Derrick Goold has a nice roundup of the Cardinals minor leaguers involved in winter baseball leagues. One of those players, Eduardo Sanchez, has been of particular interest to me of late. How has Sanchez performed recently and what would be a reasonable set of expectations for 2011.
Goold has the winter league numbers from Sanchez’s stint in the Venezuelan Winter League:
EDUARDO SANCHEZ, RHP, Aragua (VWL): In 14 games with the Tigres, Sanchez, one of the top reliever prospects in the system, went 0-1, 10.13 ERA in 14 games. He had command problems, walking 12 and striking out eight in 10 2/3 innings.
In 2010, Sanchez split time between Springfield and Memphis. For a 21 year old at those levels, it’s hard to call his results anything but successful.
| Level | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA | FIP |
| Springfield | 9.35 | 2.77 | 3.12 | 3.28 |
| Memphis | 10.33 | 4.00 | 1.67 | 3.42 |
Sanchez featured the kind of strikeout rates you want to see from a pitcher who (1) projects as a dominant reliever and (2) has average groundball rates. With 26 innings at Springfield and 27 at Memphis, it’s not unreasonable for him to start the season at AAA again as the team’s closer. He’s had some recent command issues — as Goold notes — both in the VWL and at Memphis. Maintaining his mechanics and keeping the walk rate down will be the primary goals if he does start the year at AAA.
You don’t need to look far for an example of the type of year you’d want for Sanchez. In 2010, teammate Fernando Salas split time between Memphis and St. Louis.
| Level | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA | FIP |
| Memphis | 35.2 | 11.10 | 2.27 | 3.79 | 2.30 |
| St. Louis | 30.2 | 8.51 | 4.40 | 3.52 | 4.35 |
Salas shows a split between St. Louis and Memphis success that is obvious. There’s likely little to read there other than major league hitters are better and some rookie jitters. Salas’s numbers aren’t meant to be proof of his dominance as a major league reliever but more of his usefulness during his first time in the bigs. That’s what, hopefully, Sanchez can display as well. Expectations for him to step into the closer’s role or any high leverage role are unrealistic. It’s a better task for him to simply hold par and show that he can compete with the talent at this level. Salas proved that in 2010; with a touch of luck, Sanchez can further solidify the youth (read: cheap) movement in the Cardinals right handed relief corps.
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Sanchez should never have pitched Winter ball. He didnt pitch excessive innings this year but he did in 2009 (60 appearances and 75 innings for a 20 y.o reliever is crazy!) He also pitched Winter ball after that 2009 season. I’m worried about his arm holding up.
I totally agree, I don’t understand why the Cardinals would allow him to play in winterball
+1
First of all, let me be the first to hope that Sanchez’s control problems of late aren’t due to an arm injury of some sort. I hate even thinking about those kind of things, especially after going through Tommy John surgery myself, but its something that should at least be mentioned.
Alright, now that I got that out of the way, let me say this: If Sanchez has a season like Salas did last year, I’d be pretty happy with that. Especially for how young Eduardo is, I think that would be very respectful. He’s got the stuff to be lights out, let’s just hope he reaches his potential and can help solidify the back end of our bullpen with some home-grown flamethrowers.
I posted this on another post, but it was old so I wanted to post it on the most recent one. Bored at work today so thought I’d do my top 10 prospects for 2011. All agreements or disagreements welcomed. And I must say, I’m very excited to see Matias/Martinez in the states next year!
1) Miller – 0bviously
2) Cox – I hope they take a look at him at 2nd so that Freezy Pop, Craig and Carpenter can battle it out for 3B. A .300 hitting, 15-20 HR guy with average to slightly below average is just fine with me
3) Matias – The upside with this guy is sick, high 90′s FB with good control and a solid curve to go with it. I really hope next year at this time we are all fighting over who is tops in our system, Matias or Miller, or possibly even Oscar Tavares….
4) O. Tavares – Very young and a long ways away, but if he keeps it up, a 25-15 guy in the majors is not out of the question. I don’t think anyone who loves the B on the B would be against that, and by the time he’s ready we’ll be paying much more for Colby, Garcia, etc
5) T. Jenkins – Another very young unknown with a lot of potential (it’s not good that none of our top 5 guys IMO have never played above A ball)
6) E. Sanchez – Finally someone who is closer to making it, Closer of the future hopefully? I’m hoping for a 2011 debut and 2013 full time closer debut.
