A wicked googly

I don’t see a lot of west coast baseball, so a guy like Pablo Sandoval really wasn’t on my radar much before this offseason when, as is often the case, I first started hearing more about him from fantasy previews and things like that. The book on him, it seems, is that he’ll just swing at anything. They say that about a lot of guys, but I’m thinking it’s a little more true with Sandoval than others:

Pablo Sandoval played all nine innings at third base and had a full day. He hit a home run, then tapped a bunt down the third base line. In his final at-bat, he became a cricketer and singled on a pitch that actually bounced in the dirt. It was a check swing and rolled in between the pitcher and third baseman. Hitting coach Carney Lansford joked that Pablo would come out early tomorrow to teach everyone his cricket swing.

Definitely a guy to keep your eye on. I mean really, keep your eye on him, because he might just swing at you if you’re not careful.

Oh, and given that they’re going with Sandoval at third and Edgar Renteria at short, many are wondering just how ugly that left side of the Giants’ infield is going to be. The Merc’s Andrew Baggarly has some observations along those lines.


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Ben
15 years ago

Best.. post title.. ever!

Wooden U. Lykteneau
15 years ago

Lame. Comment. Cliche.

APBA Guy
15 years ago

A lot of us had our eyes on Sandoval after his late season call-up last year resulted in .345 BA and .847 OPS (not a lot of walks there). Consider that the Gigantes were next to last in MLB offense, and you can understand the giddyness.

Sabean has a penchant for the overblown contract: Zito, Rowand, now Renteria. That will hold the team down. More than a third of the payroll on those 3 guys.

There is a lot of talk about the Giants “contending” because of the weak division and the potentially strong rotation. We’ll see. There are a lot fewer “ifs” when you look at the D-Backs seriously.

But the real action will be before the games, during warm ups when the players run from foul line to foul line. The wagering will be heavy as the ultimate question will be asked: Sandoval or Molina?