#9 Hector Sanchez, C. 5'11", 235 lbs. BD: 11/19/1989. B-S, T-R.
High A: .302/.338/.533, 11 HR in 212 AB.
AAA: .261/.315/.34 in 153 AB.
MLB: .258/.324/.323 in 31 AB.
Hector Sanchez has been a favorite of dedicated Giants prospect watchers ever since he put up a line of .286/.401/.471 as a 17 yo in the DSL in 2007. Since then, he's worked his way slowly up the ladder putting up .400+ OBP's in each of his first 3 professional seasons. His numbers tailed off a bit in Augusta in 2010 but then he broke out in San Jose to begin 2012. When Buster Posey went down with his injury, and Eli Whiteside obviously hurting the team, the Giants jumped Hector all the say to Fresno where he held his own and got a callup to the big club. I don't know about you folks, but to my eye, he turned in some mighty impressive AB's for the Giants. One in particular sticks in my mind where he worked to count to 3-2 and then banged one up the middle for a hard single. All in all, he looked like a confident game caller and a confident batter who just needs a bit more seasoning. He caught Barry Zito in Fresno and drew rave reviews from Zito himself for taking charge of the high priced veteran's games. For those who say he doesn't walk enough, I keep harking back to his 3 consecutive .400+ OBP's. Just let him get his feet on the ground. He's gonna draw walks!
Baggs has projected him to be a career backup catcher. I say that is his absolute floor. Unless he can't control his weight and eats himself out of the league, I think it's much more likely that he has a career as a starting catcher. He's more than adequate on defense and that switch-hitting bat is so valuable from that position. I think he'll start the season in Fresno. I'd like to see him and Johnny Monell in a catching tandem there. Not sure what Whiteside adds to the equation.
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If Hector starts the season in Fresno, and the Giants follow the path of giving Posey regular breaks from the rigors of catching, prepare for real frustration when the line-up has Stewart and Crawford hitting 7th and 8th 25% of the time.
ReplyDeleteHector is young (probably too young for Bochy to be comfortable) and he will make mistakes - behind the plate, at bat and on the bases. But, he will be an offensive threat, and he will put the rookie mistakes behind him quickly enough. There is NO WAY the offense can produce if Stewart starts 30 to 40 games behind the dish.
I'm a bit more optimistic than that. I don't think either Crawford or CStew will be quite the black holes in the lineup they were last year and there is always the possibility of midseason callups. I think Hector will and should start in Fresno.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit more optimistic than that. I say he rakes out of spring training and forces the issue. On the 25 baby! I think Posey will need 50 games off, and the Giants will be very careful about Wonderboy. Switch hitter who can, you know, hit? Yup. One of the glaring needs last year, assisted by all the injuries for sure, was a complete lack of a bench. Hector is 2 birds with one stone, and the Giants obviously like him a lot with the throw stuff at a wall callup.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit the moment I saw spring training games on MLB last year, Hector stood out a lot to me. I liked his ABs in season, and his rampage through the VWL is a great sign. 50 games starting and the chance to get in 50 more in some way outweighs the consistency of 90-110 games in Fresno to me, and we have a serious need for a bat at the position.
Hec-tor! I like my Pablito a lot.
In my opinion Hector would be a great backup to Posey for 2012. He held his own behind the plate for the time he was there and many Giants raved about him. I remember he hit this double off the wall in deep center in Colorado. I was thinking Whiteside or Stewart could never hit it that far. He really does have some power and I think he could hit 10-12 homers in a limited role. If he has a good Spring Training I do not see any reason why he wouldn't be the backup. We shouldn't waste AB's using Stewart or Whiteside when this young kid could actually make a difference at the plate. The switch hitting is a great thing to have late in games when there are pitching changes. I would put him 7th and Crawford 8th on games where he starts.
ReplyDeleteMany people on various Giants blogs complain endlessly about Belt not getting playing time last year and the difference he and Crawford would have made to the lineup. Although I tend to agree with these assessments, I think the biggest mistake of the 2011 season was not making Hector the full time starter at the catcher position by the All-Star break.
ReplyDeleteHector has shown he can hit and if Posey needs 2 or more games a week out of the squat then Hector should be on the opening day roster as our back up catcher. Although I do think Crawford will hit better this year I still don't care for him and Stewart hitting back to back.
DrB,
ReplyDeleteI am fairly bullish on Crawford offensively if the Giants are ready to look at his full body of work. I don't think his BA is going to be impressive (say .230 to .240), but he runs up pitch counts, he takes walks and he has some pop. Give him a full season and I think he finishes with a .310 to .320 OBP and double digit dingers.
Stewart, on the other hand, is an offensive black hole.
Hector is a player, and I think he shows strong in spring training and makes the decision easy.
I can't imagine that the Giants will let Hector go directly to the Show whatever happens during spring training. I imagine that Hector will receive the same treatment Posey had in 2010.
ReplyDeleteI bet we'll see Hector the Giants line-up in June.