7) L. Lynn – 3rd starter at best, “innings eater” kind of guy, FA’s in that range are making anywhere from 6-10 mill per year, (or some teams pay 12M a year to a scrub to be stuck with a shitty #5 starter(see Lohse, Kyle)) so a cheap option to be our 4 or 5 is fine with me (I’d also be ok with Seth Blair turning into the same type of guy as well, we can’t all be the Phillies and have 4 aces)
8) M. Carpenter – I wish he would have gotten called up in Sept to see what he could do, would have been a hell of a lot better than Pedro Feliz. If nothing else, if/when Freezy Pop get’s hurt he can get a shot ahead or behind Craig.
9) D. Descalso – I’d be willing to bet that he’d be getting much more of a look (and I hope they actually do) for 2011 if it wasn’t for us having Skipper signed already. If Skippo doesn’t hit early on, I hope they give him a shot and get rid of Skip all together or move him to a utility OF role. His hitting projections aren’t bad at all and let’s face it, my mother could play better D at 2B than skippo
10) Hooker – This was a tough one, based on upside alone I think he has to be on the list ahead of guys like Blair, Swaggerty, Hamilton, etc. Hopefully he starts at AA in 2011 and moves up quickly.
ALSO, if we get Albert resigned M. Hamilton is just wasting away in our system, the guy has to have some value in the majors as a 1B. Look at the teams giving old and aging 1B 8M a year for 15 HR’s and a .270 avg. I would have to think a 400K guy with a little upside would be valuable.
AND, we have a potential .260-.270 hitting catcher (B. Anderson) with a little pop would be a nice addition to a lot of teams I would think. Granted, Laird didn’t cost much more than the leauge minimum, but it goes to show that TLR has zero interested in playing a “weak defensive catcher”.
So my question is this, why would it not be in the organizations best interest to package the two of them together as major leauge ready players or very close to being, for a solid MI prospect or something along those lines. If a team had a hole or backup need at those positions, I think it would be in everyone’s best interest to make the trade?
I understand what you’re saying, and I think it would be a good idea to trade our prospects that don’t really have a future with our team. However, it is nice to have the depth in case we see an injury or two. Also, I don’t think we could realistically get much of a prospect back in return for those two. Maybe a middle infielder similar in talent to Descalso.
nothing close to solid MI prospect for those two
My thinking was that we have Berkman or Craig to play 1B if something does happen to Albert, and I’ve read that they would call up one of their other options for C if something were to happen to one of the current two on the roster. I agree that the “insurance” of having them is nice, but we are much more weak in the MI.
The blurb on Sanchez in Goold’s article neither raised nor lowered my expectations for him, but something else in that article did catch my eye:
“MANUEL DE LA CRUZ, LHP, Mexicali (LMP): A 43rd-round pick by the Cardinals in 2009, the 20-year-old lefty went 4-2, 1.85 in 28 relief appearances for the Gulf Coast League affiliate. He had 43 strikeouts and eight walks in 34 innings, holding opponents to a .182 batting average.”
He didn’t do nearly as well in the winter leagues (a brief mention of him earlier in a winter-league checkup had been positive, but it didn’t last), but still, I’d heard next to nothing about this guy. He’ll need to show something at a higher level than the GCL, but with a K/9 rate of over 10 and a K/BB ratio of over 5, it looks possible. Any chance we’ll see him at QC this year? Is he a player, or was this just the result of being 20 years old in a developmental league?
That was his second year in the GCL but he made big improvements. My guess is Batavia to start next year, maybe QC later in the year if he does well. Big Lefty/Righty split in Winter ball so he could get pushed fast as a LOOGY.
I always thought Sanchez to be a bit under rated as a prospect. I think had Chriz Perez and Sanchez been prospect at the same time, I would have taken Sanchez. When Perez was a prospect I recall him making BA’s top 100 list.
On a side note, I just saw where thecardinalnation.com has Oscar Taveras at #11 on their prospect list. I have him much higher on my own personal list. Surprises me to see him that low.