The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Tony Sanchez in the first round of the 2009 draft, surprising everyone by taking Sanchez much higher than he was projected to go by national draft gurus. The Pirates insisted Sanchez was the top player on their draft board at the time, and that statement started to gain some credibility after Sanchez immediately signed.
Sanchez started his career with West Virginia by hitting for a .316/.415/.581 line with seven homers in 155 at-bats. He was eventually moved up to Lynchburg for their Carolina League playoff run, where he served as the starting catcher in every playoff game. It was at this time that I was able to get some video of Sanchez. His defense wasn’t at it’s peak performance in some of these videos, due to the length of his season wearing down on him at the end, but it was still good enough to give you an idea of why many scouts insist that his defense is currently Major League average.
Below I have several videos of Sanchez in action. There are 13 at-bats, 4 close up behind the plate videos, plus 9 other plays behind the plate. I have a list of what is on this video recap below the video box, as well as some suggestions of plays that display some of Sanchez’s skills.
A rundown of the videos (videos in bold are my favorites):
- 9/7, 1st at-bat, Sanchez doubles off the wall to center field
- 9/7, 2nd at-bat, Sanchez strikes out swinging
- 9/7, 4th at-bat, side view of Sanchez striking out swigning
- 9/10, 1st at-bat, Sanchez singles on a line drive to right field
- 9/10, 2nd at-bat, Sanchez ops out to first base
- 9/10, 3rd at-bat, Sanchez strikes out swigning
- 9/10, 4th at-bat, Sanchez flies out to center field
- 9/14, 1st at-bat, Sanchez strikes out swigning
- 9/14, 2nd at-bat, Sanchez flies out to deep left field
- 9/14, 3rd at-bat, Sanchez flies out to right field
- 9/14, 4th at-bat, Sanchez RBI double deep off the right field wall
- 9/15, 4th at-bat, Sanchez grounds in to a 6-4-3 double play
- 9/17, 1st at-bat, Sanchez singles on a line drive to center field
- 9/7, Harrison Bishop 3rd batter, Side view close up of Sanchez catching
- 9/7, Harrison Bishop 4th batter, Side view close up of Sanchez catching with a passed ball
- 9/7, Harrison Bishop 5th batter, Side view close up of Sanchez catching
- 9/7, Harrison Bishop 6th batter, Side view close up of Sanchez catching
- 9/7, Noah Krol 5th batter, Sanchez makes a nice block on a ball in the dirt
- 9/7, Mike Colla 8th batter, At the 0:47 mark, close up Sanchez chasing a foul ball in to the wall
- 9/10, Matt McSwain 2nd batter, Sanchez makes a running play to catch a foul ball on the first base side
- 9/10, Rudy Owens 14th batter, Sanchez allows a stolen base at second and a passed ball
- 9/10, Ramon Aguero 4th batter, Sanchez allows a stolen base at second
- 9/13, Bryan Morris 15th batter, Sanchez makes the play at the plate on a throw from right field to nail the runner at home
- 9/13, Bryan Morris 23rd batter, Sanchez makes the play at the plate on a throw from right field to nail the runner at home, with good positioning over the plate to make the play
- 9/17, Jeff Locke 14th batter, Passed ball by Sanchez
- 9/17, Ramon Aguero 5th batter, Sanchez catches a runner trying to steal second
