Sanchez contributing with glove as well as bat

Gaby Sanchez's team-leading seven doubles entering Saturday's doubleheader stand out. Less obvious, but perhaps no less important, are the five picks and bad throw saves he's made at first base.

The Marlins have played woeful defense so far, opening play Saturday tied with the Dodgers for most errors (17) in the majors. That figure might be even higher if not for Sanchez.

According to Baseball Info Solutions, Sanchez as of Thursday trailed only the Royals' Billy Butler (seven) in picks and bad throw saves.

"I've always felt comfortable being over there picking balls," Sanchez said. "That's one of the most fun things for me to do even when we're just practicing. I've done fairly well doing it in the minor leagues …You get first basemen that can't do it, all of a sudden games get longer, baserunners get on, fielding percentages are lower. I can help out a lot just by picking those balls."

Two seasons ago Double-A Southern League managers voted Sanchez the best defensive first baseman in the circuit. This year, Sanchez has ranked poorly in range factor (putouts plus assists divided by 9), but his zone rating — the percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive zone as measured by STATS, Inc. — is tied for third among qualifying National League first basemen.

Sanchez got off to a spotty start defensively, committing his lone error in the opener when he dropped a routine Hanley Ramirez throw.

"You saw him the first couple of days, he was maybe a little bit cautious, making sure he didn't make mistakes," said Marlins third base/infield coach Joe Espada, formerly the club's minor league infield coordinator. "Now he's free. He's playing like the Gaby I've seen in the past. Confidence for me is what's driving Gaby right now."

Manager Fredi Gonzalez late in games with a lead regularly removes Sanchez and slides Jorge Cantu to first. As Gonzalez has explained, the move is designed to improve the left side of the infield with Brian Barden or Wes Helms at third. He considers Cantu and Sanchez equally competent at first.

"We have good guys coming off the bench who are great third basemen," Sanchez said. "If that's the situation, we need to do it and I'm totally fine with it. You can't take Cantu's bat out of the lineup.

"I want to be the best first baseman out there. Hitting is going to be there, but I feel like if you're great defensively that's going to keep you there longer. Teams will give up a little bit of offense if they can shut it down defensively."



(sun-sentinel.com)