Freddy hates Freddy

Freddy Sanchez hates the person he’s become.
He’s unhappy. He’s frustrated. He’s irritable.
And it’s not just at work. His mood has affected him so much he’s taking his frustrations home with him instead of leaving them at the ballpark.
Sanchez knows things have to change. He’s hopeful that some day very soon they will change.
All he has to do is get a couple of more base hits.
“I don’t like the person I’ve become because I’m not playing well,” Sanchez said.
It may seem a bit trivial to the average person, to let something like a couple of base hits affect someone so much. But hitting is a big part of Sanchez’s job, and like anyone else sometimes work frustrations don’t just stay at work.
It’s to the point now where Sanchez, who after a 7-for-40 slump has seen his average dip from .256 to .213 heading into Saturday’s game with Philadelphia, is wound so tight and so frustrated about his start that an explanation has left the 30-year-old second baseman virtually speechless.
“I’m just not seeing the ball well … I don’t know, I just don’t know,” Sanchez said. “I’ve tried different stances, different mentalities, I’ve tried … it’s just not clicking. For whatever reason it’s just not clicking.”
Throughout his career Sanchez, the 2006 National League batting champion who has batted .344 and .304 the last two seasons, has had his worst month statistically over his career in April. He is a career .272 in April, but the average skyrockets to .331 in May and .325 in June.
Pirates manager John Russell has no thoughts about dropping Sanchez in the order nor does he say that the shoulder injury Sanchez had in spring training is affecting his swing.
“Freddy’s pressing a little bit,” Russell said. “I know he wants to contribute. It’s eating at him a little bit that he’s not contributing right now. He’s going to be fine.”
Part of Sanchez’s problem, according to Russell, is also one of his strengths which is why this skid has been harder to get out of than others.
Sanchez isn’t the most patient hitter on the team, or in the league for that matter. His career high for walks in a season is 32, which came last year. Thing is, that was over almost 650 plate appearances, a low amount for anybody but particularly one who usually hits so high in the order.
He also swings at a lot of the balls out of the strike zone, but when Sanchez is going good he hits a lot of those balls, usually for base hits.
“He’s trying to be more selective,” Russell said. “Once he gets into that mentality where he feels comfortable, then he will hit some of the balls he’s missing now.
“He reminds me of Kirby Puckett, though Puckett obviously had more power,” Russell continued. “Puckett was a great bad-ball hitter. He was tough to pitch to because he could hit balls out of the zone and get hits and Freddy can do that.”
Sanchez admits the slow start and coinciding slump are more mental than anything else.
“I’ve tried too hard over the past few weeks to do too much and I’ve made more problems for myself,” Sanchez said. “I just have to change that. I just have to go up with the approach that whatever is going to happen is going to happen.”
The pressure to perform on the field can be enormous. Add to that a new multi-year contract worth as much as $18.5 million that Sanchez signed in the offseason and that puts even more pressure on him to perform.
This start and slump has been hard to deal with for Sanchez. It’s changed him as a person. Now that he realizes that, it’s time to make another change on, and off the field.
“No one’s more frustrated than me,” Sanchez said. “When you start taking it home with you and being the person that I’m not and that I don’t want to be, that’s when I know I’ve got to take a step back and realize what’s important.”