On Thursday Evening, May 28, Giants Rising Star Pablo Sandoval made his first Sports Gallery appearance at our Palo Alto Gallery.

Pablo Sandoval, born in Carabobo, Venezuela, is the latest Giants phenom. Signed by San Francisco in 2002 at the age of 16, few Giants players have generated as much buzz as Sandoval so early in their career. He has torn up every league he's played in the last two years with his bat (in 273 at-bats for A San Jose, he hit .359 with 12 home runs and 59 RBI and in 175 at-bats with AA Connecticut, he hit .337 with eight homers and 37 RBI) and he's doing the same with SF hitting over .300 in 2009. And Pablo has proved very capable at multiple defensive positions. Sandoval can play Catcher, 3B and 1B extremely well but would obviously have the most value at catcher, which also happens to be his best defensive position. He would also have a ton of value if the Giants were to play him at all three positions, which is exactly what the Giants are doing in '09. Nicknamed "Kung Fu Panda" by teammate Barry Zito because of his resemblance to the movie character, Pablo is fast becoming one of the most popular athletes in the Bay Area.