Catching up, post All-Star break. We’re over the All-Star snub, but wanted to make sure you all saw this.:

From Hank:

SANDOVAL SNUBBED: Manager Bruce Bochy spoke with NL All-Star manager Charlie Manuel, who explained why he selected Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth over Pablo Sandoval as Carlos Beltran‘s injury replacement.

“He felt he needed another outfielder at this point,” Bochy said.
“There are still a number of (injury) question marks. That wouldn’t
rule out Pablo completely. He was honest. He said, ‘My guy’s playing
well and we need an outfielder.’ “

Sandoval said he does not plan to watch the All-Star Game. His
parents, wife and daughter are in town San Francisco, and he said, “I’m
going to hang out and have fun with my family.”

I’m not much of a ‘ball by the numbers’ guy, but this is nice work by Nathaniel Stoltz
(Analyst)

… Sandoval only sees 38.4 percent of pitches in the strike zone. That
means that every eight pitches, he sees three that would be called
strikes and five that would be called balls if he didn’t swing … why on earth is he seeing 5.3 percent fewer strikes than anyone else in baseball? 

give it a look, here.

Can Pablo make the team? After the first 24 hours of voting, the Kung Fu Panda is ahead of Victorino et al.

His mates are doing what they can. “We’re definitely launching an all-out campaign,” Staci Slaughter, the
Giants’ senior vice president of communications, said Monday.

Some press stepped up, too, for the  “chunky Venezuelan kid who looks like an animated bear, runs like an old jalopy and hits like gangbusters”

Have you voted yet?

Great new stuff from Baggs, including

• Choosing what team to sign with back in 2003, Giants disappointing Edgardo Alfonzo recommended SF as an organization (Thank you)
• Pablo’s older brother, Michael, was buried in the Twins minors, and now plays on the independent Newark Bears with Carl Everett and Armando Benitez
• Even if the fans and players don’t vote the Panda onto the NL All-Star team, he may well be one of the “last man” options. Stay tuned.

From Hank: Pablito uses Louisville Slugger maple bats, recently he broke a couple and

the barrel helicoptered into the seats
behind home plate. The first one hit a woman in the head and she was
escorted from her seat for treatment. The second flew over the first
few rows of seats and hit a wall.

“I never saw it,” Sandoval said of the first incident. “I feel bad because that’s never happened to me in a game.”

Baseball is taking some steps. Each maple bat must have a light
handle so a little black dot can be applied. If the ink spreads
vertically, the bat is deemed strong and it can be used. If it spreads
horizontally, the grain is considered weak and the bat is discarded.

After each game, an authenticator working for Major League Baseball
collects every piece of any bat that breaks in half and sends it to the
league for analysis.

If the research ultimately leads to a maple-bat ban, Sandoval will
not be too happy. Asked if he planned to discard the rest of the bats
from the box that included the two that broke, he said, “I’m going to
keep using my bats. I feel great with these bats and I don’t want to
change them.”

On the field over the last month, Kung Fu Panda had 9 homers and 23 RBI, with a .437 OBP.