Anmeldung » Right-hander Anibal Sanchez broke into the

MIAMI — majors with the Miami Marlins in 2006 http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , winning at Yankee Stadium in his first appearance.Later that year, he beat Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros and then no-hit the Arizona Diamondbacks.However, after that promising start, Sanchez finished his Marlins career just 39-38 and was traded to the Detroit Tigers on July 23, 2012.Article continues below ...On Saturday, Sanchez will pitch at Marlins Park for the first time since April 6, 2016. In that game, he outdueled the late Jose Fernandez in a 7-3 Tigers win.This time, Sanchez (6-4, 3.13 ERA) will pitch for the Atlanta Braves against Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (4-9, 5.20 ERA).Things have changed since that game in 2016. Most of Miami’s starters have been traded, including Giancarlo Stanton, Marcel Ozuna, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon and Adeiny Hechavarria.Sanchez is 34 now, and he is enjoying a resurgent season after posting successively worse ERAs in each of his past three seasons: 4.99, 5.87 and 6.41.This year, Sanchez has allowed three earned runs or less in 13 of his 17 starts. And his homer rate is down from 2.2 per nine innings last year to 1.2 this season.The Venezuela native’s average fastball is 90.4 mph at this point in his long career. The league average is 93.1.One caution about Sanchez is that he was 4-2 with a 2.60 ERA in 12 first-half games but has struggled a bit since. He is 2-2 with a 4.22 ERA in six second-half starts.Sanchez has faced the Marlins once this year, and the Braves won that game 10-6 at home. Sanchez allowed five runs (four earned) in five innings.Braves rookie left fielder Ronald Acuna homered twice in that game. On that night, at age 20 Duane Kuiper Jersey , he became the youngest major leaguer to hit a home run in five straight games.“It’s contagious what he’s doing,” Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte said about Acuna.On Saturday, Sanchez will face Chen, who has had one of the most unusual seasons in the majors. Chen is 1-6 with a 9.35 ERA on the road but 3-3 with a 2.05 ERA at home.Chen, whose average fastball is just 91.1 mph, is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts this month. But he had a 7.01 ERA in May, a 6.20 ERA in June and a 5.27 ERA in July.He beat the Braves on July 24 at Marlins Park, allowing three runs in six innings.The Marlins also beat the Braves 1-0 on Friday night, tying the four-game series at one apiece.If the Marlins have to go to the bullpen on Saturday, they won’t have Jarlin Garcia, who was placed on the disabled list Friday because of a contusion on his right leg.Taking his roster spot is former closer Kyle Barraclough, who had been on the DL because of back stiffness.“We want (Barraclough) to work his way back up,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.Barraclough received National League Reliever of the Month honors in June after allowing just one hit and no runs in 12 innings, converting all seven of his save chances.But Barraclough blew a save chance on July 2, and that started his downfall. In July, he posted a bloated 8.38 ERA in 9 2/3 innings, blowing three of five save chances. As we all know, the Astros have struggled to find a consistent lefty bullpen presence over the past few years. We’ve had major swings with Sipp being outright dominant, or wondering why we paid him..."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Houston Astros NewsGame ThreadsHouston Astros Minor LeaguesAstros Game DayPodcastsLuis Avilan Non-Tendered: Potential LOOGY Candidate?New,17commentsByBrian Cohn (HH)Dec1 http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , 2018,9:17am CSTShareTweetShareShareLuis Avilan Non-Tendered: Potential LOOGY Candidate?As we all know, the Astros have struggled to find a consistent lefty bullpen presence over the past few years. We’ve had major swings with Sipp being outright dominant, or wondering why we paid him and how we could get rid of him. This off-season, there are a few intriguing big names (Britton, Miller) as well quite a few other potential options. Last night, the Phillies decided to Non-Tender Luis Avilan.Here is the quick recap from MLBTR on Avilan:”As for Avilan, 29, he’s sure to find another opportunity. The seven-year MLB veteran has thrown 308 2/3 total frames of 3.09 ERA ball, though of course that has come mostly in action against same-handed hitters. Avilan has held opposing righties to a .672 OPS, which is rather impressive — particularly given that lefty bats carry only a .213/.289/.292 slash against him.”Who Is Luis Avilan?Luis, 29, is a 6’2, 290lb left hand reliever. Avilan grew up in Venezula, signing with the Braves as an International Free Agent in 2005. I was not able to find a lot about him as a prospect, seemingly to be somewhat unheralded other than a pitcher of the month award in the minors.MLB PerformanceAvilan came into the majors and made an immediate impact, in his first 2 seasons, he recorded the following stat line Baseball-ReferenceWhich is fairly absurd, we’re talking back of the bullpen, elite closer type numbers Derek Holland Jersey , on the surface. The advanced stats didn’t quite back up those results, with a lower (6.3) K/9 leading to his FIP being right around 3. What’s interesting, is while he’s had some up and down seasons (pretty normal for relievers due to the small sample size on an annual basis), he actually has been fairly consistent. Overall, he has a career ERA at 3.09, backed by a career FIP of 3.25. As for his Lefty/Righty SplitsLefties - .213/.289/.292Righties - .244/.325/.347Interestingly, his K/9 has continued to trend up, here are the numbers by year:2012 - 8.3 (small sample size)2013 - 5.32014 - 5.22015 - 8.3 (jumped up to around 10 when he was traded)2016 - 12.82017 - 10.22018 - 10.1So let’s look at his pitches to see what the cause could have been.The other interesting item of note - Dodger’s Digest wrote an article about how Avilan had the lowest exit velocity in baseball by a significant margin in 2015.PitchesAvilan looks to basically throw 3 pitches (they have him listed at 4, with 0.5% Four Seamers thrown)Statcast - Baseball SavantIn 2018 - his pitches came in as follows: Change up - 48% of all Pitches / 81.9 MPH / 2,181 Spin RateSinker - 33.5% of all Pitches / 90.5 MPH / 2,132 Spin RateCurve - 18% of all Pitches / 70.9 MPH / 2,269 Spin RateSo Avilan has an interesting and somewhat “Astros approach” with 2/3’s of his pitches being off-speed. He is not the spin rate darling that some others are, but he has an excellent differential in speed on his Curve vs Sinker. The main aspect that draws red flags to me is that Avilan had a 2 MPH drop on his average sinker speed this year compared to his career. That could be a red flag of an injury, and would make sense as to why he was non-tendered.What It would takeSo Avilan is a Free Agent, so there’s not a conclusive answer to this question. But the $3.1 Million that he was projected to make in arbitration seems like an easy yes. Which only further makes me wonder as to why he was released by a team that is not particularly pressed for dollars unless the planned signings this off-season are dramatic enough to push them towards the limit. SummaryAvilan is an intriguing candidate for a quick and simple addition to the bullpen. Luis has done extremely well in his career against same handed batters - making him a solid LOOGY candidate, although I think he has more in the tank than that.To me, the largest aspect that needs to be investigated is the drop in velocity. That’s always a concern and could be a warning sign of trouble, and again explain why he was non-tendered. Let me know your thoughts on why you would or wouldn’t want the Astros to go after him.