That's Pablo Sandoval (aka Kung Fu Panda) in September of 2009. Dude finished 7th in the MVP voting and pretty much came out of nowhere. I don't have the 2009 Ugueth League draft results in front of me, but I'd bet he either went for $1 or was undrafted.
Here's Sandoval 7 months later in May of 2010. Reports are that as the season progressed, he actually got too big and immobile to even field ground balls at third base. Literally, too fat to play baseball. John Kruk, take note.
And here's Sandoval earlier this spring. Andrew Baggarly from the San Jose Mercury News reports that Sandoval has lost 38 pounds total since the end of last season and that he's actually gained muscle mass.
What does it mean? In 2009, Sandoval hit .330 with 25 homers and 90 RBI, scored 79 runs and posted a .943 OPS. Big man even stole 5 bases. However, the larger 2010 version of Sandoval declined precipitously, hitting .268 (-62 points) with 13 knocks, 63 RBIs and 3 lucky steals. The biggest disappointment for the owner who paid $39 for the powerful third sacker was the .732 OPS, a drop off of over 200 points.
Third base looks good at the top of the talent pool, but there's a steep drop-off after the Jose Bautista/Adrian Beltre tier. I mean Neil Walker is going to start for someone in this league and he put up better numbers than Sandoval in 2010. However, if the slimmed down Panda Express is able to regain some of his 2009 form, I'd imagine he could easily join that tier and be worth a $27-$29 bid on draft day.
2011 Projection: .290 BA, 25 HR, 85 RBI, 75 R, 3 SB, .875 OPS
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