Reynolds v. Sandoval: Let's Pick a Fight

more after the jump. :-)

I was thinking back to the All-Star game and IMO the two biggest snubs in the AL and NL alike, Pablo Sandoval and your Mark Reynolds. So I decided that I was going to break it down and figure out to date who was the biggest snub and has since proven he deserved to be in that game. Let's start with the bad guys.

Pablo Sandoval is a 23 year old Venezuelan national signed out of Puerto Cabello in 2003 by the San Francisco Giants. He proceeded to post a 5 year line in the minors of .303/.342/.445. Sandoval was rewarded with a cup of coffee in the latter half of 2008 and won the starting job out of Spring Training this year at 3B. Perfect for comparison reasons. Sandoval has put up quite a stellar year hitting at a .333/.380/.555 clip. All of these stats are a bit above his career numbers and feign a slight fall back to earth, but not much. Pablo has driven in 68 runs and has scored 50 himself. Stellar contact rates are really helping him in his average category. Out of 434 PA, Pablo has wiffed on strike three a meager 59 times, whereas he has taken 29 walks. For all of you that enjoy rounding up that gives him a 1/2 BB/K ratio. Those hitting stats are good enough for a 142 OPS+. According to baseball-reference, Pablo has created 82 runs on the season, which is ultimately the most important thing. Meanwhile on the defensive side of the field, Pablo has a .964 fielding%. 

Now let us take a gander at our very own Mark Reynolds. (Can I make another jump? )

Marky Mark is a 26 year old 14 round draft pick from 2004. He spent 4 seasons in the Diamondbacks minor league system from '04 - '07 hitting .280/.360/.525. Mark was rewarded for his efforts with nearly a full season in 2007 getting the call up in May and never losing his starting position since. That year he had a stellar rookie season and showed signs of what was to come. (Though not many of us, me included, payed much attention to this as we had bigger fish to look forward too. Justin Upton) Reynolds continued to fly under the radar even with his own fanbase coming into the 2008 season where his seemingly biggest achievement was striking out more times than anyone in the history of the game. However, this year Reynolds has really spread his wings. .290/.377/.613. Mark has 470 PA and 151 K to go with his 56 BB. We'll both round up and down this time to put his BB/K ratio at approxiamately 1/3. However to go along with the bad there is plenty of good. He has driven in 80 runs good for fourth in the National League and has scored 75 runs, good for fifth. He also has exploded onto the stolen base scene with 20 in 27 attempts. All of this adds up to a 149 OPS+ tacked on with his .944 fielding%. Mark has created 97 runs on the season.  Needless to say Mark has drastically improved his play over last year and has done well enough to be considered an up and coming premeire hitter. The question is do you take Sandoval first?