San Francisco Giants: Say it ain’t so and don’t let The Panda go

The San Francisco Giants’ Pablo Sandoval has played in thirty-nine post-season games, from 2010 through 2014, coming to the plate 167 times, and officially recording 154 at-bats. He has scored 21 runs, gotten 53 hits, with thirteen doubles and six home runs, three of his blasts coming in Game One of the 2012 World Series. He has twenty RBI’s, he has drawn ten walks, struck out 22 times, and batted .344 with a .389 on-base-percentage.

There can hardly be any candidate at the third base position, who stacks up as well as The Panda. He is a finalist for a Gold Glove Award for the 2014 season, and he is an outgoing, charismatic centerpiece of the Giants’ past three World Series Championships, and the Giants are about to set him free.

Sandoval’s contract extends only through the 2014 season, so either Brian Sabean signs him to at least a five-year contract, or he strolls right out the door, and the Giants lose all of that dynamism.

Allow the Panda to escape? Is nothing sacred?

The Giants would lose a guy who got on base all four times he came to the plate, leading off the second, fourth and sixth innings of Game Seven of the 2014 World Series, by starting a rally, and then doubling in the eighth, representing a huge insurance run. He scored two of the three Giants’ runs.

Pablo batted .429 in the just-completed Series, with three doubles and 4 RBI’s. He had an on-base-percentage of .529. These stats are so overwhelming, it’s hard to conceive there is a player who could accumulate these kinds of numbers.

And you say he is about to be cut loose? To sign with one of the teams with deep pockets, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers? So that Giants fans can see him oppose the Orange and Black, nineteen games per season?

Is there any sanity in the universe? Why would Hall-of-Fame candidate, Brian Sabean, possibly make such an egregious error? Could it be concern about the Panda’s weight?

Sep 6, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval (48) in the dugout before the game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

You tell me. Sandoval is 28 years old, has proven himself to be clutch on the biggest stage there is in baseball, being named San Francisco’s Most Valuable Player in the 2012 World Series, and fills the hole at the hot corner, better than any third baseman, since Matt Williams won the Gold Glove Award, back in 1994. And the Giants are about to let him go.

Is nothing sacred? Sign the Panda, now, and give him what he wants. Any other course of action defies common sense, and that is not Sabean’s style. Building championship teams is his strength, and Sandoval fills a vital need.

Besides, who are the Giants going to get to replace the Panda, who will not come at just as high of a price?

Get with the program, Brian Sabean, please, before we all live to regret it.

Another former San Francisco Giants World Series hero, playing third base in Dodger Blue. Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

Say it ain’t so, Sabes.