Sandoval 5th Defender to Claim Title
Sandoval received the promotion to Connecticut on June 25th from San Jose, High A affiliate of the SF Giants and since then he has made a major impact. Sandoval strung together an impressive 13 game hitting streak from July 6th-22nd where he batted .419 delivering 7 doubles, 4 homeruns and drove in 16. Pablo was selected to participate in the 2008 Futures Game at Yankee Stadium on July 13th and drove in the World Team's first run while he started at first base. Sandoval is the third Defender to claim Player of the Week honors joining fellow teammate Ben Copland and former teammate Travis Ishikawa who claimed the honor earlier this season. Pablo is the fifth overall Defender to have the title as pitchers Joey Martinez and most recently Nate Bump were named Pitchers of the Week. Below is Sandoval's information for the press release by the Eastern League.
Connecticut Defenders catcher Pablo Sandoval has been named the Bank of America Eastern League Player of the Week for the week ending July 27th. The 21-year old had an excellent week for the Defenders, batting .421 (8-for-18) with two doubles, two home runs, 11 RBI, three runs scored and a .842 slugging percentage over four games. Sandoval, who is a native of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, had multiple hits in three of the four games he played in during the week, including going 3-for-7 with a double, a home run and six RBI in an 18-6 win at Portland on Tuesday night. The 5'11", 245 lb. slugger joined the Defenders in late June after receiving a promotion from Class-A San Jose, where he hit .359 with 25 doubles, 12 homers, 61 runs scored and 59 RBI in 68 games and was selected as a California League All-Star. Pablo, who was a member of the World Team in the 2008 Futures Game and drove in one run in the game, was signed by the San Francisco Giants as a non-drafted free agent on May 8, 2003.