Pablo Sandoval (1B/3B, SF) - Week 8 Waiver Wire Pickups

Brady Grove profiles San Francisco Giants long-time staple Pablo Sandoval as a potential waiver wire pickup or add target for fantasy baseball leagues in Week 8 of the 2019 MLB campaign.

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ANALYSIS: Pablo Sandoval has long been a fixture for San Francisco Giants squads that made triumphant postseason runs, and if his stint in Boston proved anything, it's that he doesn't appear to be comfortable batting outside the Bay. This season, the 32-year old two-time All-Star has gotten off to his best start in many years to the tune of five home runs and a slash of .284/.310/.593 in 81 AB. "The Kung Fu Panda" has had a quirky start to say the least, entering the history books as the only player to hit a homer, steal a base (his first successfully stolen base since 2012, I might add), and pitch a perfect inning.

His plate discipline hasn't contributed to his reminiscent start, quite the opposite actually with strikeout and walk rates of 23.8% and 3.6%. That has barely mattered though, because Sandoval has been making extremely high-quality contact on batted balls. While he has been pulling the ball infrequently (26.2%) and has a higher than ideal GB/FB ratio (1.47), he has been producing stellar hard and soft contact rates of 49.2% and 16.4%, netting a sky-high ISO of .309. He appears to be hitting hard and finding the gaps in notoriously pitcher-friendly Oracle Park, and with his reemergence coming on gradual improvements he made last year with San Francisco, "The Panda" is an interesting corner infield option with near-ubiquitous availability.