Hope springs eternal. Spring Training is where big baseball dreams are born. Fans are optimistic as the smell of a freshly mowed baseball field fills their nostrils, and the crack of bat on ball rings through their ears. The San Francisco Giants are very optimistic, and with good reason. All reports so far are good, as guys like Matt Cain and Tim Hudson are bouncing back from injuries with great early results. The same can be said about Angel Pagan.
A lot of concern this past offseason from fans was due to the team’s neglect in addressing the power deficiency in the Giants’ lineup, as sluggers Pablo Sandoval Michael Morse both headed to the east coast for the 2015 season.
But power isn’t the Giants’ game. The Giants don’t hit a ton of balls into the stands where no outfielder can catch them, and that works to their advantage, seeing as the play half of their games in the spacious grounds known as AT&T Park. They’re known more for manufacturing runs, with the occasional home run sprinkled in.
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That’s where Pagan comes in. Pagan is the spark plug that makes the offense tick. His hustle from the leadoff spot is contagious. He turns singles into doubles, doubles into triples, and groundball outs into infield singles. Pagan can steal bases, although he isn’t a typical “base stealer.”
When Pagan plays, he’s the engine. He makes things happen. The problem is, he hasn’t played a lot the last two seasons. He’s played in just 167 games over the past pair of years, and 321 of 486 possible regular season games in his three year stint so far in San Francisco.
2012 was his best season, not just while wearing orange and black, but in his entire career. While playing in 154 games, he batted .288 with 38 doubles, 95 runs scored, and a major league-leading 15 triples. He received MVP votes, although he finished 32nd in final balloting. He was a major player in leading the Giants to their second World Series victory in just three years.
In 2013, Pagan played in just 71 games before a hamstring injury requiring surgery cut his year short. 2014 looked to be a bounce back year, as he hit an even .300 while scoring 56 runs in 96 games. But again, the injury bug was hungry, and took a chunk out of Pagan. He had been dealing with back issues all season, but as the season wore on, the pain was too much, and Pagan was forced to go under the knife again in September. Pagan was relegated to watching the Giants win another championship on television.
Sep 13, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants Angel Pagan (16) salutes his teammates after hitting a double in the first inning of their MLB baseball game with the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
Despite the injuries, Pagan has been very good when he plays. His .290 average is a welcome sight at the top of the lineup, and when he’s absent, the team is very different, which is easy to tell by looking at the records.
In 2013, when Pagan was in the starting lineup, the Giants record was 34-32, good for a .515 winning clip. That number doesn’t blow you away, but it is a marked difference when compared to the games he didn’t start. The Giants were 42-54 without their center fielder, dropping the winning percentage down to .438.
The next year was much of the same, as the Giants won at an alarming rate with Pagan in the starting nine. They were 56-35 with the Crazy Horse manning center field. If they were able to keep that up through the entire season, the .615 winning percentage would make them the best team in baseball, evening out to a 100-win season.
Without Pagan in 2014, the Giants were 32-39, a .451 winning percentage. Combine the two seasons, and the Giants are 23 games over .500 with Pagan as a starter, and 19 games under .500 without him. His impact is easy to see.
The news from camp hasn’t been ALL good, however. Despite reporting to the team saying “I’m good, I’m perfect…I feel like never before,” Pagan was held from hitting on Thursday with a stiff neck. Henry Schulman reported that the injury is “unrelated to his back issues,” and “not serious,” via twitter. The stiffness could be attributed to something as simple as sleeping in an awkward position. If Madison Bumgarner or Buster Posey were to be afflicted with the same condition, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. But Pagan’s injury history makes this more concerning.
Pagan isn’t the only player that will need to be healthy and hitting to make the offense tick. Brandon Belt will need to avoid the bad luck that plagued him in 2014 to enjoy the breakout season that seems to be well within his reach.
But make no mistake, the car can’t run without Pagan, the engine, starting things up.
Next: Giants Mailbag: Belt, backup catcher, non-roster invitees