Anibal. Sanchez.
Not the sexiest name on your draft board, but I guarantee that when the season ends there will be quite a few owners being showered with Yoo-hoo while looking at a roster that includes Mr. Sanchez. No joke, because of Josh Johnson’s propensity for watching games in street clothes, I would take Sanchez over him.
I would also draft Sanchez over:
Tommy Hanson
Josh Johnson
Michael Pineda
Ian Kennedy
C.J. Wilson
Matt Garza
Colby Lewis
Gio Gonzalez
Ted Lilly
Shaun Marcum
Josh Beckett
Brandon Morrow
Neftali Feliz
Ricky Romero
Matt Moore
Jaime Garcia
You probably stopped reading when you saw the first five names, but in case you’re still here, let me explain. Aside from the hitters he’s facing being distracted by the ugliest uniforms in professional sports, there are a number of reasons to expect a big year from Sanchez.
1) This will only be his third full season at age 28, despite pitching in the majors since 2006, due to a visit with the esteemed Dr. James Andrews in 2007 and the subsequent healing time/rehab. He only pitched limited innings in 2008 and 2009, but his last two seasons have seen Sanchez reach 195 and 196 innings pitched, an indication that he is finally recovered and back to peak form.
2) The Marlins new park is alleged to play like Petco East and we all know that pitching in San Diego is like The Cream and The Clear for pitchers. The worst statistic for Sanchez last year? Home runs allowed, which rose from 10 in 2010, to 20 in 2011. Think a stadium with bigger dimensions than Petco, Safeco, and Citi Field will help bring that back down?
3) Anibal posted a career high 9.26 K/9 in 2011 which was almost 2 K’s per nine innings more than the 7.34 K/9 he averaged in 2009/2010.
4) His BB/9 has dropped from 4.81 in 2009 and 3.23 in 2010, to 2.93 last year.
5) In addition, his xFIP has dropped each of the last two years to 3.25 in 2011. I love this stat as xFIP has one of the highest correlations with future ERA of all the pitching metrics out there according to FanGraphs. Think his increased K/9 and decreased BB/9 have anything to do with the drop in xFIP?
His current ADP is 129 on www.mockdraftcentral.com with range from 99th to 192nd, meaning that he is going from anywhere between round 9 to round 16. That is a huge spread for a guy that I think will end up a top 25 starting pitcher by year end. By avoiding a sexier name earlier you can instead stock up on hitters and have a guy like Sanchez anchor your staff when he drops to you while everyone else is scrambling to find a middle infielder.
Publish Post
The value is especially good when you look at him in auction leagues. Yahoo! and ESPN have him at an average auction cost of $4.00-$5.00. I would go as high as $20 for him, but it looks like you don’t need to, spend that $15 somewhere else if you can. $20 production for $5 cost, that’s how you win in fake sports.
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