At the onset of the outing, it looked like Sanchez was going to let it get away from him. His fastball was all over the place, and he labored to get through the first two innings. The quality of his curveball was apparent from the beginning however. The pitch was crisp, with strong two-plane break and the pitcher had very little problem throwing it for strikes. The offering carried the righty past his early struggles. I point this out because once the third inning rolled around Sanchez's fastball emerged for the rest of the outing. It was almost like a switch flipped. The pitch was consistently spotted down in the zone and on the corners, leaving opposing hitters little chance of doing much with the offering due to the movement and velocity.

I liked the way Sanchez continued to battle in this outing, and didn't give up on trying to throw his heater. It could have been easy to continue to lean on his curveball. It also speaks to the quality of the offering that it got him through a difficult stretch. The grades are more than warranted for me as this pitch can get big-league hitters out right now on a consistent basis. The long pole here is the fastball. There's a Jekyll and Hyde nature to it. The movement and way the velocity plays because of it are a big ingredient for thinking about a front-line projection, but the inconsistent command holds that back.

This arm is athletic, young, and loose, which is usually a good indication that command growth can occur. The delivery isn't the most fluid, though, when it comes to staying above the baseball on a consistent basis. There's very little lower half incorporation and leverage created. I don't see it progressing past "area command" because of that. There is a decent sized present gap for the pitcher to reach the projection, but I see it as achievable.