2014 Playoff Cards Giants Pablo Sandoval 2006 Bowman Draft #FG6

Tonight our playoff cards series takes a look at the Giants and their 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval

2006 Bowman Draft Futures Game Prospects #FG6 Pablo Sandoval (gold chunk)

Last night Sandoval picked up a couple of hits and scored one of the Giants 7 runs while driving in two others.

The Giants have at a lot of success the past few seasons, and have done it with quite a bit of rotating personnel. Their playoff rotation includes only 1 pitcher from the 2010 squad, Madisnon Bumgarner, while their starting 8 in 2014 only includes only Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval from that first World Championship squad.  Sandoval saw little action in 2010 but rebounded to be the MVP of the 2012 Series. 

The switch-hitting 3rd baseman has been the Giants starter at the hot corner since 2009, although he has lost significant parts of a few seasons to injury. During this years NLDS Sandoval had a major contribution to the Giants 2014 postseason. His big game-tying Double off the Nats Drew Storen that led to the 18 inning Game 2 marathon eventually won by the Giants. 

Gold Chunk
One of the parralles to 2006 Bowman Draft is Gold Chunk, these cards mirror the base card with a gold border rather than black. They are also thicker then the base cards. 

In a previous 2014 Playoff Cards post dedicated to the Pirates Neil Walker we included a short write up on the 2006 Bowman Futures Cards. To read that posting click here and scroll down. 
 
Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Cards   
Baseball Cardpedia  
baseball-ref

2006 Bowman Draft Futures Game Prospects Neil Walker

The Phillies are hosting the cross state Pirates for a for game set this week. This seems an appropriate time to add the Bucos to our Playoff Contenders Preview feature. The player that we are looking at today is Birthday Boy  Neil Walker.

2006 Bowman Futures Game Gold Chunk #FG5 Neil Walker

The Pirates picked Walker with the 11th overall pick of the 2004 draft. Walker was a standout from a Pittsburgh area high school. I am sure this has put additional pressure on him especially early in his career when the Pirates were struggling towards respectability.

Walker was drafted as a catcher but the Pirates, perhaps in an effort to get him to the majors quicker, moved him to second base. I think this may have been a disservice to the player, but it may have been necessary for the organizaiton at the time. 

While he has never had an outstanding season, Neil Walker has been steady. 2014 looks to be his best season to this point. He has posted  a career high 19 homers, and currently has Career highs in both On Base Pct and slugging.

Walker turns 29 today which means he will have one of what I consider a players prime years (agewise) (29-32) behind him.  If the Pirates are to hang onto Walker I would think they would like to get a bit more out of his prime seasons then they have gotten from him in his first five seasons.

Bowman Futures Game Inserts
The full name of the set is Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Baseball. Add to that the Insert name of Futures Game Prospects Set and you have a mouthful. I have chosen to abbreviate both handles coming up with Bowman Draft for the set and Futures Game Prospects for the insert. That is still about 8 words too long, but it will need to do.

In 2006 the Insert set featured 45 cards of Futures Game participants. The game was hosted by the Pirates that summer and was likely one of the first times that Neil Walker appeared in a professional game at PNC park. The Phillies sent two players to the game Gio Gonzalez and Carlos Carrasco, Other notables included in the 2006 Set are Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Joey Votto, Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Homer Bailey, Alex Gordon,  Stephen Drew,   Ryan Braun, and the late Nick Adenhardt.


Sources & Links
Baseball-ref
2014 Playoff Contenders
Baseball Cardpedia
topps Cards