As Aaron Sanchez prepares to take the ball against the Arizona Diamonbacks in his first start of Baseball’s “second half,” the focus is almost entirely on if/when he will leave the starting rotation for a vacation in the Blue Jays bullpen. The reasons are obvious, as the team has openly stated that such a move is probable, if not definite. But that’s not the only thing worth watching from the young fireballer as the season moves into the dog days of August.

After a magical first half that saw him go 9-1 with a sparkling 2.97 ERA, there are more questions about Sanchez’s ability to handle a job in the rotation. But for all intents and purposes, he is a “rookie” in the rotation. He has only made 29 career starts, and only 18 this year. The league really hasn’t had the opportunity yet to make adjustments to Sanchez the Starter.

Interestingly, the young righty is making adjustments on his own. For the most part, Sanchez is an extreme fastball pitcher (approximately 75 percent of his pitches thrown) who will mix in a hard curve and the occasional changeup. Theoretically, that should make him reasonably easy enough to game plan against, even if he’s not easy to hit. However, Sanchez hasn’t made things easy for anybody.

The 23-year old Sanchez has made a second start against six teams this year: The entire AL East, the Tigers, and the Rangers. I’m going to look at each start individually to see what changes, if any, Sanchez was making to his repertoire, and how effective they were.

Boston:

In Sanchez’s first outing against the rival Red Sox, he was absolutely masterful, going seven innings and allowing just two hits and one run, striking out seven. Given that performance, one could reasonably expect Sanchez to attack the same way the next time.

Well, so much for that. Sanchez completely switched things up. He threw way more curveballs at the extent of fastballs and scrapped the cutter entirely. The result was that he lasted 6 2/3 innings, and gave up three earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts. Against a tough Boston team, that’s still a very respectable outing against a very good lineup.

Tampa:

As with the Red Sox, Sanchez absolutely dominated the Rays in his first outing of the season. He threw seven shutout innings, striking out eight and walking none. Once again, he changed things up in his second go around.

The fastball usage was similar in percentage, at 68 percent both times, but the usage was somewhat different. Sanchez decided to throw more fourseamers at the expense of his diving twoseamer. He also flipped the offspeed usage, throwing way more curveballs at the expense of his changeup. The result: he dominated again. Sanchez once again threw seven shutout innings, this time striking out six and walking two.

Yankees:

Sanchez’s first three starts of the season were against the Yankees and the two teams mentioned above. If you remember the hype at the beginning of the year, you probably have an idea how this outing went; Sanchez went six innings, giving up one earned run, striking out five.

This is the first instance where Sanchez didn’t drastically alter his approach the second time he faced an opponent. That said, the changes he did make were logical. He threw slightly more fastballs, and opted for more fourseamers than twoseamers against the slowing bats of the Yankee veterans. It clearly worked. Sanchez was even better than his first time out, tossing 6 2/3 shutout innings, striking out six.

Baltimore:

Finally we have a team that hit Sanchez around. The Orioles clubbed the Jays righty the first time he faced them, tuning him up for six runs in five innings on ten hits. He did strike out seven, but clearly the Baltimore Birds had his numbers on this day.

Yeah…I’d say he made an adjustment. Sanchez completely flipped his fastball usage, throwing more fourseamers than twoseamers for the first time in his career, and it wasn’t close. He also threw way fewer curveballs and instead went to the changeup to get outs. As Sanchez went six innings, allowing one earned run with six strike outs, I’d say it worked out for him. Interestingly, these were back to back starts for Sanchez (at home then on the road).

Rangers:

Finally, we leave the AL East. Sanchez pitched very well against the Rangers in his first outing of the season at Rogers Centre, going seven innings while giving up three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts. Against the Rangers lineup (especially with Nomar Mazara going off in early May), that was a result the Jays would take any time.

Once again, Sanchez still made adjustments after a great start, though they were smaller this time around. He changed the fastball split and added more curveballs, though neither was by a large degree. The Rangers hit Sanchez around a little bit this time, tagging him for six runs in 6 2/3 innings, including the first ever home run from a righty off of Sanchez (Adrian Beltre). The line is made worse thanks to some awful relief pitching from Jesse Chavez, and while Sanchez did give up seven hits and walk four, he was mostly cruising until the sixth. So the results definitely got a bit worse, but not to a huge degree. This game was mostly remembered for the bench-clearing shenanigans that followed.

Tigers:

This was Aaron Sanchez’s best start of his career. He took a shutout into the ninth (two runs eventually score, one inherited) and struck out a career high twelve including Victor Martinez three times. In fact, going into the ninth inning, Sanchez had given up just one hit and one walk. If there were one start where one could assume Sanchez would keep things the same, it would be this one:

Nope. Once again, the All Star righty mixed things up. He threw considerably fewer fastballs, mostly in favour of the changeup. He threw a few more curveballs as well, but it was interesting to see him go with his third best pitch against the righty-heavy Tigers. He didn’t go into the ninth inning again, but Sanchez once again mostly kept the Tigers off the board. He went only five innings, but gave up just two runs and struck out four. He probably could have gone one more, but with the break looming (and an All Star appearance), the team opted to remove the young righty.

Despite initial success, Sanchez decided to tweak his approach against every single team on this list. He then took that to extremes with the one team that actually hurt him (the Orioles), and dominated them the next time out. Whether this comes from Russell Martin, Pete Walker, or Sanchez himself, it is very encouraging to see him constantly trying to make things harder for his opponents. Young pitchers often run into trouble once the league starts making adjustments to them, but Sanchez seems to be doing it first. He will still always throw a ton of fastballs, but if he continues to change things up just enough to keep opponents off track, he should be able to continue the AL dominance he has shown in the first half.

Lead Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Pitch usage charts courtesy of Brooks Baseball