Keith Law, over at ESPN (subscription required), has a list of 10 disappointing AFL players and, unfortunately, at the top of his list is our Aaron Sanchez.
The Blue Jays' top prospect had an up-and-down year around minor injuries and a failed experiment with a sinker, but Toronto could at least look at his premium stuff and feel confident that he was advancing toward a spot near the top of their major league rotation. Unfortunately, Sanchez's delivery has gone backward in the past year, with a shorter-than-ever stride and a very upright release that causes his fastball to stay up and hurts his command of all pitches.
Yeah that doesn't sound good.
He goes on to say:
An upright torso at release is also correlated with higher risk of arm injuries, so it's something the Jays and Sanchez need to try to correct. Sanchez's stuff remains ace quality -- 92-96 mph on the four-seamer, a plus curveball at 76-79, a hard changeup from 85-89 -- but he has to let his athleticism and looseness on the mound show up in the delivery.
Thankfully Aaron is the only Blue Jay on the list, and even with the delivery being less than great, he's throwing well, but it does seem worrying. Keith Law has seen Sanchez throw often enough that he would know if there is a problem with his delivery.
I'd expect that the Jays would be able to fix this, but then why would they allow it to get broken?
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