Tonight was the best Pirate game of the year so far, the main reason for that is the Pirates first round draft pick of last year, Tony Sanchez.
Sanchez did all kinds of things well tonight. First, in the 6th inning, he nailed a would-be base stealer at second. Second, he blasted a solo home run in his first at bat in a Pirate uniform in the 8th inning, which helped the Pirates greatly in their 5-3 come from behind victory. Sanchez also made a nice play fielding a bunted ball to throw a runner out at first.
You can read this same story on pretty much every Pirate blog there is, so I'm gonna phrase it in a way that you haven't heard before : Tony Sanchez is a pimp.
The Pirates were frowned upon for taking him with the 4th overall pick. People said he didn't have the skills to become anything more than an average big league player. They all said that the Pirates only picked him because they wouldn't have to pay him very much, just another typical safe, cheap, wasted draft pick for the Pirates. While it's still extremely early in Sanchez's career, so far he has done nothing but prove all of those things wrong. Scouts rave about his defense, he has the all the tools to be THE BEST defensive catcher in the game when he gets to the bigs. That's not just my opinion, real scouts say it too. In addition to that, his offense is by no means going to keep him off the field. The guy has power potential. We're not talking 30 bombs, but we're talking consistent 15-20 homers a year with an above average catcher batting average. He's not going to Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer, but I really think that if he reaches his potential, he will be a top-5 catcher in the majors.
Tony Sanchez just keeps making the Pirates look smarter and smarter, and it will be extremely fun to watch him the rest of this spring training season. Tomorrow the big league starters will be back out as the Pirates open up their home spring training schedule at 1:05 when they host the Phillies at McKechnie Field.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)