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Originally posted by StOnEy333:Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:Originally posted by StOnEy333:
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I already have in ways you can't imagine.
That doesn't count. Anyone can say that...! I'll let you know what you can do for me when the time is right.
Forget it. I rescind my taking of your vote and now claim one of VRabbit's.
Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:Originally posted by StOnEy333:Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:
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That doesn't count. Anyone can say that...! I'll let you know what you can do for me when the time is right.
Forget it. I rescind my taking of your vote and now claim one of VRabbit's.
Can't win against you...
Originally posted by StOnEy333:Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:Originally posted by StOnEy333:
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Forget it. I rescind my taking of your vote and now claim one of VRabbit's.
Can't win against you...
Me = Lakers = win
You = rest of NBA = lose
Originally posted by King49er:Originally posted by IdentityCrisis:Originally posted by King49er:
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I've been a voting machine as well
For Pablo?
And Adam Lind
Originally posted by StOnEy333:Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:Originally posted by StOnEy333:
+ Show all quotes
I already have in ways you can't imagine.
That doesn't count. Anyone can say that...! I'll let you know what you can do for me when the time is right.
Forget it. I rescind my taking of your vote and now claim one of VRabbit's.
Originally posted by notsoempty86:
is mlb posting the current vote count? how do we know if he is winning?
Quote:
As player after player took the field for the Giants' batting practice with a "Vote Pablo" sticker affixed somewhere to his body, manager Bruce Bochy tried to explain his third baseman to an out-of-town reporter.
No, he's not intense, said Bochy, who wore the ubiquitous sticker under the bill of his cap. "Scraps every little bit out of his talent?" the writer suggested.
"No, he's got a ton of talent," Bochy said.
Ordinarily, a manager might be reluctant to rule out intensity and scrappiness in a young player, for fear someone might think he was saying that the kid was nonchalant. But Pablo Sandoval, the Giants' remaining All-Star candidate, deserves a genuine description, not one shaped by excess caution.
"He has no fear," Bochy said. "Nothing gets to him. That's why we can put him anywhere, ask him to catch or play third or first, and he'll just do it."
Then Bochy compared him to Manny Sanguillen, another bad-ball hitter whom Bochy remembered for bringing infectious joy to the Pirates' clubhouse. Sanguillen, now 65, retired six years before Sandoval was born.
The comparison seemed like a stretch back in time, except that Bochy isn't alone in seeing Sandoval as half-throwback. Even as fans around the Bay Area were being prodded to go online and cast a vote for Sandoval to take over the final position on the All-Star team - a process that began in 2002 - Shawon Dunston rhapsodized about Sandoval's old-school qualities.
An infield coach for the Giants, Dunston went beyond defending Sandoval's tendency to swing freely, reaching back into another era and risking the wrath of Bill James cultists everywhere.
"I'm sorry, but you walk 80 times a year, and you don't hit .300 ever in your career, you're not that good," he said. "But he's up there, putting it on the line. Guys who walk a lot, they say they have a good eye. Maybe they're just protecting their average. They're protecting their average, cheating the game."
Dunston had a fearless streak of his own, but admits he didn't have Sandoval's remarkable temperament. "He's the same whether he goes for 0-for-4, or 4-for-4," Dunston said. "He just loves playing the game so much. I wasn't like that. If I went 0-for-4, I had a different attitude, and it wasn't pleasant."
Sandoval really won Dunston over a few weeks ago, when he fielded a grounder at third and threw to first when he should have gone home, costing a critical run. The defensive lapse provoked not a hint of defensive behavior in Sandoval. "Other guys would have said: 'The runner was fast' or 'He wasn't blocking the plate,' " Dunston said. "But there was none of that. He said, 'I made a mistake' without saying anything else. That usually doesn't happen."
For the record, Dunston said, the Giants have another talented youngster, down in the minors, whose attitude has made a strong impression. Last year's first-round draft pick, Buster Posey, arrived at spring training in what Dunston described as "a little red rental car."
"Now, I put myself back at 21, and if I'd signed for $6 million, I wouldn't be driving that little car," Dunston said. "When I saw him do that, I was like, 'Whoa, that is nice.' ... I told my son about it, I thought it was so great. I wasn't impressed with the way he hit or anything on the field. I was impressed with that rental car, and the fact that he was an old-school player who really knew what he wanted to do on the field and didn't care about anything else."
There's a fearlessness in that, too, not caring about making a statement that is ultimately irrelevant. But right now, the Giants want a third member of their youth movement to join Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum in St. Louis next week. So the opinions of others matter.
As of Monday afternoon, Sandoval narrowly led the voting for the final All-Star position in the National League, just ahead of the Phillies' Shane Victorino, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and scored five times in a 22-1 win. Will that advance his cause in the voting, which ends at 1 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, more than Sandoval's grand slam in the fifth inning against the Marlins?
Unlike Victorino's hit, Sandoval's provided the margin of victory, and fans surely will enjoy the replays showing Aaron Rowand grabbing Sandoval by the collar and pushing him out of the dugout for his curtain call.
His inability to grasp his new stardom - despite being near the top of the league in batting for the better part of the season - is part of his charm. It also earned him his nickname from Barry Zito.
"I'd just seen 'Kung Fu Panda' last year, and Kung Fu Panda had superpowers, even though he kind of looks like everyone else," Zito said. "That's kind of what Pablo does. You look at him, you don't know what he can do. Then he goes out there, and he can do anything."
Originally posted by Hopper:
Did Dunston really just say taking walks is cheating the game. Wow, we need to keep him far away from the farm system.
