Yankees: The difference in Gary Sanchez from this season to last
By Alex DaSilva
The Yankees are playing great baseball, but that does not mean every player is exceeding expectations.
I am sure you can think of a few guys who are playing sub-par baseball, but one player who is continually struggling is Gary Sanchez. An All-Star last season, Sanchez has lost his knack for hitting but the Yankees have yet to give up hope, and for good reason.
Sanchez is batting .194 thus far and doesn’t seem to be picking up much (.140/.234/.281 slash line over his last 15 games) and most of Sanchez’s numbers have dropped across the board.
Not only has his batting average dropped by almost a whole tenth, but his home run rate is lower, his strikeout rate has increased, and a ton of other stats have shown his decreased hitting ability including OBP, slugging percent and batted ball data.
As for why Sanchez has experienced this slump, there seem to be a few possible answers.
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Sanchez is hitting more fly balls, around 9 percent more than last season. As a result, more fly balls means fewer line drives and even fewer ground balls. The key factor is the lack of line drives, as line drives result in hits much more often than both fly balls and ground balls.
On top of that, Sanchez is hitting more balls to the opposite field, near four percent more. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Because El Gary has been hitting more balls the other way, the shift has become somewhat pointless when he is at the plate.
In fact, Sanchez is hitting better against the shift. A technique instilled in modern baseball to combat dominantly pull hitters has shown his ability to adapt and hit the ball to right field more.
Sanchez has hit 18.7 percent of his balls to the opposite field when hitting — but over 25 percent against the shift. And it has helped. His average as stated previously is below .200 but when facing the shift is .254.
Therefore Sanchez has improved in some ways this season; it just hasn’t shown too much yet.
Another way in which Sanchez has improved is his plate discipline. His swing rate is down four percent from last year, down two percent on pitches outside the strike zone, which has led to his near four percent increase in walks.
This is a lot of numbers to take in. What are we talking about here? Well, Sanchez is swinging less, getting under the ball more and hitting opposite field more (compared to his 2017 numbers).
What about how other teams have approached Sanchez? Like all hitters, The Kraken hits better against certain pitches than others. Over his MLB career, Sanchez has hit above .300 against sinkers, cutters and splitters; while hitting in the mid .200s against four-seam fastballs, changeups and sliders. The worst is his .164 batting average against curveballs.
With improved scouting and more accurate data available the more Sanchez plays, teams can pitch smarter when facing Sanchez.
Sanchez has seen more changeups, sliders and curves while also seeing a decreased amount of all other pitches. But why have teams thrown these three pitches more than others against Sanchez?
Being, to some extent, a horrible hitter against curveballs, we can easily understand the reasoning behind the increase here. As for the sliders, Sanchez swings at over 50 percent of sliders, with 37 percent resulting in strikes including 20 percent which is swung and missed.
The increase in changeups can be supported by it being the pitch which he swings and misses the most, resulting in a strike almost a third of the time — and hits for a fly ball nearly five percent of the time. Not to mention this is the pitch in which Sanchez strikes out on most.
All these little differences have caused the Yankees’ All-Star catcher to remain at bay offensively this season. If teams continue to pitch the way they have against Sanchez and learn to ease off shifting while facing him, his struggles may continue.
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However, this does not mean all hope is lost with Sanchez. He has shown his evolution as a batter; swinging less often and hitting the ball the other way more often
If he can improve his hitting against changeups, sliders and curves, while also hitting fewer fly balls, there is a chance he can salvage what is left of this season and help the Yanks come postseason.