Archive for the “Eduardo Sanchez” Category

Small sample size ahoy! Just looking at who was started out of the gates quickly at each affiliate and who has well… not.  Today we look at the pitchers.

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The Memphis Redbirds relieves Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas are on the way to meet the Cardinals in Arizona to replace Bryan Augenstein and (potentially) Brian Tallet in the Cardinals bullpen per Bernie Miklasz and John Vuch.

One would think that Salas would be the first to get the call and Sanchez will be activated if and only if Tallet goes on the DL.

Eduardo Sanchez’s first appearance will be his MLB debut.

If there was any doubt as to what the strength of the organization is right now, the last five days of games should have put that to rest.  Starting pitching throughout the system, though most prominently in the low minors, is very much the backbone of the Cardinals prospect lists.  Here’s a recap of the top pitching performances thus far.

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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.

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Ok, so this is slightly out of the range of FR, but it involves some of our once and future “Future Redbirds”, so I thought it would be an appropriate venue.  And of course, you know you would like a break from the draft reviews.

Either way, today I will endeavor to prove that the Cardinals have improved their organization through the two trades they made this offseason.

Cardinals trade RHP Blake Hawksworth to LA for SS Ryan Theriot.

Cardinals trade SS Brendan Ryan to SEA for RHP Maikel Cleto.

I’m going to start out with an assumption, but based on how the Cardinals have gone about their business, this is obviously their decision.

1. Ryan Theriot > Brendan Ryan

Whether you agree with this or not (or whether I agree with this or not) is not the point.  The Cardinals believe this to be true, so we will use it as our assumption.

Some corollaries:

a. Fernando Salas > Blake Hawksworth

Over both of their short times in the majors, Salas has more strikeouts per nine innings and a better strikeout to walk ratio.  The same can be said for both players minor league careers as well.  And Salas is not even known to have overpowering stuff.

b. Eduardo Sanchez > Blake Hawksworth

The Cardinals have another up and coming right-handed bullpen arm in Eduardo Sanchez.  Over his minor league career, Sanchez has struck out almost 10 batters per 9 innings.  Although both Hawksworth and Sanchez have similar K/BB ratio, Sanchez’s higher strikeout rate seals the deal.

Obviously, strikeouts and walks do not show all that a pitcher can do, but it gives a quick look at a players control and ability to miss bats, both of which are crucial out of the bullpen on a major league ballclub.  Additionally, Hawksworth’s subtraction can be seen as an addition by subtraction because it makes room for both Salas and Sanchez in the major league bullpen in 2011.

2. Maikel Cleto > Blake Hawksworth

We have already made the points why the moves are for the best for the major league team, but now we can dig further and see why the moves have made the farm system stronger as well.  For evidence on this, we do not have to dig into the stats, just a quick tweet from Baseball Expert Joe Sheehan:

Cards got more for Ryan than they gave up for Theriot.

So, if we use that evidence from Mr. Sheehan, Cleto is a better prospect and better pitcher than Hawksworth.

QED

So, with all the evidence presented, I have now proved the Cardinals have made their franchise better with these two trades.  Obviously, I take the largest point of contention and put it as the assumption, but since this is Future Redbirds, we will leave those types of arguments to Viva El Birdos and other outlets that cover the major league club.  The Cardinals added Cleto into a position of strength, right handed relief, but they have also added to a position of weakness in the system: power arms.

So, have at me in the comments and math people can let me know how badly I butchered proofing.

(azru: I asked Steve Sommer if he would toss together the limited pitch f/x data from the Futures Game for us.  Minuscule sample size alert as Steve will note so don’t make any life decisions from this. You can find more of Steve’s work at various joints including ESPN, Beyond the Box Score and Play A Hard Nine. Thanks, Steve.)

One of the best aspects of the Futures Game is that we get some Pitch F/X data on pitchers that we otherwise would not have any data on. This is especially useful for those of us that will not get to see these guys pitch until they reach MLB. Clearly we will be doing some analysis and making some observations with extremely small samples, but it is still useful to get a feel for each pitcher’s fastballs if nothing else.

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In an effort to be timely, I though I’d take a quick glance at the big name relief prospects in the high minors. Before we get into the numbers, I think the major league pen is fine despite two nasty outings in a row. These things happen when you have a closer who lives on his control and a somewhat crazy-ex catcher who throws pitches into the dugout on a bad play.

There is not currently a player in the pen that I can definitively and unquestionably point to and say, “What is he doing in the majors?!?!?”.  Generally, that statement is followed by an expletive but we’re a family friendly blog.  Part of what brought this post to fruition was a comment from the Cardinals broadcasting pair last night with regards to Kyle McClellan’s future. There seems to be some continued curiosity about his repretoire and converting to starting pitching.  It’s understandable considering that he has a full complement of pitches (FB, CH, CU, SL) but I’ve long had trepidation about Kyle McClellan.

In any event, the Cardinals continue to produce some interesting relief options in the minors. What follows is an admittedly incomplete list of players that may be ready in 2011 or 2012 for a shot at the bigs.

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