Tony Sanchez Update

The Pirates got their first big injury scare yesterday when Rod Barajas left the game after the first inning with a knee injury. Recently we have found out that he is just day-to-day with a bone bruise, so there isn't too much of a reason for worry, but it still made us reminisce back to last year when the Pirates used 89 different catchers.

About two years ago, we would have thought that Tony Sanchez was going to be the Pirates everyday catcher by now, but those thoughts have become a memory. I hit the stat sheet to see how the catcher is coming along this year. All I can say is, I don't think he would be considered to be called up if Barajas had been knocked out for an extended period of time.

Sanchez started the year in AA, which already said a lot about how his career has gone to this point. He hit .277/.370/.390 in 40 games before getting promoted. He got off to a bit of a slow start, so his recent numbers at the time of the promotion were pretty good, and nobody really argued against moving him up. Since the move, he's played 13 games in AAA Indianapolis and has hit just .213/.245/.255 with 15 strikeouts in 47 at bats. He has just two extra base hits, and they're both doubles. No homers, no triples. Not very impressive.

All I can say defensively is that he's thrown out 17 of 48 base stealers this year, a 26% clip that makes him look like a gold glover from what we've seen in Pittsburgh this year. There's really no other way for me to say anything about his defense without seeing him play a whole bunch, and I haven't done that.

Sanchez's calling card when he was drafted was his defense. He didn't have the best defensive season last year, but a lot of that might have been from recovering from the injuries. There have been reports that say he is playing better defensively this year, but you really don't know without seeing it for yourself. He certainly doesn't have the bat that his 4th overall draft selection may suggest. The Pirates drafted him for signability and Sanchez made them look very good in his first year in pro ball hitting .309/.409/.539 in 48 games in A ball. However, he's been bad since and looks like an iffy prospect at best.

You certainly never want to miss completely on your first round pick, especially if it's in the top five, but I don't look at this as a huge deal. They didn't have to give up a whole bunch for him and they stocked the system with some really good high upside players later in that draft with the money they saved from taking him, so you can't point to him to call the 2009 draft a bust. However, it would certainly be nice if he could at least be the defensive catcher we thought he could be and hit even a little bit. He could definitely help this major league team at some point, but he has a lot of work to do. I don't think there's any chance we see him at all this year, but if he stays healthy and keeps improving, he should have enough AAA experience next year to make a push.

Only time will tell what Tony Sanchez will do with his opportunity, but for now it's not a real positive story.