You Want to Know What I Think?

Pablo "the Panda" Sandoval is going through his sophmore jinx phase. Where the pitchers have found something that is working and everyone's exploiting these weaknesses.

That teamed with Pablo's trying too hard and you have a struggling Panda. Nothing Marlin Perkins ever saw, ya think? On the other hand, his partner, (Jim), may have (since he was doing all of the dirty work while Marlin was sipping a lemonade.).

Pablo just needs to go back to basics. Baseball is fun. Don't make it any harder than it needs to be because it will humble you and make you look like you never played before if you forget what got you to the big leagues in the first place.

Squeezing the bat tighter, throwing the ball harder, closing the glove with more authority...all of these are things that could lead to awkward activity between the lines of play.

Squeezing the bat tighter won't make the ball go farther, quite the opposite. Because you are putting so much attention on your grip you are liable to forget the main thing about hitting and that is making solid contact. When you're gripping you aint hitting, you're missing (the sweet spot). Throwing the ball harder makes your throws less likely to be accurate. What good is it to catch a ground ball only to throw the ball away from a teammate who could tag the base for a force or tag the runner for an out? And closing the glove with more authority could cause you to close your glove too soon. Now that's embarrassing.

Relax. Exhale. Inhale. And play ball.

Kevin Marquez