan had the physical tools to be a great pitcher. He never was able to do it. You're absolutely right in that he's far from the first.

[sharksrog]

Allen -- He's a headcase who could never pitch to his ability. What's the mystery?

Rog -- I don't mean to be crass, but to me one mystery is that you don't seem to comprehend that from his no-hitter through May, 2011, Jonathan was a pretty good pitcher.

His ERA was 3.23, his WHIP was 1.21, he allowed only 6.5 hits per nine innings while striking out 9.9 batters. The only chink in his armor -- and it was a big one -- was his 4.4 walks per nine.

But those 6.5 hits per nine were world class. So were the 9.9 strikeouts.

I have a question: Would you rather a pitcher give up a walk or a hit (which average something like 1.4 bases and can do a lot more runner advancing than walks)? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

If we take Sanchez's 6.5 hit rate and add on a hit and a half, he's still at only 8.0 hits per nine innings. That's pretty good. By comparison, Madison Bumgarner's career rate is 8.1 hits per nine.

Then let's take the 1.5 per nine off Sanchez's walk rate. Now he's down to 2.9 per nine, which is slightly below average.

In other words, Sanchez didn't allow many runs or base runners, while striking out a ton of hitters. Maybe his potential was even higher, but for nearly two years, he was a very good pitcher.

You could look it up.

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[sharksrog]

When Sanchez was first called up from AA, he was an outstanding reliever for a while, although he did fall off. The Giants probably didn't do him any favors by moving him back and forth between starting and relieving.

Still, for close to two years, he was a very good pitcher. Since then he's been almost indescribably horrible. Suddenly he's giving up a lot of hits in addition to having an even higher walk rate. The one thing he continues to do well is strike out batters.

I'm not in any way trying to say that even at his best, Sanchez was nearly as good as Nolan Ryan, but there are surprising similarities between Ryan's career numbers and Sanchez's figures over the period I cited previously.

Ryan gave up 6.6 hits per nine. Sanchez yielded 6.5

Ryan gave up 4.7 walks per nine. Sanchez yielded 4.4.

Ryan had an ERA of 3.19. Sanchez's was 3.23.

Ryan had a WHIP of 1.25. Sanchez's was 1.21.

Ryan struck out 9.5 batters per nine. Sanchez struck out 9.9.

The numbers of the two are staggeringly similar. And Sanchez was slightly ahead in every category above with the exception of ERA, where he was 0.04 runs behind.

The big difference was that Sanchez didn't pitch nearly as many innings as did Ryan. But inning-for-inning, Sanchez pitched as well over the period I have long cited as Ryan did over his career.

You could look it up.