GIP
I'm bullish on Crawford as well. If he can own the 8th spot he'll also get an artificial bump on his obp from having the "pitcher protection". Sabey Sabes alluded to plate discipline being the key with Crawford in that inside the clubhouse series. He actually went as far as to point out laying off high fastballs, I was a bit surprised that Sabean would go into that much detail about Crawford actually. I'm just amazed they're not bringing in a creaky backup, that shows a lot of faith. And I'm looking forward to his defense for sure, that range is sweet and has been sorely lacking for our infield in recent years. Anything over .240 is gravy and based out of the 8th spot .320 obp seems do-able as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the key is avoiding the 2nd offensively challenged part of the equation. Stewart had some nice ABs here and there last year but is just not going to be a threat or a contributor offensively. I like him, but the jump up with Hector is quite significant. Plus as long as we're pretending BPBZ is our 5th starter, he might as well have his personal catcher since he likes him so much eh?
I liked both Stewart and Hanchez. Enough that while Hanchez could be an improvement as backup in 2012, I think the longer term view would put Stewart as backup and Hanchez in AAA.
ReplyDeleteStewart actually has been a pretty good hitter. Or rather, has shown good discipline at the plate prior in his career and for the Giants in 2011.
After struggling initially in his call-up to the majors, from June 26th to the end of the season, he hit .215/.297/.338/.635, with 3 HR in 130 AB (43 AB/HR) and 13 BB vs. 12 K's, better than 90% contact rate. Not good enough for starter but not bad for a backup who provided a lot of defensive value as a catcher, per Fielding Bible's stats in Bill James's Annual Handbook, Stewart was among the leaders in runs saves despite barely playing a third of the season, around. I want to keep that around, he's around the age where catchers figure out the hitting part, while working on the defensive parts during his 20's.
So I would rather keep Stewart as backup, see if he can develop his bat more with more playing time in 2012, while giving Hanchez a full season in AAA to work on his defense and hitting, who knows, he could be ready to actually start in 2013-14, Posey might be ready by then (or physically forced to consider) to move to another position (heck, Pablo might be ready by then to take 1B, so Posey could consider 2B or 3B).
I'm also bullish on Crawford for the same reasons. Lots of walks, not that many strikeouts, I think he just needs time and some work with batting instructors and he'll be more than replacement offensively at SS while providing good value defensively.
I disagree about Belt and Crawford being mishandled. Crawford was in a big hole offensively when they sent him down. That mental break in AAA helped him shake things off plus work on some things when he returned in September. Same with Belt.
This is not a baseball simulation game where you throw the guy out and he performs to his card, there are emotional issues involved that we all have no idea how badly the players are affected by them. You have to rely on the coaches to do right by the players when they get into such mental ruts.
After the season, both Bochy and Belt noted his mental struggles with his failure in the majors. Bochy noted how Crawford didn't let it affect him, while Belt did. He was an emotional roller-coaster, which seems obvious now given his crying when getting word of his promotion to the majors in the Showtime series.
Players who make the major leagues are the ones who figure out how to stay confident in the face of failure. Belt probably didn't have a lot of experience with the pressure of that, I don't get the impression that he was that much of a prospect when the Giants selected him in the draft, so he's only started dealing with the high pressures of being a top prospect last season. It is a lot to take for a young man, any man, really.
OT: talk about fate
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/how_the_greg_reynolds_trade_is_more_interesting_than_you_think
What if Colorado ended up with Longoria and the Rays ended up with Lincecum? Ray's Friedman reported that he had a deal for Lincecum #3, thinking the Rockies would select Longoria. Wow!
Count me in. Big Hector fan. This guy just seems to have some of the Panda vibe - he is an althetic, dynamic ball player with high-end starter potential. A switch-hitting catcher who got a taste of the bigs and is coming off raking in Vensuela -- makes Hector is THE player to watch in Spring Training. Some guys just grow at the MLB level and think Hector will be in the mix this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, everybody! Sounds like there is a lot of Hector enthusiasm out there. I do think that the people who are dismissing him as a career backup are missing the mark by quite a bit. Having a guy like Hector ranked at the back end of the Giants top 10 says a lot about the depth of the system. More to come too!
ReplyDeleteThis is off topic but the Pads are making some interesting moves. I don't they will be good for a couple years but they are definitely trying to better the team given their payroll situation. The Rockies and Dodgers got worse in my opinion but the DBacks look pretty scary. I never wish for anything negative to people but if they stay healthy, we may be in for some trouble.
ReplyDeleteOGC,
ReplyDeleteIIRC, Reynolds was a high prospect, just was considered a reach at 2. He likely would still have been drafted before 9. So maybe We would have ended up with Kershaw instead. It is certainly possible that in the end, Kershaw will have a better career than Timmeh, so maybe the Giants would have been BETTER had the Rox taken Longoria. But, of course, 2010 likely would not have happened, and the Rox would be a super Juggernaut, so we would not necessarily be a divisional force that we are now...