Archive for Pablo Sandoval

Almost three weeks ago, Pablo Sandoval did something extraordinary at the plate. To be fair, Sandoval often does interesting and unique things — mostly involving swinging at and hitting impossible pitches — so this might not come as a surprise. However, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill sort of Sandoval madness. I’ll allow a short looping film to begin to tell the story:

A few things happened here: he swung at the first pitch, it was high and inside, and he got jammed but still managed to hit a line drive. These are all things Sandoval routinely does, so you can’t be blamed if you think one of them is what we’re highlighting. The true answer? Sandoval faced a left-handed pitcher as a left-handed batter.

If that doesn’t seem like a big deal, consider this: Kung Fu Panda hadn’t batted from the left side against a left-handed pitcher before this at bat since 2011. For what it’s worth, both Sandoval and his manager John Farrell claimed he only batted as a lefty in this pinch-hit appearance because of a knee injury sustained by a hit by pitch a few days before. Still, the fact remains: Sandoval’s struggles as a switch hitter from the right side are well documented, and they’ve gotten remarkably worse this season. It says at least say something that he batted from the left side here, given his struggles.

So just how bad has it gotten when he’s in the right batter’s box? Sandoval has a .160 OPS mark as a right-handed hitter facing a left-handed pitcher this year. He owns a 2.1% walk rate and a 27.1% strikeout rate from that side. In other terms, he’s hit three singles in 46 at-bats with one walk. That’s about the equivalent offensive output of Kyle Kendrick in 2014, except that Kendrick is a pitcher, and he doesn’t bat near the middle of the order for the Red Sox.

Read the rest of this entry »

This column is the final part of a six-part part series looking at the sophomore players around the Major Leagues. We finish up with a look at the National League West, which introduced some very talented pitchers to the league in 2008, especially in Los Angeles. The Arizona Diamondbacks went with quality over quantity with just one rookie making a significant contribution last season.

In the past few days, we have looked at the: AL Central, AL West, AL East, the NL Central and the NL East.

Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and left-handed pitcher Greg Smith both spent their rookie seasons in Oakland, but the (now) sophomores came over to Colorado in the off-season trade for veteran outfielder Matt Holliday. Gonzalez has spent a good portion of the season in triple-A in 2009, although he is currently on the Rockies MLB roster. In the minors, the outfielder hit .339/.418/.630 with 10 homers in 192 at-bats. Called up to the Rockies, he is hitting .180/.226/.280 in 14 games. He’s been striking out a lot (more than 30%, while walking less than 6% of the time). Last season in 302 at-bats with Oakland, Gonzalez hit .242/.273/.361 with four homers and a strikeout rate of 20.2%.

Smith has yet to pitch with the Rockies this season while rehabbing from shoulder woes. He made 32 starts for Oakland as a rookie in 2008 but it remains to be seen how effective he can be in Colorado with a modest fastball and fly-ball tendencies.

Ian Stewart is a former first round selection (10th overall in ’03) of the Rockies, but he has yet to truly display the same potential that he hinted at as a prep player. Stewart, 24, has struggled two hit for average this season with a line of .223/.306/.489 with 13 homers in 184 at-bats. Last season he hit .259/.349/.455 with 10 homers in 266 at-bats. His strikeout rate has actually dropped from 35.3 to 28.3 K% from 2008. The biggest differences have been his BABIP, which has gone from .364 to .235, and his line-drive rate, which has gone from 25.0 to 12.8%.

Starters Franklin Morales and Greg Reynolds have made brief appearances on the Rockies’ pitching staff over the past few years. Morales appeared in eight games in 2007, five in 2008, and two in 2009 – with varying levels of success. Reynolds, 23, made 13 starts for Colorado in 2008 but posted an 8.13 ERA and allowed 83 hits in 62 innings. This season he’s been unable to stay healthy and has made just one appearance in triple-A.

Blake DeWitt was a surprise contributor to the Dodgers club in 2008, but he has not had the same impact in 2009. Last year, the infielder hit .264/.344/.383 with nine homers in 368 at-bats. This year, DeWitt has spent the majority of the year in triple-A where he’s produced modest results. In 19 big league at-bats, though, he has a triple-slash line of .158/.238/.158 with zero extra base hits.

Although not a typical rookie, right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, now 34, posted a 3.73 ERA with 181 hits in 183.1 innings of work for the Dodgers in 2008. This season has been a different story as the Japanese hurler missed most of April and all of May due to injury. When healthy, though, he has a 3.44 ERA with 28 hits allowed in 36.2 innings.

Southpaw Clayton Kershaw was one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball entering the 2008 season, but he struggled with consistency while making 22 appearances, including 21 starts. In 109 innings, he allowed 107 hits and an ERA of 4.26 (4.08 FIP). He posted a walk rate of 4.35 and a strikeout rate of 8.36 K/9. In 2009, the 21-year-old hurler has an ERA of 3.76 (3.79 FIP) with 57 hits allowed in 76.1 innings. His strikeout rate has been similar to 2008, but the walk rate has risen by more than one free pass per nine innings.

Cory Wade, now 26, came out of nowhere last season to post a 2.27 ERA (3.78 FIP) in 71.1 innings as a reliever. The right-hander allowed just 51 hits, while posting rates of 1.89 BB/9 and 6.43 K/9. Wade has not been as sharp in 2009 with 23 hits allowed in 25 innings and an ERA of 4.68 (3.62). His walk rate has risen to 3.60 BB/9 and his strikeout rate has dropped to 5.76.

