Baseball – John Donaldson, Johnny Schmitz, Gary Sanchez, Paul Goldschmidt

John Donaldson began playing professional baseball around 1912. Do to American racial segregation which kept him from Major League Baseball, he spent his entire career playing for Negro League teams in Tennessee, New York the U.S. Midwest, and in Saskatchewan, Canada. He became one of the best left-handed pitchers in Negro League baseball but was also played center fielder, was a good hitter, and a solid base runner.  In 1913, he pitched three consecutive no-hit games. While not all Negro League records can be certified as accurate, Donaldson was also reported to have struck out more than 240 batters over a 12-game span, at that time his "All Nations" team won the league championship in 1916. His championship club was eventually disbanded during World War I, but post-war it was reassembled as the Kansas City Monarchs http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/john-donaldson-baseball-great

Johnny Schmitz (b. 1920), nicknamed "Bear Tracks" because of how he shuffled to the mound in his size 14 feet, was a left-handed pitcher who played for 13 years for 7 teams.  After missing three years due to his service in World War II, he returned in 1946, and made the first of two All Star teams and led the league in strikeouts.  Dodger pitcher Rex Barney said of Schmitz's curve ball, "he could drop it in a coffee cup."   http://fairandunbalancedblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/baseball-losses-in-2011.html  

Gary Sanchez is a hitter who seems to see the ball very well; he tracks and diagnoses pitches like a much more experienced player. In High-A, the young right-hander will no doubt face a more advanced secondary sequence, and despite the good pitch-recognition skills, the characteristics of his swing could limit his ability to make contact against such offerings. Like most power hitters, Sanchez has a leveraged swing with length and loft, making him susceptible to inner-half velocity and off-speed stuff that will require barrel manipulation to stay on. Sanchez has a good feel for hitting, but I don’t think the hit tool can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the power, which should end up as an easy 70 on the 20/80 scale, and possibly a legit 80 at the top of his developmental arc. The explosion that occurs on contact is loud and violent and sexy and people will pay money to see it and the skies will turn red with the blood of his enemies, but the hitchy trigger and the lengthy path to the ball make exploitation possible. However, it should be noted that Sanchez’s offensive game doesn’t have the glaring weaknesses that scar the faces of most prospects his age. This is a minor nitpick. Sanchez could be very special at the plate. I want to have a son and name him Gary. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=16075

Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona: Goldschmidt is going to be an annual threat to reach 35 to 40 home runs, but at what cost? In his 177 plate appearances for Arizona last year, Goldschmidt struck out 29.9 percent of the time, a disturbingly high number. To make an unfair comparison, Pujols’s rate was 8.9 percent. Goldschmidt was a consistent .300 hitter in the minors, though strikeouts were a problem there as well. I’d hesitate to expect much more than a .260 average, but that could come with near 30-100, so he’s certainly worth a look. http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/