I am seeing calls for to be sent down to Fresno, that he needs to be benched, that something must be done.
Looking at the stats it is not pretty: Pablo's battling and for guy that is the biggest drag on the offense with a wOBA of just .303 and an OPS of .701.
Another big change is that his value as measured by WAR is basically zero. Fangraph's has him at 0.9 and Baseball-Reference has him at -0.1 for the season, a far cry from his 5+ WAR from last season.
What explains this slump? There is no shortage of explanations, it is the divorce he is going through, his eye sight issues haven't been fixed, his weight i
s a problem, he is just going through a string of bad luck.I wish I knew the answer here but unfortunately it is unknowable wait that's not what bloggers do let me re-phrase that. I know the answer; he has pissed off the baseball gods. He needs to go all Pedro Cerrano and make some voodoo chicken sacrifices and wrap his bats in golf club head covers to placate them. He needs to don the stirrups and do whatever Babe Ruth did because you know he had a similar body type.
In all seriousness I have no idea what is the matter. Looking at his batted ball data it looks very similar to last season.
|
Season |
Team |
GB/FB
|
LD%
|
GB%
|
FB%
|
IFFB%
|
|
2008 |
Giants |
1.56
|
25.9 %
|
45.2 %
|
28.9 %
|
12.8 %
|
|
2009 |
Giants |
1.23
|
18.6 %
|
44.9 %
|
36.5 %
|
7.9 %
|
|
2010 |
Giants |
1.26
|
16.7 %
|
46.4 %
|
36.9 %
|
10.5 %
|
When you look at every thing it all looks about the same, slightly less line drives, a few more groundballs and fly balls, the only one that is higher is infield fly balls but still nothing that is horribly different.
|
Season |
Split
|
BB%
|
K%
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS
|
ISO
|
BABIP
|
wRC
|
wRAA
|
wOBA
|
wRC+
|
|
2010 |
Mar/Apr |
10.3 %
|
9.2 %
|
.433
|
.575
|
1.008
|
.207
|
.382
|
20.2
|
8.9
|
.437
|
176
|
|
2010 |
May |
5.0 %
|
17.1 %
|
.275
|
.342
|
.617
|
.108
|
.269
|
7.4
|
-6.5
|
.256
|
55
|
|
2010 |
Jun |
9.5 %
|
11.7 %
|
.305
|
.340
|
.645
|
.106
|
.244
|
8.7
|
-3.5
|
.283
|
72
|
|
2010 |
Jul |
9.4 %
|
20.0 %
|
.302
|
.295
|
.597
|
.063
|
.286
|
7.3
|
-5.0
|
.265
|
60
|
|
2010 |
Aug |
3.2 %
|
10.0 %
|
.290
|
.333
|
.624
|
.067
|
.296
|
2.1
|
-1.5
|
.263
|
60
|
Looking at the splits by month it only gets more depressing. Since his awesome March and April he has been a bad hitter. Maybe the batted ball data by month will help out:
|
Season |
Split |
GB/FB
|
LD%
|
GB%
|
FB%
|
IFFB%
|
HR/FB
|
IFH%
|
|
2010 |
Mar/Apr |
1.44
|
16.5 %
|
49.4 %
|
34.2 %
|
7.4 %
|
11.1 %
|
10.3 %
|
|
2010 |
May |
0.98
|
16.0 %
|
41.5 %
|
42.6 %
|
10.0 %
|
2.5 %
|
2.6 %
|
|
2010 |
Jun |
1.48
|
13.3 %
|
51.8 %
|
34.9 %
|
10.3 %
|
6.9 %
|
9.3 %
|
|
2010 |
Jul |
1.10
|
20.8 %
|
41.6 %
|
37.7 %
|
10.3 %
|
0.0 %
|
3.1 %
|
|
2010 |
Aug |
1.75
|
18.5 %
|
51.9 %
|
29.6 %
|
0.0 %
|
0.0 %
|
21.4 %
|
Again nothing jumps out at me that is different between April where he excelled and the other months where he has slumped.
I have no conclusion here, I am stumped, you have defeated me whoops sorry not sure how that thought got in there, of course I know the answer. Voodoo or these steps from the all knowing wikihow (that's where I learn everything) I will just forward this to Bruce Bochy to share with and as well.
Step 1) Relax. Don't get mad and stress out as you'll won'tThere you go, the internet has spoken.
improve and even -gasp- form bad habits. Just take a few breathes, count to ten,
and focus on the fundamentals.
Step 2) Take a Break. Continuing to do bad? Then it's time
to take a break, you'll be amazed how much this helps. Work on something else
for a while or take a walk to blow off some steam.
Step 3) Think. Try to think, try to correct what your doing
wrong. Go through the process step by step to see if you forgetting something or
doing something wrong.
Step 4) Change. Sometimes your body changes, and you just a
little taller or hit a little faster which throws off your game. Ask a coach for
help, and change up your swing. :)
Warnings:
- Don't hurt yourself or overstrain yourself when following these steps.
- it is HIGHLY recommended to ONLY do Step 4 with the supervision of a coach.
This is a little late. here is what I wrote about this on The Hardball Times:
ReplyAlmost anybody closely following the Giants know that Pablo is going through a divorce, which was finalized when he flew down to Venezuela for “personal” reasons the weekend after the ASG.
He’s clearly been on an emotional rollercoaster. If you break it up even finer than a month, you can sort of see him ebbing up and down, lower and lower, then perking up:
May 01-May 13: .104/.120/.167/.287
May 14-May 31: .333/.386/.476/.862
Jun 01-Jun 16: .246/.333/.404/.737
Jun 17-Jul 11: .200/.253/.213/.465
ASB
Jul 15-Jul 24: .270/.357/.405/.763
Venezuela for personal business
Jul 28-Aug 10: .300/.327/.360/.687, and he was one game away from a 13 game hitting streak.
And breaking up that last stretch further:
Jul 28-Aug 04: .259/.286/.333/.619
Aug 05-Aug 10: .348/.375/.391/.766
Of course, very small sampling, but I think it shows that there are stretches where he is relatively OK as a MLB hitter and other times when he was pretty crappy. Amazing the Giants won with him hitting like that and even better for their playoff chances if he can get over his emotional problems and focus on the ball like he did before.
This past week is the best he has hit in any week plus stretch since the end of May, so hopefully he is finally getting over his problems, but with emotions you really don’t know when something triggers a downward spiral. Just like with baseball in general, we will have to wait and see.
But one step at a time, and he appears to have taken a step this week.
And I basically agree with Steve’s assessment above. That is the reason I have held onto hope that he will snap out of it at some point. No way a hitter can totally handle pitching until April 30 of this season and then be totally crap without some personal reason, whether injury or, in his case, the divorce.
I first speculated that he caught Jonathan Sanchez’s cold that affected one of his starts then, as a flu would explain why his batting line fell to almost nothing for two weeks, but if he was that sick, why wouldn’t the Giants just sit him? The divorce explained that.
Also:
ReplyI think divorce and the consequences is the best explanation specifically for Sandoval, though off-field distraction is also part of this because the rumor is that the divorce was precipitated by a young man yielding to the temptations readily available to young rising baseball stars.
Last three games:
3 for 5
2 for 5 with double
2 for 3 so far with triple and HR
And it has been reported (tweeted really by Hank Schulman) that both the double and triple (415 feet) would have been homers in most parks: /21005605846
He appears to be recovered and ready to make pitchers look silly again.