Category Archives: Uncategorized

Angel Pagan injury: Brusitis in hamstring, says MRI

Giants center fielder Angel Pagan’s MRI showed brusitis on his injured hamstring, reports Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area.

Pagan has been out since his miraculous home run on Saturday, with Gregor Blanco starting in center and Andres Torres getting the regular duties in left.

The fact that he may be available to pinch-hit makes me optimistic that Pagan will start when the A’s series moves to AT&T Park tomorrow.

Pagan hasn’t been spectacular in the first year of his four-year contract. His .314 OBP is below his career average, and Pagan has been successful on just six of his ten steal attempts. Combine that with bad route-running in the outfield and the results have been underwhelming.

Take that last paragraph with a grain of salt. Pagan’s BABIP is .286, which should normalize toward his career total of .316. I believe Pagan will earn every dollar of his contract in the first two seasons of his deal, though it may be a drain on the Giants economy in years three and four as his speed evaporates.

Santiago Casilla injury: Reliever expects to be back after All-Star break

Santiago Casilla expects to return after the All-Star break, according to @beisbolportogas. The right-handed reliever was placed on the disabled list on May 21st after he failed to recover from a cyst in his knee. He appeared in just two games between May 8th and May 20th, wearing a heavy knee brace to deal with the pain.

Casilla will have surgery at Stanford Hospital on Tuesday to remove the cyst from his right tibia. The All-Star Game is July 16th, so the righty expects to be out at least eight weeks.

Casilla had been a late-inning option for manager Bruce Bochy, appearing in the 8th inning or later in 19 of his 21 appearances on the season. The Dominican hurler has posted a 1.89 ERA this season, striking out 16 batters in 19 innings and walking 13. Since joining the Giants in 2010, Casilla has a 2.19 ERA, 34 saves and a ERA+ of 165. Save for a couple of moonshots late in games when he was dealing with blister issues, Santiago has been one of the more stable forces in the Giants’ recent success.

The Giants brought up Sandy Rosario to become the long man in the bullpen, bumping Chad Gaudin and Jean Machi into the later innings. While both have performed well this season, the bullpen is certainly thinner without Casilla.

Proving that when it rains it pours, Casilla wasn’t the only right-handed Giants pitcher to hit the disabled list on May 21st. Ryan Vogelsong will be sidelined for several months with two breaks in his right pinky finger after being hit with a pitch during an at-bat.