Royals scouts thought Sanchez was ready to ‘breakout’

Last night, Jonathan Sanchez turned in the worst outing of his already terrible season, and that’s saying something.

His line after exiting Monday night’s game against Seattle: a season-low 1.1 IP (yes, four outs), a season-high 7 runs, 7 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR, and his ERA rose to 7.76 (which isn’t a season high. That was 8.22 after his second start of the year).

His season line: 1-6, 53.1 IP, 65 H, 47 R, 46 ER, 44 BB, 36 K. Teams are hitting .302 against Sanchez, and his WHIP rose majestically to 2.04.

Wow.

It got me to thinking, anyone who has watched Sanchez pitched this year has wondered what in the world Royals general manager Dayton Moore saw in Sanchez that he wanted to make him part of the rotation.

Well…here are some of his comments from last November when announcing the trade that sent Melky Cabrera to San Francisco.

“He’s thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues,” general manager Dayton Moore told the Kansas City Star‘s Bob Dutton back then. “When you look at this guy’s strikeout rates, his swing-and-miss ability, it’s among the very best in the game.

“That’s something for us to build on. We are excited to make him part of our rotation.”

Click here for the full Kansas City Star story.

The Associated Press added more encouraging words from Moore, with him believing, ”[Sanchez is] a solid No. 3 starter on a championship-type club.”

“It was very important for us to free up an opportunity for Lorenzo Cain to play center field for us every day,” Moore also said. “We felt we needed to move on this deal with Jonathan Sanchez before it moved away.”

And, according to Moore, it wasn’t just him who thought Sanchez was going to be a good piece to the Royals rotation.

“His hit rates are very low, his strikeout rates are very high, his walks aren’t something we’re overly excited about, but at the same time he’s very young. He’s somebody our scouts feel is a breakout candidate moving forward into 2012.”

Click here for the full AP story from ESPN.com.

Finally, even ESPN’s Keith Law took Kansas City’s decision over the Giants. The first line to his Insider piece (I’ve never paid for content from ESPN Insider…not planning to anytime soon.):

“The hot stove is warming up, and on Monday the San Francisco Giants sent left-handerJonathan Sanchez to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder Melky Cabrera. I don’t really understand either team’s motivation to make this deal, but if I have to choose one side, it’s Kansas City’s.”

Click here for link to ESPN.com’s Insider page.

Collectively, we all swung and missed badly on this one. Maybe that was what Moore meant by Sanchez’s “swing-and-miss ability.”