Tomahawk Take’s 2016 Top 20 Atlanta Braves Prospects: #20-16

Mar 21, 2015; Clearwater, FL, USA; A general view of the official major league baseball prior to the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies at Bright House Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Tomahawk Take’s #20 Atlanta Braves prospect Ricardo Sanchez

– by Alan Carpenter, Tomahawk Take Editor

Who He Is

Ricardo Sanchez is a 5’11″/170 lb left-handed pitcher will be 19 years old on April 11th.  He hails from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela and was signed by the Angels in 2013 for a bonus purported to be $580,000.

At the time of his signing, Sanchez was already throwing 90 mph with projectable curve (future grade: 60) and change-up offerings.  In January 2015, the Braves acquired Sanchez for two minor-leaguers:  third baseman Kyle Kubitza and relief pitcher Nate Hyatt.  He was very recently profiled here as well as Ben’s #38-ranked prospect.

His 2015

According to Bill Ballew of Baseball America, the Braves opted to limit Sanchez’ innings in 2015 “as a precautionary move” (presumably related to a fear of possible injury or at least overuse).  In 2014 he threw 39 innings; in 2015 it was 40.

After coming to the Braves, he was assigned to Class A Rome and averaged close to a strikeout per inning… with several walks issued as well.  A deeper look at his game logs shows that during his last 3 starts before being shut down, he walked 11 in 11 innings.  In fact, one game prior to that he walked 1 batter over 6 innings in what appeared to be a brilliant outing. Before that, walks were not a serious problem for him.

So it’s certainly possible that his ‘control issues’ might have had an underlying cause, and ending Sanchez’ season in July may have been a good idea period.  Hopefully this hiccup was nothing more than the right calf strain that sidelined him for the month of May.

In this video (by Braves watcher David Lee), you can see that Sanchez’ curveball – when under control – has some serious bite to it.  Clearly that’s what makes the scouts optimistic about his future.

2016 Projection and Future

Sanchez has been given fairly lofty rankings by the prospect observers in the industry.  BaseballAmerica touts him as the 25th-best left-handed pitching prospect overall (and the 5th best Brave, by the way).  The Braves are obviously high on his arm, though some other sources – such as fangraphs – are not as bullish.  I tend to agree.

We should know a bit more after 2016.  Control might be an issue, but between his age and lack of game time, it would not be terribly surprising.  After 2 seasons of low impact workload, the Braves should start ramping him up… at least 60 innings, perhaps a bit more if he can take it.  And that leads to this:

My own biggest concern with Sanchez is his size.  There’s not very many starting pitchers with 90+ mph stuff that are under 6 feet tall.  The physics are simply against them.  J.R. Graham is a recent example of one whose shoulder betrayed him as he continued to add innings to it.  It would be really helpful for Sanchez if he’d simply grow 2-3 more inches (yeah, like he can control that).

Failing that, I expect Sanchez could end up in a major league bullpen since he seems to have the ‘stuff’ to be able to handle a fireman’s role.  It’s just the physical rigors of starting and going deep into games that concerns me about him going forward.

Next: Prospect Number 19

Sanchez should probably start again at Rome, but could move up to High-A Carolina quickly if all goes well.  His advancement may be limited as much by the myriad of pitchers in front of him as his age and innings limitations.