Matt Gelb Phillies beat writer for Philly. com has written an excellent four-part series on the Phillies activities in Latin America highlighting the construction of a new baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. Read HERE.
Gelb reports about many of the Latin players we call our good friends. We got to know many of them by watching them initially come through the Carpenter Complex playing in minor league and extended spring training, the Gulf Coast League and Fall Instructs.
Sixto Sanchez
Gelb singles out starting pitcher Sixto Sanchez in Part Four in today’s post. Baseball Betsy and I were fortunate to watch him pitch last season in the Gulf Coast League where he pitched to a brilliant 0.50 ERA in the regular season and a seven inning, four-hit, seven-inning shutout to get the win in the semi-final playoff game against the Braves.
We were able to take some video in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings of Sanchez pitching in playoff game.
Watch Fifth Inning: HERE, HERE
Watch Sixth Inning: HERE, HERE
Watch Seventh Inning HERE, HERE, HERE
In his final three innings he induced seven ground ball outs including a double play ball in the fifth inning followed by a pop fly out to shallow right. All total in his seven innings of shutout ball, he induced 14 ground outs and the only one fly out to go with his four strikeouts.
The 18-year-old Sanchez was listed at 6’0, 182 lbs. on the Phillies 2016 Instructs Roster. He is very similar in size to his hero Pedro Martinez. A 2015 article breaks down Pedro’s pitches, Read HERE.
Sixto Sanchez will be one to watch in this year’s spring training minor league camp.
Baseball Ross 