The Aaron Sanchez Redemption Tour

Clearly Aaron Sanchez read my piece outlining all the various things that might have been causing him to pitch like shit and turned it around with a strong outing against the Tigers to avoid getting swept in Detroit. So what did he change?

Taking a quick glance at the numbers, one thing that jumps out is that he only threw 36 of his 100 pitches in the zone, yet didn’t walk as many batters as he’s been prone to, while still putting up increased strikeout numbers.

This could be in part to there being a little bit of extra zip on his hard pitches. BrooksBaseball tracked him averaging 95.6 mph on his fastball/sinker mix, one his best starts in that regard. His changeup was on as well, generating a whiff-rate of 24%, and accounting for four of his even strikeouts. When Sanchez has had high strikeout games, this has been the case. Following a trend that started last game, more his hard pitches have been classified as four-seam fastballs instead of sinkers, meaning he is sacrificing a bit of movement for more control.

Another metric that BrooksBaseball uses is “grooved” pitches, that is pitches that are in extremely hittable locations. Only 5% of his pitches were grooved, all of which were fastballs, so he didn’t hang any breaking balls. These are all good signs.

I mentioned last time that it’s possible Sanchez just needed a little more time to get his release point after not being able to throw much at all. Lots had been made about his improved changeup, and it reasoned that once he’s able to spot it more effectively he’ll be back to his old dominant self. While he wasn’t pounding the zone that much, he still got good results. Generally, when a pitch was outside the zone, it wasn’t a wild miss, it was a pitch close to the edge or that broke out of the zone.

Sunday was a step in the right direction. If this was the first stop of the Aaron Sanchez Redemption Tour, then to borrow a quote from his best friend mortal enemy, the return will be legendary.