Chase Headley’s 2008 MLB debut was highly anticipated and the club found room for him at the Major League level by moving him from the hot corner to left field (to accommodate incumbent third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff). Headley, 25, had an OK season and hit .269/.337/.420 with nine homers in 331 at-bats. His walk rate was OK, but not great, at 8.3 BB%, while his strikeout rate was worrisome at 31.4 K%. This season, the rates have been similar, although the strikeout rate is down four percent. Headley has a line of .233/.309/.365 with six homers, while spending time back at third base for the injured Kouzmanoff.

It definitely helps if you have a younger brother that is your employer’s best position player. Edgar Gonzalez finally received his MLB break in 2008 when he made his way to the San Diego organization so he could play with his brother Adrian. A 30-year-old rookie, Edgar hit .274/.329/.385 with seven homers in 325 at-bats as a second baseman and back-up infielder. This season, he has not hit well with a line of .189/.250/.368 and three homers in 95 at-bats.

Catcher Nick Hundley has pretty much been as advertised in his brief Major League career. In 2008, he hit for a low average while producing a line of .237/.278/.359 with five homers in 198 at-bats. His home ballpark mutes his power potential. In 2009, Hundley is showing a little more patience at the plate while hitting .236/.340/.379 with three homers in 140 at-bats. He has a pretty good arm behind the plate but the rest of his defense is average.

Josh Banks was a minor-league acquisition from the Jays organization. The right-hander has a modest fastball and struggles with his command. Last year, he allowed 94 hits in 85.1 innings of work and posted an ERA of 4.75 (5.18 FIP). He had a walk rate of 3.38 BB/9 and a strikeout rate of just 4.54. In triple-A in 2009, Banks had a 2.47 ERA while making 14 appearances, including eight starts. Called up to the Majors, he has made one appearance out of the bullpen and allowed just two hits and no runs in three innings of work.

Pablo Sandoval has done nothing but hit since coming to the Majors in 2008. Last year, he produced a line of .345/.357/.490 with three homers in 145 at-bats. The 22-year-old former catcher has continued to hit for average in 2009 with a line of .336/.385/.544 with eight homers and 22 doubles in 241 at-bats. His walk rate has also improved by four percent, although the strikeout rate has also risen by six percent. Sandoval will also have to watch his conditioning, especially if he hopes to remain at the hot corner, or move back behind the dish.

John Bowker was the Giants’ first baseman almost by default in 2008 and he hit .255/.300/.408 with 10 homers in 326 at-bats. The 25-year-old hitter also posted rates of 7.0 BB% and 22.7 K%. Unhappy with his production, the club has kept Bowker in triple-A all season despite a line of .346/.445/.595 and 13 homers in 237 at-bats.

The club utilized a number of rookie players in the infield in 2008, including Eugenio Velez (who appeared in 98 games and also played the outfield), and Emmanuel Burriss (94 games). Only Burriss has seen significant playing time at the MLB level in 2009 with a line of .238/.292/.267 in 202 at-bats. Velez was seeing time as a utility player and had a line of .194/.216/.222, which earned him a ticket to triple-A.

The Diamondbacks organization knew it had a pretty good pitching prospect in Max Scherzer, but the right-hander has surpassed expectations – both in 2008 and 2009. Last year, he allowed 48 hits in 56 innings and posted rates of 3.38 BB/9 and 10.61 K/9. This year, Scherzer has allowed 77 hits in 79.0 innings, while posting rates of 3.65 BB/9 and 9.23 K/9.

When Pablo Sandoval made his major league debut last season, three days after turning 22 years old, Giants fans held their collective breaths, holding out hope that Sandoval’s gaudy minor league numbers would translate into solid success at the big league level. Everyone knew the guy could rake but did not necessarily have confidence that the skillset could surpass the Quad-A plateau. Prior to the callup, Sandoval had posted a composite wOBA right around .415 in 112 games between Single- and Double-A. The team was not that high on developing Pablo as a catcher, especially with Buster Posey in the system, but his numbers suggested that his bat could play at one of the infield corners.

In 41 major league games last season, Sandoval hit .345/.357/.490, with a .361 wOBA. A regression seemed inevitable for his .367 BABIP, especially given his nutty plate discipline marks; in a 25.4% league, Sandoval swung at 53.4% of his pitches out of the zone. He swung at 77% of his pitches in the zone, again above the league average of 65%, but also made an inordinate amount of contact. Pablo didn’t walk all that much but he did not fall prey to the strikeout that frequently either. One of the most curious aspects of his season involved defense. At 5’11”, 246 lbs, Sandoval looks like he could never succeed with the glove, but a +2.1 UZR at 1B and +1.8 UZR at 3B helped raise Pablo’s overall production level to +1.3 wins.

Sandoval has played 52 more games this season, and it seems that last year’s offensive output was no fluke. In 208 plate appearances, Sandoval has a .318 BA, but an almost identical .356/.497 OBP/SLG and .363 wOBA. His BABIP has dropped subtly to .350, which helps explains the lower batting average (less singles) but also signals that he could be one of those hitters with consistently high marks in this area. Again, I’m not basing any definitive conclusions here with just 93 games of data, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, given what we have seen, if this hypothesis ends up correct.

The defense has trailed off a bit, but at worst portends league average ability at the corners. If we assume that Sandoval will average around 145 games/season, then he has played the equivalent of 65% of a full season, amassing +2.4 wins in the process.

ZiPS projects a .340 wOBA from here on out, putting his bottom line right around .301/.334/.479, with a .351 wOBA, similar in the OBP/SLG departments to Torii Hunter, JJ Hardy and Mike Cameron from a year ago. He will never win a gold glove (although he might if his offensive production remains this high) or be lauded for defensive ability, but league average glovework at a corner coupled with a well above average bat for a 22-yr old with 2.4 wins to his name in under a full season is pretty remarkable.