In honor of baseball's latest no-hitter last night, I wanted to put up a comparison of Sanchez, the Marlins' twenty-two year old southpaw Venezuelan phenom, to Frankln Morales, our twenty-year old southpaw Venezuelan phenom:
Anibal Sanchez:
2004 Lowell NYPL 20 years old, Boston, low A
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
3 4 1.77 15 15 0 0 76.1 43 24 15 3 29 101
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
2 5.07 0.35 3.42 11.91 0.94
2005 Wilmington Carolina 21 y.o. Boston High A
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
6 1 2.40 14 14 0 0 78.2 53 25 21 7 24 95
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
5 6.06 0.80 2.75 10.87 0.98
2005 Portland Eastern 21 y.o. Boston AA
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
3 5 3.45 11 11 0 0 57.1 53 28 22 5 16 63
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
4 8.32 0.78 2.51 9.89 1.20
Minor League Totals - 2 Season(s)
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB
12 10 2.46 40 40 0 0 212.1 149 77 58 15 69
K WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
259 11 6.32 0.64 2.93 10.99 1.03
Franklin Morales:
2004 Casper Pioneer 18 y.o. Colorado Rk
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
6 4 7.62 15 15 1 1 65.0 92 61 55 8 39 82
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
7 12.74 1.11 5.40 11.35 2.02
2005 Asheville SAL 19 y.o Colorado low A
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
8 4 3.08 21 15 0 0 96.1 73 40 33 6 48 108
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
7 6.82 0.56 4.48 10.09 1.26
2006 Modesto California 20 y.o. Colorado High A
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB K
10 9 3.38 27 26 0 0 154 126 77 63 9 89 179
WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
24 7.36 0.52 5.20 10.46 1.39
Minor League Totals - 3 Season(s)
W L ERA G GS CG SH IP H R ER HR BB
24 17 4.31 63 56 1 1 315.1 291 178 151 23 178
K WP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 WHIP
369 38 8.31 0.66 5.08 10.53 1.49
Summary
Note that I didn't include the fifteen games Sanchez pitched for Carolina this season, nor his work with Florida.
I think the key things to remember in making this comparison are that Morales has been two years younger than Sanchez in his progression thus far, although Anibal made a pretty huge jump from AA to pitching well in the majors this season. Morales will not be able to pull off the same without drastically reducing his wildness, the BB/9 and wild pitches show that we still have a very raw, albeit very talented pitcher on our hands (his 16.09 K/9 over the last month of the season shows that talent) and we should monitor his progress this winter in Venezuela and next Spring closely. All told, Morales has the potential to be better than Sanchez but until he gains a bit more control, we can't count on it.