A.J. Donatoni named sports director at WBRE-TV

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WVC GRADS IN THE PROS: Ray Black’s scoreless streak reaches seven

<p>Slated as a top prospect in the Yankees organization since making his pro debut in 2010, Gary Sanchez has certainly lived up to the hype for most of his career.</p><p>The 23-year-old even found himself in the Major Leagues for the second time in his young career.</p><p>He earned the promotion because New York needed a power bat. But if the hadn&#8217;t rebounded from a few subpar seasons to bust back onto the scene in a big way last year and continued the hot trend this season, a call-up probably wouldn&#8217;t have occurred.</p><p>This season he&#8217;s helped the RailRiders drastically in every aspect of the game.</p><p>Whether being one of many monstrous, moonshot home runs or throwing a runner out trying to steal a base, or just moving a runner over by hitting the ball to the opposite field, Sanchez has matured into the complete package.</p><p>&#8220;Two things, he&#8217;s getting good pitches to hit, he&#8217;s being patient doing the best he can to swing at strikes,&#8221; Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Al Pedrique said. &#8220;And he&#8217;s getting in good hitting counts and taking advantage when they (pitchers) are behind in the count you can tell that his confidence is high. And he&#8217;s using the whole field, that&#8217;s the key for him. When he pulls the ball and he flies wide open that&#8217;s when he gets in trouble. But the last couple games he&#8217;s doing a good job of driving the ball the other way too.&#8221;</p><p>Before getting in New York&#8217;s starting lineup on Friday night, Sanchez was hitting .288 with five homers, 21 RBI, a .336 on base percentage and a slugging percentage of .541.</p><p>He got hot in May while playing in nine games he batted .400 with three homers and 10 RBI. The spike in batting average has been due to the right-handed bat using all fields and going with the ball more instead of just trying to pull everything, Pedrique said.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a smart kid. At the plate he&#8217;s patient and always looking for one pitch,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At times he looks bad chasing a pitch out of the zone, but then his next at bat he makes adjustments. Overall, he&#8217;s done a good job for me.&#8221;</p><p>Behind the plate, Sanchez has done a tremendous job holding baserunners allowing just eight stolen bases in 16 attempts, good for second in the International League. But that doesn&#8217;t include twice last week when a pitch got past him in the dirt and he threw from his knees to nail baserunners, once at second and the other time at third.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so impressive. I saw glimpses of it last year and then this year, just don&#8217;t run on him,&#8221; SWB outfielder Aaron Judge said. &#8220;On balls in the dirt, he&#8217;s coming up, throwing guys out, it&#8217;s so fun to watch cuz he&#8217;s really busting his butt not only on the offensive side, but on defense too.&#8221;</p><p>Being a force on defense has helped the pitchers settle in easier too. Last year, RailRiders pitchers overall had problems holding runners on. With such an intimidating presence behind the plate, possible base-stealers aren&#8217;t thinking about it much.</p><p>Pitchers still have to look runners back, but it&#8217;s a luxury having Sanchez back there.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s nice not to have to be super quick to the plate and can execute pitches better just because he has a good arm,&#8221; right-hander Chad Green said. &#8220;You don&#8217;t have to worry about guys running on you, you still have to worry about guys running on you, but&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>Sanchez was in competition for the backup catcher role to Brian McCann in spring training, but lost out to Austin Romine. In his first appearance of the season with New York on Friday night as the designated hitter against the White Sox, Sanchez went 0 for 4 with a strikeout and was optioned back to the RailRiders on Saturday.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">RailRiders catcher Gary Sanchez, seen rounding the bases after homering during a recent game, got a taste of the Major Leagues last week starting at designated hitter for the Yankees on Friday night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_RailRiders-Buffalo_1-1-1-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>RailRiders catcher Gary Sanchez, seen rounding the bases after homering during a recent game, got a taste of the Major Leagues last week starting at designated hitter for the Yankees on Friday night. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>23-year-old got a taste of life in the big leagues</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>drosengrant@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders catcher Gary Sanchez impressing with bat, arm