I. Angel Pagan came to the plate in 93 double play situations in 2011. He grounded into four double plays. That’s good for a 1.3% double play rate, which — surprise, surprise — ranks as the 17th lowest mark among MLB hitters with 500+ plate appearances last year. The average MLB player, given 93 chances to ground into a double play, would have grounded into nine.
II. By EqBRR, Angel Pagan has been worth +13.3 runs on the basepaths over the past couple seasons. Now, he’s obviously a speedy baserunner. He’s stolen 30+ bases in each of the last two seasons, and he’s done so at an 81% success rate. That’s not an outstanding success rate, but it’s good enough such that the value of his steals outweighs the cost of his occasional caught-stealings. But he’s also good at the stuff that isn’t so obvious. He’s good at going from first to third on a single. He’s good at advancing on the basepaths on a groundout. He’s...
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