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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Inman: ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Pablo Sandoval becoming a heavy burden to San Francisco Giants

It is OK that Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval watches the “Kiss Cam” skit on the stadium’s video board in between warm-up throws in the top of the fifth inning.

It is OK that he hams it up with the Giants’ mascot when the national anthem concludes.

It is even OK that he mingles with opposing players while waiting to take pregame hacks at the batting cage.

That is Pablo Sandoval. He is a fun guy. He won over Giants fans with that love-of-the-game spirit the past couple years.

But he also is a liability thus far in his first postseason.

Thanks to W. Hudson.

Repoz Posted: October 10, 2010 at 01:22 PM | 6 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: giants

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1. Jack Sommers Posted: October 10, 2010 at 02:18 PM (#3660144)

I love how the guy quotes is ".167" Batting avg, not once by twice in the article. Yup, that BA after two games tells you what you need to know about Sandoval.

Sheesh.

2. Gotham Dave Posted: October 10, 2010 at 07:22 PM (#3660312)

Jeez, even in New York we wait for an entire series' worth of small sample size before we start calling a guy a loser.

3. Flynn Posted: October 10, 2010 at 07:38 PM (#3660325)

It's not really the weight, it's the lack of strike zone discipline. People now know he can hit anything in the zone, so don't throw him a strike and let him ground your slider at the shoe tops for a double play. He also had a divorce this year, has bizarre home road splits (he's the same old Pablo at home) and might have lost confidence.

The weight's more of a long term thing relating to his durability and defense, relating to this year only in the sense that the Giants seemed to abandon Camp Panda because it wasn't working, and that might point to him taking it easy after experiencing his first taste of big league success. While nobody's going to cry if he loses 30 lbs this offseason, it's not a panacea - he'll need to work harder everywhere.

4. Justin T's pasta pass was not revoked Posted: October 10, 2010 at 07:47 PM (#3660328)

I think people knew he could hit anything in the strike zone for a long chunk of last season and there weren't any noticeable effects.

But I will also say that he looked the same to me this year, when many people said that he looked a lot bigger than in 2009.

5. PreservedFish Posted: October 10, 2010 at 07:56 PM (#3660333)

People now know he can hit anything in the zone, so don't throw him a strike

They should have known this a week or two into his pro career.

6. dr. scott Posted: October 11, 2010 at 03:12 AM (#3660846)

The HR manager at work got tickets to the last game of the season from a peruvian restaurant owner who seres food to many of the latin players in SF (they got a couple of cepeda's tickets and sat next to his wife). Panda has been in the restaurant, and the owner just wanted to tell him, no don't order that... how about a salad.

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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Inman: ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Pablo Sandoval becoming a heavy burden to San Francisco Giants

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