Pablo Sandoval on Aubrey Huff’s criticism: ‘Who’s Aubrey Huff?’
If you’re looking for a little drama to spice up spring training, former San Francisco Giants teammates Pablo Sandoval and Aubrey Huff have you covered.
After celebrating World Series championships together in 2010 and 2012, the two appear headed toward a war of words stemming from Sandoval’s recent interview with Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller.
During the interview, Sandoval ripped the organization for disrespecting him and revealed he never intended to re-sign with San Francisco this past offseason.
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Word of Sandoval’s interview got back to Huff and apparently they didn’t sit well or mesh with what he saw during his Giants tenure. According to ESPN’s Marly Rivera and Gordon Edes, Huff posted the following response to his Facebook, insinuating Sandoval himself wasn’t the most liked guy around and allowed his ego to get in the way.
“I’m pretty sure their (sic) wasn’t a tear shed on behalf of all the players, and the coaches when he signed with Boston,” Huff’s Facebook post from earlier in the week read. “It has always been about Pablo. He had the fans fooled but not the players! One of the biggest reasons he didn’t want to come back is because the Giants made him workout on the treadmill every day! Pretty sure that was a driving force for him! Never the less [sic] he could have always been a legend in San Fran but ego always will come in to play when it comes to Pablo! Sorry for the rant just want to take up for the players who are there now holding their tongues, because they don’t want to get in the middle of this! If you can’t get along with guys like (Buster) Posey, (Madison) Bumgarner, (Matt) Cain, (Jeremy) Affeldt (sic), just to name a few, then maybe it’s time to look in the mirror! Rant over!”
Rant over.
Rant received by Sandoval, who fired back at Huff on Friday.
“Who is Aubrey Huff?” Sandoval asked in response. “What is important here is to see where the person who made those comments is, and where I am now, that’s what counts.”
At 38, Huff is officially retired after a 13-year MLB career, so he’s probably at home relaxing with his family. As for the dismissive tone, Huff was a career .278 hitter, which is only two points lower than Sandoval’s average over the past three seasons leading into his massive five-year, $95 million contract, and accumulated a career 20.1 WAR. He was no Sandoval to this point, but he put together a respectable career.
Now, back to Sandoval’s rebuttal.
“Those were completely incoherent comments,” Sandoval said of Huff’s post.
“I’m not selfish. I am where I am because I have worked very hard and have always done my job. Anyone can say whatever they want. I will not lose sleep or stop working my hardest because of that.”
Panda rant over.
Now we wait to see if Huff responds or someone else interjects their two cents into this developing drama. It’s highly unlikely we’ll hear something directly from the Giants camp or another former Giants player who’s currently active, but it would be kind of interesting to get another first-hand perspective of this situation. Obviously, we can deduce there are hard feelings on both sides, but where did it start and what prevented it from improving?
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Also, if all of this discontent and possible tension existed, can we finally officially dismiss team chemistry as a measurable component of success?
A few more answers would be nice. For now though, we’ll digest what we have and see how much this drama escalates in the coming days.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
