I've been tweeting that he's coming back - latest - but his homer this game appears to be his "Welcome Back" party. He blasted a 415 foot triple first in this game that would have been a homer in any park, so would have been his double yesterday (so tweets Hank Schulman) but his actual homer was crushed as well.
Power has been missing from his resurgence - I covered this in the comments of this The Hardball Times post - but has come back with a vengeance in the last two games, he could have had 3 homers if the Giants were playing on the road instead of home and a double, triple, homer.
Of course, impossible to say for certain that he's back based on one week's worth of games, but 1) he’s been hitting much better for about a week now, 2) he hasn’t hit like this since April, and 3) the divorce explains all the various ups and downs pretty accurately, more so than any other explanation, really. (read my comments at THT for my full explanation).
I agree. Pablo is on a 6 game hitting streak and his hits are booming off his bat. I know a lot was made of his high BABIP but that was a result of him hitting the ball HARD which he hasn't been doing all season. The only concern I have with him now are his home/road splits of .322/.215
ReplyDeleteHe is back to his former PABLO numbers, he is hitting in the mid 300's for August. Hurray! Keep it up big guy, and put a damper on all these bigots that say Pablo cannot hit because he is too fat. We all know that is a bunch of BS, and the personal bias of a bunch of anorexics.
ReplyDeleteFat guys can hit.
ReplyDeleteFat guys can't run and have poor defensive range. The fat guy playing 3B for the Giants today let a ball get by him costing his team a run.
Fat guys who can contribute with the bat need to be parked at first base.
I agree that Pablo right now probably needs to start at 1B, but we don't really have great alternatives if we do.
ReplyDeleteBasically, though Freddy Sanchez plays great D at 3B, probably Fontenot would be the starter at 3B. Neither, however, would replace the offense and defense lost by losing Ishikawa starting at 1B, or taking option of starting Huff there and Burrell/Rowand/Torres defense.
I guess it will depend on how much Pablo's poor fielding cost us at 3B. That's one example, but he couldn't have gotten suddenly that slow, he's probably been like that much of the season, but I don't really recall other instances of Pablo costing us a run like that, but I don't listen to every ball in play. And if his bat is live, he will win us many more games than his fielding cost us, if his poor range only cost us a run once in a while.
I wouldn't worry about his poor road numbers, if he is back to normal, he should be hitting like last season, anywhere.
I would note here that some might call me anorexic (though pinching 4-6 inches of spare tire says otherwise, I just look slim, I guess, because I'm tall, particularly for a person of Chinese heritage).
In any case, I'd rather have a hitter like Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, or Pablo Sandoval anyday over, say, Johnny LeMaster.
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