Freddy
Sanchez is a San Fransico Giants second baseman. Some of the bandwagon fans
might not know that, but it’s true! At least that’s what it says on baseball
reference which has never been wrong in the history of the sky. His rookie card is worth at least 99 cents! He could have been an All Star! If you were one of
those die hard fans that remembers “Freddy Sanchez” and are trying to hold on
to that last silk thread of hope, you can stop now. Let your hands be free.
This:
Freddy out for the year. Back surgery.
— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) July 5, 2012
His contract is up at the end of the season, and his Giants career is all but over.
There are
two sides to look at this, and I’ll start with the baseball side.
Without a
doubt, a healthy and fresh Sanchez, would be an upgrade over Ryan Theriot at 2nd
this season. His career numbers are .297/.335/.413, and he’s always been a
solid defender. Sanchez has always been overrated throughout his career though,
after his batting title in 2006. He’s only once had an OBP over .343, which was
that 2006 season. Still, he’s been an average to above average baseball player
throughout his career, which is a little better than Ryan Theriot’s
.271/.310/.317 2012 or his career .281/.341/.351, and Sanchez’s defensive
metrics are better than Theriot’s. However the dropoff is not as significant as
you might think. If Sanchez were to play this season, I would expect his value
to be much less than his career averages because of his age, 35, combined with
his rust coming off of injury. Both his defense and hitting would suffer.
Theriot is younger, and has practically the same career OBP. Even a healthy
Sanchez would still be a 35 year old infielder with declining skills and range.
*****
So there’s
the serious, snarky, read that you probably should have skipped because I say a
lot of mean things about Freddy Sanchez. But the truth is, this is really disappointing. Disapointing not because of what Sanchez would bring to the playing field, but for who he would bring to the playing field. There ain’t a lot of hitters from the 2010 Giants team left on the 2012 roster.
Actually, it’s just Buster Posey, the shell of Aubrey Huff and Pablo Sandoval,
who was benched for Mike Fontenot half the time in 2010. Pablo Sandoval, who
was benched for Mike Fontenot. Pablo Sandoval who was benched for Mike
Fontenot. Pablo Sandoval who was-yep still don’t believe it. The point is,
Buster is the only real regular
player still with a major role on the team. The people I was talking about
trying to hold on to hope for Freddy? I’m one of them. Nothing against Ryan
Theriot, but I don’t know anything about Ryan Theriot. I was excited for his
nickname when they first signed him, but that got old right around 467th
time. Sanchez would be so much better. He had big hits in the postseason, and
had a big catch in postseason (via slapsy of McCovey Chronicles)
When
Sanchez got traded to the Giants, a lot of people, including me, hated the
trade. The Giants traded Tim Alderson, who was drafted with Madison Bumgarner
in the first round in 2008, and many fans thought he would have the similar
success as Bum. The year is 2012 and Tim Alderson has still not thrown a major
league pitch. Freddy Sanchez helped the Giants win the World Series, yet again
proving I know nothing about baseball. To have him back this season would be
all kinds of awesome, because it’s one more link to that 2010 team. And who
doesn’t like Freddy Sanchez? He seemed to make every play he could get to in
the field and it was always fun to watch him in the batters box make funny
faces. And in the dugout! So cute!
10 years from now I’m not going to
remember the last 2 years of Sanchez on the Giants. That’s mainly because he
wasn’t on the field, but that’s not important. Like Torres, Burrell, Fontenot,
Uribe, and Ross, he’s always going to be a legend because of one thing. 2010.
He was a great Giant.
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