Pablo Sandoval - our Giant

Let me first preface this by stating that I am in fact the biggest San Francisco Giants fan in the nation. No doubt. Chris Mad Dog Russo would be considered a fair-weathered fan by my standards.

The Giants have been able to produce pitchers out of their farm system, but almost no hitters, literally.

Let’s take a look at the Best Position Players Drafted or Developed since Matt Williams (1986 Draft):

C - Doug Mirabelli
1B - John Bowker
2B - Deivi Cruz
SS - Royce Clayton
3B - Bill Mueller
LF - Fred Lewis
CF - Chris Singleton
RF - Armando Rios

What amazes me is that the past 20 years of development futility haven't been orchestrated by the same group. The keys have been given to a couple of general managers, a bunch of player development types, and scores of minor league instructors and managers. Not one of them could come up with something better than Bill Mueller!

So when a rotund, fully developed hitting machine emerges from the River Styx to hit .340, we're going to notice. Here's a fun link: 22-year-olds (or younger) who put up an average over .300 in more than 200 plate appearances. It's premature to include Sandoval here right now, as he's still in the middle of his season. He could slump horribly. If Sandoval slumped his way down to a .300 average, he'd still join a list of pretty good players -- Dan Driessen, Kent Hrbek, and Gary Matthews. There are some non-stars, of course. Juan Uribe's there (Coors-aided) and the specter of Jeff Francoeur always seems to follow our hero around.

If Sandoval were to keep his average as high as it is for a full season, he'd be in the company of guys like Jimmie Foxx, Al Kaline, and Hank Aaron. And, uh, Ron Fairly. But it's hard to hit even .320 as a 22-year-old without following it up with a sustained, high-level peak.

But average is kinda sorta useless on its own. Pablo Sandoval's OPS+ right now is at 149 -- if he were to sustain it, he'd join some ridiculous company. It's far, far more likely that Sandoval ends closer to the league average than at a historical level, which would still be impressive.

Sandoval's the same age as a lot of the college draftees from last year -- Buster Posey, Justin Smoak, and Gordon Beckham -- but he's tearing up the majors right now. If that doesn't mean he's the result of a laboratory experiment to splice the genes of Tony Gwynn and Mel Ott, then I'm not sure if I believe in anything anymore.

Here's what impresses me more than the bucket of historical stats, though: Sandoval already seems like he's adjusted his approach. The first couple of weeks, Sandoval was swinging at everything. Even when he slumped to start the season, he hacked his way out. Then someone said something like, "Have you ever tried not swinging at pitches above your head?", and Sandoval thought, hey, that's a good idea. Since then, he's actually taking an occasional walk. If he walks twice today, he'll lead the freaking team in walks. That kind of makes me want to punch something, but it also makes me feel like Pablo has already improved in-season. Sandoval doesn't need to walk to be a great player -- he just needs to walk enough to make the opposing pitcher know it's a reasonably possible outcome for any at-bat.

Pablo. Pablo. Pablo. Pablo. Pablo. We've waited a long time for a homegrown hitter to excite us like this………. Mike Cruise

Michael Cruise claims to be the biggest SF Giants fan in the nation. He certainly seems to know his Giants. Thanks Mike for a great post!

P.S. – Mike seemed to suggest that he would keep us updated on the Giants “inside stuff”. We look forward to it.