I hope this doesn’t bring back that Giants troll who took every opportunity to tell us how Sandoval was going to crush us.

kinda tubby.

Eleven players and one coach fell ill to gastrointestinal issues Sunday. Among the victims were Chris Young, Daniel Schlereth, Justin Upton and Miguel Montero.

Goood…Goooooood

have we ever had talks with the Giants? Or is that a deal where you wouldn’t want to send him to a division foe?

That nobody can maintain a .345/.357/.490 batting line, most significantly with an IsoD of .012; an IsoD that low just reeks of bat plate discipline (which we’ve already established) but will end up with a much lower BA (swinging at poor pitches and eventually contact rates rise, etc)

That said, high batting averages are always fun to watch.

Well, to give you a little more information on his defense, most tend to agree if the ball is hit to him or within a step of him he’ll gobble it up. He’s definitely got great hands. But he’ll be range challenged for sure. I wish he were behind the dish, but perhaps next year we can stash him behind there to build up his value more and trade away for SuperWonderful prospects if Posey is ready.

Nice post but here are some inaccuracies as I see them:

First, while Giants fans are understandably excited over their position wunderkind, there are not a lot of us thinking he’s an All-Star, at least not among those of us who follows prospects. He’s a definite improvement over the suck we had in 2008 (Castillo), brings a little excitement to the team (he had two stunning slides around the catchers tag in one week in 2008), is a nice personality, and brings some power to the lineup we didn’t have at 3B in 2008.

Second, here is a quote from BA regarding Sandoval’s omission from their Prospect Book in 2008, it was late in the 2008 season in their Ask BA series, and they admitted he should have been in it: “John Manuel: Back when I did the Giants, I ranked him 27th one year and 15th in the org another. He really should be the first baseman until Big V is ready. Dude can hit. No knock on Andy Baggarly because it was Baseball America’s list but we missed out not ranking him in the Giants top 30 last year; two years ago, when he wasn’t catching or hitting for power, I can see why he fell out of the 30. After last year, we should have ranked him. We just whiffed.”

Third, he really only tore up the leagues in 2008, he was good but not particularly noteworthy in 2007. That’s why the lack of love going into 2008 season (though I believed, drafting him in my keeper league).

And fourth, he has not proven himself capable at multiple positions, in fact, there are questions at all positions, particularly catcher, but also 3B and even 1B. 1B appears to be the position everyone concedes he would be OK at, though at best average. I’ve seen no one who thinks he can stick at C (among prospect books I’ve seen; many fans still cling to the dream that he can somehow start and catch, and be extremely valuable), some have thought that he could man 3B competently given enough experience, but others pooh-pooh that. Even 1B is not considered a sure thing, just a surer thing. But with Travis Ishsikawa and John Bowker competing for opportunity there and nobody at 3B, that is why Sandoval is being slotted there for now, at least in pencil. WalrusMan describes him the way I’ve seen his range, he can reach anything within a step of him and play it well, but otherwise limited in range. Unfortunately, Renteria is not as good to his right, so that could be a recipe for many hits making the hole in 2009.

Regarding his power, look on Minor League Baseball Splits for his 2007 and 2008 seasons’ Spray Chart. He clearly showed his power in 2007, only he was hitting them straight to CF and they were being caught. In 2008, he boosted power (more over 350 feet hit) plus started pulling them more, which boosted his HR rate greatly.

Regarding lineup position, I would say that’s a fluid situation. Just a week ago, he was slotted for batting 3rd in the lineup with Lewis 5th. I think Bochy is going to move people around as prospects do well, or not do so well, as the case may be. But 3, 4, 5, 6 is generally where he should be unless he totally flops.

I assume you meant Pablo, not Pedro, later.

I would also note that in the minors, his line drive percentage was only around 15, so the 25 you noted for the majors is not sustainable without a huge change in skillset. But that is rare to be able to move up to the majors and hit more line drives, though I suppose it could be argued that with more pitches in or near the plate, he can better make contact and hit more line drives than usual. This should be cleared up to a degree in 2009, once he gets significant ABs in the majors.

But very nice run-down of Kung Fu Panda, not too bad for an Omelette-town fan. A key fact that was not noted was that his strikeout rate has been pretty good during his minor league career, mostly below the 15% that is the mark of a good hitter, and he was able to continue that in the majors thus far. And despite the lack of walks, he’s been able to hit for a good average in spite of that.

He’s an exciting hitter who appeared to figure things out the past two seasons, after a big stumble in 2006, his first full-season league. But he was only 19 that season, so perhaps he was just homesick. In any case, as I noted, his power kicked in the 2007 season, with a number of 350+ feet batted balls ending up non-homers (mostly outs) straight to CF, before learning to pull them in 2008. And he’s only 22 for the 2009 season. As one reviewer I’ve seen said: “It’s a matter of when”.

The main cloud in the coffee is that he doesn’t have a true position on the field, other than DH in the AL. A sign that his defense, despite taking thousands of ground balls at 3B this winter from a Giants scout/instructor, is still not that good, is that the Giants felt that they had to at least give Crede an offer, which would push Sandoval to 1B. Still, the Giants do value defense, so I assume they wouldn’t play him at 3B if they thought he didn’t have a chance of fielding adequately.

But I think this works for 2009. We get to see both Sandoval and Ishikawa (and perhaps Bowker too if Ishikawa falters offensively) get a chance at the corners, then can reassess after the 2009 season, what next to do. Between the three of them, we should be able to get one passable 1B for the near future, and if all the practice helped enough, a 3B too. Plus, if Villalona is looking more like the 1B of the future, they could even entertain trading Sandoval to AL team to DH at some point before annoiting Villalona, assuming Sandoval hits as well as expected and has good value as a hitter.

Look at the projections for Ishikawa at 1B, very similar to numbers for Sandoval as a hitter, something in the high 700 OPS range, somewhere high teens in homers, and his defense is already MLB caliber. At least he has been successful hitting in the majors in limited play, unlike Marte.

I put the Marte rumors up there with every rumor the past two off-seasons for corner infielders – insubstantial – except for the offer of a contract for Crede. Most were drummed up thusly: hey corner infielder available, Giants need a corner infielder, let’s mention them or start a rumor about them.

I don’t see the Giants trading for Marte unless the Sandoval experiment at 3B is failing miserably and it’s the end of spring training. But I can’t see them giving up much of anything to Cleveland for him, given how poorly he has played.

even though I don’t read it much.

I’m in the minority, but I don’t see Pablo’s potential to be terrifyingly awesome (just pretty good), mainly because I don’t see him keep being Vlad-like at the plate, and though some people have noted that he was a little more selective than usual toward the end of last season (am I right about that Giants’ fans?), I don’t see him developing more patience until a little farther down the line.

OT, but if Francis hadn’t had gone down, I would’ve been worried about you guys “surprising” people again and taking the division. Now I’m just cautious.