You mentioned something in your post that we talked about some time ago. It was the beginning of the discussions surrounding Sabeans falied farm system to develop any impact position players. Until Sandoval, there had been no impact position players come out of the Giants system since Sabean came to the Giants as an assistant to Bob Quinn in the mid 90s.  And even Sabean was taken by surprise, saying as late as the end of March, that he wasnt sure if Sandoval would make the team or not, but that Aurillia and Burris were sure things.