Happy Anniversary Panda - what a great year you gave us!

Thanks for all the thrills and chills!

Today (Aug. 13th) completes Pablo Sandoval's first full year of major league service and tomorrow will mark his one year anniversary.  I know that I'm not breaking any news to the members of this site when I say that Pablito's been awesome over the last year.  He not only quickly became the best everyday hitter on the team, but he also almost single-handedly turned a moribund team that only seemed to be decent and watchable on days that Timmeh pitched, into an entertaining squad that shows flashes of greatness, and is in the thick of the playoff chase.  Who would have guessed that was possible on August 14th of last year when a short, unathletic-looking kid took the field in Houston and went hitless in 3 AB's?

His stats for his "rookie season" are very good - especially when you consider that he was only 22 years old for all but the last 3 days of it, he almost never got any protection from the other hitters in the lineup, and he was being moved around between 3 different positions in the field. 

    G      AB      H     R    2B  3B  HR   RBI  BB   K     AVG    OBP  SLG   OPS

  149   555   185   74   43   4    20     92   34   75   .333   .373   .533   .906

I'm most impressed that he's been able to increase his power numbers significantly the past 2.5 months without hurting his average, or increasing his K's (he has a K rate of only 12.7%).  Now if he can just get a bit more selective at the plate and cut down on his early-in-the-count swings at pitches that he has almost no chance of hitting for power, he can really take his game to an elite level.