(Courtesy of Matt Burton/MiLB.com)
On Wednesday afternoon, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com released his "Prospect Watch" top 10 catching prospects rankings. Top Yankee prospect Gary Sanchez was 3rd in those rankings, behind Travis d'Arnaud of the Mets and Mike Zunino of the Mariners. Seeing as those 2 guys are easily the 2 best catching prospects in baseball, that's a pretty big accomplishment for the 20-year-old Sanchez.
Mayo's explanation of his putting Sanchez 3rd included high praise for Sanchez's defensive skills, saying he had the potential to be "an exciting two-way player for the Yankees." This is higher praise than usual for Sanchez's defense, and that's coming from someone who was pretty complimentary of the improvements Sanchez made in last week's AB4AR Top 30. Sanchez does have the plus arm, but right now doesn't project to be anything better than average at best behind the plate. Still, with Sanchez's advanced offensive skills and high ceiling, it makes sense that Mayo would rank him 3rd if he believes Sanchez could be that good defensively.
Sanchez is still years away from the show, but his positional rankings project him in a positive light for the future. Last year MLB.com had Sanchez 4th overall, just ahead of Wilin Rosario of Colorado, who posted a .356 wOBA and hit 28 HR in 117 games for the Rockies in 2012. Rosario also rated as a very poor defensive catcher according to FanGraphs. Sanchez has a similar offensive makeup to Rosario, and still has time to improve his defensive skills. If he can be even slightly better than Rosario defensively and improve his pitch recognition and plate discipline skills, Sanchez could be a very valuable Major League catcher.
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9 comments:
You know,I look at that idiotic tattoo of his own last name scrawled all over his forearm and I can't help but think this kid is never going to play for the Yankees.
I'm with Edmund on this. If the Yankees don't put last names on their uniforms, they ain't gonna allow it on their forearms.
They're just tats, guys. Plenty of players have had them and do have them today. They have no bearing on how he performs on the field.
Legally I don't think the Yankees can prevent Sanchez from playing for them just because he has a tattoo on his forearm either. I wouldn't get too concerned with it.
It's not that he has ttas,it's that his ego is so large he needed to tattoo his own name across his arm that might be cause for concern
Automatically assuming it's because of his ego is a pretty big step to take for somebody who doesn't even know him. I'm not saying I think tattooing your own name on your body is the smartest thing in the world, but there could be any number of reasons why he did it, and I don't presume to know what they are.
CC Sabathia has arms full of tattoos as well. If you would have found out prior to the Yankees signing him that one of them was his last name, would you have been against signing him?
I have tattoos all over my arms as well,none of which are my own name,but do you really think there's a reason other than ego to tattoo your own name? I honestly can't think of one.I also never said I didn't want this kid playing for the yanks,I just said I don't think this kid is going to end up playing for them.It's nothing more than a hunch.Didn't he have a discipline benching last season as well?Or the season before?
Well one very possible reason is someone's last name is generally a family name past down through the generations. You could easily come to the conclusion that he is proud of his heritage and where he comes from. Are there better more creative ways to show this? Sure, but that's a way of looking at it that doesn't include his ego at all.
tllarhttp://blog.jokerbrand.net/en/blog/tag/c-c-sabathia/
and then again sometimes having an ego can be good...
http://blog.jokerbrand.net/en/blog/tag/c-c-sabathia/
and then again sometimes having an ego is a good thing...
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