No. They were outbid.
While I'm skeptical Sandoval is a 4 fWAR guy like he used to be, weight obviously isn't the issue. He played well fat. He's played poorly fat. I'd rather he just play well instead of playing poorly. Whether he can actually do that again is the issue.
Thanks for the sweet S&C tips, coach.
He worked out 12 hours a day, six days a week in the offseason. So what if he carries a belly? So does Vince Wilfork and he can smash you brains out through your nose.
Wrong.
He shed 20 lbs.
God, it's like someone could write anything and you guys would believe it.
Anyway, I'm not championing a comeback year for Pablo, but the point is that his weight has almost nothing to do with it. First thing - high-volume swingers like Pablo always decline quicker. They are entirely dependent on making contact in order to be productive. He's not a guy like say... a David Justice who could be fine with a .240 AVG because he could walk and what he did hit he could kill. Pablo's mostly a slap hitter masquerading as a gap to gap guy based on a few gaudy years w. regards to his power. He's basically a Juan Pierre/Placido Polanco type guy with a belly.
If you look at his pitch f/x he saw 5% more first pitch strikes this year. For whatever reason - pitchers didn't care about not going after him. Probably because his bat speed has slowed. Looking at his production on 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs he went from right around a 6.0-7.0 wFB/1.5-.3.0 wFT guy to a -0.01 and -4.1, respectively in one season. That means he just wasn't catching up to fastballs. His Line drive% and Fly ball% both cratered and his Ground ball% went up.
So basically he looks like Kevin Youkilis did in his last year in Boston. Bat speed has slowed down, having trouble barreling up fastballs he used to feast on and whenever he does make contact, he's beating the ball into the ground. That's pretty much a solid indicator that he's in big trouble. What's not helping is his insistence on switch hitting, which is exacerbating things. His platoon splits are enormous and have been getting worse for some time now...Regardless, Pablo's weight isn't the issue. His skills as a player are.
As for Hanley I don't think he's going to have a hard time getting his bat back. His shoulder was a mess all last year and his plate coverage was dogsh!t. He's one of the best at getting ot balls on the outside part of the plate and he just couldn't barrell balls there. He was always coming off and wasn't able to stay through. I'm confident he gets that back pretty quick this year. Whether he STAYS healthy, we'll see; but I'm pretty confident that bat comes back. We'll see how 1B goes, but i'm far more optimistic abotu him there than LF.
