One of the Most Underrated Players in the MLR, The Furry-Faced Assassin
Nick Cafardo
The lack of excitement over Assassin Panda's game in the national media is extremely strange. Despite having connections to the creators of the MLR, he dropped to the 5th round. And despite finishing top 3 in NL MVP voting in Season 1, many forget his name. And despite arguably having Player of the Session-level statlines twice in Season 2, he is still yet to win a Player of the Game. It's time the power left-hander got some recognition.
Panda grew up just like any other kid. He lived in the suburbs of New Jersey, playing baseball since he was just a small child. He was better than most of his friends, but not many scouts came out to his High School games. Despite playing a solid left field, many thought he was destined for 1st base, and he hit too many ground balls for a 1st baseman. One college did take a shot at him, but his baseball career ended there. However, he was not satisfied and had to continue playing, and he discovered fakebaseball.
Without actual physically playing the game, Panda realized he could hit for more power than he ever thought he could. And he was able to continue playing Left Field. What started out as a dream quickly became a natural talent for Panda.
He is active and usually available on the Internet, but Panda was never hyped up as a draft prospect, and he slid to the 5th round. Only the Diamondbacks and Phillies showed heavy interest, but the Diamondbacks took him before they could risk him falling to the Phillies.
Panda understands part of the lack of hype, as he told the media the other day that "I think the fact that I'm a pretty low-key guy plays a big role in this. I'm not very active in the main discord channel." This doesn't take away from his performance, however. Panda lead the league in home runs in Season 1 with 4 in 7 games. In Season 2, he has 2 in 6 games. His .631 wOBA in Season 1 was dominating, and now he has a strong .419. Despite starting the season on an extremely long 0-fer, Panda has still made his stats above average, which shows what kind of fire power he has.
The most interesting part about Panda is that it seems as if his 2nd half may be even stronger. In his final 2 games, Panda is 3 for 3 with a home run. In his final 2 games in Season 1, he went 2 for 5 with a walk and a 0 difference home run. He has good stats, but he just appears to only heat up by mid-season. When asked about this, Panda replied "Making necessary adjustments to your approach is key. I think I started the season like 0-12 or something ridiculous like that, and during that period I was pretty much just guessing and hoping I'd get lucky. Since then I've been focusing more on finding patterns in pitchers' sequences and it's helped me a lot." The secret to his success is making adjustments, and he showed his ability to adjust after having some high-strikeout games as well.
Panda can go off somedays and fuel the Diamondbacks like a one-man wrecking crew. Against the Athletics, when Arizona scored 11 runs, Panda was 2 for 2 with a home run, a sac fly, and 3 RBIs. Against the Pirates, Arizona scored 10 runs, and that came from a little help from Assassin Panda, who went 2 for 2 with a homer, a double, and 4 RBIs. In Season 1, against the Tigers, Arizona scored 10 runs on the back of Panda's 2 for 3 with 2 home runs performance, and he added 5 RBIs as well. If he continues that up, Panda can single-handedly win games for the Diamondbacks, once again proving valuable.
I got a chance to talk with Panda on Wednesday, all he told me was that he was robbed of MVP last season (fair point given he had the exact same slugging percentage and had more RBIs than Mylo Grams). There is fire showing in Panda's eyes, and he is ready to assassinate some teams.