What is a matter with Pablo Sandoval?

The lovable Kung Fu Panda isn't hitting and the natives are getting restless.

I am seeing calls for Pablo Sandoval 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 Aaron Rowand and Freddy Sanchez 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 is 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, Pablo Sandoval 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 Aaron Rowand and Freddy Sanchez as well.

Step 1) Relax. Don't get mad and stress out as you'll won't
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.

There you go, the internet has spoken.

Pablo Sandoval’s Sophomore Slump

Pandamonium has been a rare occurrence at AT&T Park this season and the locals are asking themselves what happened.

Pablo Sandoval who exploded on the scene last season and quickly became a fan favorite has struggled this season. Is this just a sophomore slump or was his 2009 season just a flash in the pan and he is flaming out?

2009: .330/ .387/ .556 with 25 home runs

2010: .274/ .333/ .413 with 6 home runs

The numbers between this season and last season are vastly different. He has lost 50 points on his average and on base percentage and seen his power fade dramatically with his slugging percentage sinking 140 points.

One thing that has changed from this season to last is his batting average on balls in play. Last season he posted a number of .350 and this season he has fallen back toward league average (well actually slightly below) with a number of .296. So maybe he is just going through some bad luck or last season was abnormally lucky.

The rotund and jovial Sandoval doesn't seem to have changed much; he is still the aggressive free swinger from last season. The table below shows his swings and the percentage of strikes that he has seen.

Season		O-Swing%		Z-Swing%		Swing%	O-Cont%		Z-Cont%	Cont%	Zone%	F-Strike%	SwStr%
2009		41.7%		83.0%		58.4%	75.5%		87.8%	82.6%	40.5%	60.5%	9.8%
2010		42.4%		77.6%		56.2%	77.0%		87.5%	82.7%	39.0%	64.5%	9.1%

He is swinging at a few more pitches outside of the strike zone this season then last (O-Swing%) but not a huge difference only 0.5%. He is swinging at fewer pitches in the strike zone this season then last (Z-Swing %).

The contact rate is pretty constant from last season with the only difference being that it is slightly higher for pitches outside of the strike zone. The high contact on pitches outside the zone may not be a great thing especially when combined with the high swing rate because generally pitches outside of the zone are more difficult to hit with power. However the difference does not appear to be that large as to be a red flag.

In addition the number of pitches that he has seen in the strike zone is roughly equal to last season and down significantly from his first stint in the big leagues where pitchers threw strikes 46% of the time to him. This is what you expect, as pitchers learnt that he will swing outside of the zone they began to throw less pitches in the strike zone.

Next we will examine his batted ball statistics.

Season	GB/FB	LD%	GB%	FB%	IFFB%	HR/FB	IFH%	BUH%
2009	1.23	18.6 %	44.9 %	36.5 %	7.9 %	14.0 %	7.3 %	50.0 %
2010	1.28	15.1 %	47.6 %	37.3 %	7.4 %	6.4 %	7.5 %	0.0 %

The two biggest things that jump out from this data are that he his hitting home runs at a much lower rate this season than last season. It is hard to say if last season was a fluke but it is possible that his numbers are adjusting down to what is a more sustainable rate for homeruns. I think that in the 8-10% range is probably a better estimate of what should be expected.

The other thing that jumps out is that he is not hitting as many line drives this season as he was last year or for that matter his stint in 2008 where he hit an astronomical 25.9% of his balls for line drives.

The Panda has also had a large platoon split this season. This season as a right handed batter he has been a well below average hitter after last season mashing the ball from the right side.

2009:

Split	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHP as LHB	139	474	427	134	30	5	19	65	40	68	.314	.373	.541	.914
vs LHP as RHB	71	159	145	55	14	0	6	25	12	15	.379	.428	.600	1.028

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/30/2010.

2010:

Split	G	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
vs RHP as LHB	72	235	212	63	14	1	6	24	20	25	.297	.357	.458	.815
vs LHP as RHB	37	83	76	16	4	1	0	6	6	13	.211	.265	.289	.555

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/30/2010.

This comes as a surprise and I really am lost to come to an explanation. His numbers are down from the left side but he is still above average and this is within the bounds of normal fluxuation around a player's true talent level.

What is happening from the right side is pure collapse. His batting average is down 168 points, his on base percentage is down 163 points and his slugging percentage is down 311 points! This all should be taken with a grain of salt because we are still in small sample territory with only 83 plate appearances so maybe this is just a run of extremely bad luck and things will bounce back.

All of this taken as a whole suggests that perhaps this is just a down season coming after a career year. There are things that suggest that Sandoval is just going through some bad luck that he was able to avoid last season. His batted balls are finding gloves especially from the right hand side. However there is the worry in the back of the mind that the league has figured out how to attack the beloved Kung Fu Panda and that the numbers from last season will only be a memory if Pablo can not adjust.

I will keep my fingers crossed that Pablo can bounce back.

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