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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Pablo Sandoval came to San Francisco Giants camp fat this year, like he does pretty much every year, because there are two truths about Pablo Sandoval, and one of them is he does not do skinny.

The other is that he's a remarkable hitter, preternaturally gifted like only a handful of players, maybe less. At 5-foot-11 (give or take – no, take – two inches) and 262 pounds (give or take – no, give – 20 pounds), Sandoval hits everything everywhere anytime anywhere. If anyone in baseball today is going to stroke a single off a pitch that bounces before it reaches home plate, it's him.

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This is Sandoval's dichotomy, what makes him who he is – and the relationship between the two may be parasitic. Sandoval does not hit like a madman because he's fat. It could be argued he's fat because he hits like a madman – because his success in spite of his weight gives him little motivation to shed it, and because his bat makes him a hero in his native Venezuela where he returns annually and comes back heavier, and because this character he plays, the silly Kung Fu Panda, doesn't fly for a skinny guy.

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Sandoval recognizes and acknowledges all of these things as truth, and it's why as he nurses another injury – this an irritated ulnar nerve threatening to keep him out opening day after back-to-back seasons in which he missed at least 45 games – he knows he must adapt.

Just not yet.

"I've got this year and next year to change all the things," Sandoval said. "It's going to take me a while, but I can do it. I know I can do it.

"You need to learn. You need to grow up. You need to step up and know the difference between what you can do and what you can't."





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These are words he has uttered before, words he'll utter again, because he truly believes them and because he knows they're what he has to say. When Bruce Bochy, a future Hall of Fame manager, practically dialed up Jenny Craig during the first week of spring training when Sandoval showed up more overweight even for himself, it should be a sign for a player to transform himself or else.

Only this is Pablo Sandoval, now entering his fifth full season in the major leagues, coming off a World Series in which he took Justin Verlander deep in back-to-back at-bats in Game 1, hit another home run in his third at-bat and won MVP honors during the Giants' sweep. And then he went and played winter ball in Venezuela, popped another three homers in the championship series there, snagged another MVP trophy and cemented his status alongside Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Gonzalez as Venezuelan royalty.

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