Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Quiet Fall of Angel Pagan

With injuries, rookie mistakes and lackluster baseball abounding in New York, one Mets player is avoiding the scrutiny he deserves. And that man is Angel Pagan.

Pagan is half the man he was last year and is somehow flying under the radar of criticism. What we saw last year was a player who would rightfully be the heir to the center field throne for years to come. We thought we had a #2 hitter to put behind Reyes that would be an on base percentage machine and once in a while give you some pop. He'd be a good defender and put the ball in play.

That Angel Pagan is gone. I'm starting to think that 2010 was an anomaly for Pagan. His patience at the plate is gone. His swing has changed to try and hit the ball for power instead of going the opposite way. His arm in the field is proving to be not even close to what we were used to with Beltran.

Is he the biggest problem with the Mets? Not even close. Is he the center fielder we should be happy to have for the foreseeable future? I think that's a question that needs to be asked.

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