"Rich Aurilia saw Sandoval at a Phoenix-area shopping mall before Christmas and said the 24-year-old infielder reported he had lost 17 pounds while training at a private Arizona facility." Discussion starter question: Why does hugely fat Prince Fielder's performance seem uneffected by his layers of fatty fatness while Pablo Sandoval's added weight in 2010 caused him to become undone? My theory is that that the amount of muscle mass is the key. Fielder clearly is an avid weight lifter, probably nurtured from his father, while Pablo grew up in Venezuela and never really took weight lifting seriously until recently. How are huge NFL lineman able to be so athletic while at the same time technically obese? Because they're beasts in the weight room. Pablo's trainers are probably trying to find a balance between cutting the excess fat while adding more muscle mass. This will allow Pablo to continue to eat a lot because his new muscles will maintain and even boost his metabolism. Pablo will still need to maintain a better strike zone at the plate because he will probably still be too heavy to consistently reach the pitches off the plate he was reaching before. I recall by the end of last season him not even trying to do that anymore but his balance was very poor. In order for him to reproduce his stroke he will need better balance which is the whole point of losing weight and improving his athleticism.