Chone Figgins. In Anaheim, home of the Angels, all you need to say are those two words and it will get you praise. When you go to an Angels’ game and they announce his name the crowd goes crazy. When he gets a hit, it seems as if the crowd stands in unison and gives everyone around them a high five. You stand up as well because the energy is so intense that you feel as if you must. The home crowd loves him and so does Mike Scioscia.Managers aren’t supposed to show favoritism to any one player but I can’t help but think that Mike Scioscia shows a little bit more love to Figgins than most of his players. You see, Figgins has played 6 different positions this year, LF, RF, CF, 3B, SS, and 2B, and has solved many problems for Scioscia. If he didn’t have Figgins, who would he have put at 2B when Kennedy got hurt? It would have been either Maicer Izturis or someone who was unproven. When McPherson got hurt, he kept Figgins at 3rd base instead of putting in Robb Quinlan. When Scioscia needs to give someone a break (most recently Steve Finley) he can almost always put in Chone.
Figgins isn’t just a great asset on the field, he has solved yet another problem for Scioscia by hitting leadoff and producing extremely well. If it wasn’t for his sub-.300 batting average (which isnt bad at all at .290), you could call him the perfect leadoff man. With career highs in runs scored (85 to 83 last year), stolen bases (41 to 34), and home runs (6 to 5) already, and in 30 fewer games (118 so far and 148 last year) than he played last year, Figgins should be here to stay.
Here is an example of how Chone is such a good leadoff man: Figgins is up to bat with a 1-2 count; he hits a double to right field off of Tim Wakefield. Next up, Orlando Cabrera, he hits a ground ball to Rentaria, Figgins narrowly avoids the ball and sprints towards 3rd base, Rentaria gives Figgins a look but decides that he will probably be to third by the time Mueller gets the tag down, so he throws out Cabrera at first. Next up, Darin Erstad, he hits a ground ball to 3rd base, Figgins gets a great jump and gives Mueller no chance to throw him out, so Mueller throws to first to get out Erstad. No wonder Scioscia has made it known that Figgins is one of his top three most valuable players.
When your leadoff hitter can do that, you will produce a lot of runs, and runs + pitching = wins. And the Angels certainly have pitching.
Figgins has solidified his spot as the leadoff man and has made other people better by doing it. In the 84 games that Bengie Molina has played this season he has come extremely close to the numbers he put up in 2003 and in 35 fewer games. This come back, if you will, is almost certainly because of the permanent addition of Figgins.
If the Angels ever do the unthinkable in releasing or trading Chone (unless its for someone better, but I wont get into that) than the team that picks him up or gets him in a trade will get a player that will never give anything but 110%. But the one thing that will excite them the most, he will make his manager happy. But until that day, other GM’s and managers will just have to keep on dreaming.
Note to Angels GM and Personnel: Don’t lose Chone Figgins.