NEW YORK — For all the power the Angels can now boast about -- they have four players with 20 home runs or more and ranked fourth in the American League in slugging percentage this season -- it's a 5-foot-8 speedster who seems to strike the most fear in opponents.
"They've got speed and they've got power, and they have Chone Figgins at the top," said New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia, who will start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Angels on Friday night in Yankee Stadium.
"When he gets on base and he's running around, you're worried about him. We've got to go out and keep those guys off the bases."
Figgins, the Angels' leadoff hitter and third baseman, is used to being singled out.
"I've heard teams say they want to keep me off base," Figgins said, "because when I get on base, I'm going to create havoc."
But there is no such havoc when Figgins walks from the batter's box to the dugout or jogs off the field after a groundout or fly out.
As productive and disruptive as he has been in seven big league seasons, including a superb 2009 in which he hit .298 with a .395 on-base percentage, 114 runs, 101 walks and 42 stolen bases, Figgins hasn't been much of a factor in the postseason.
In 29 games in nine playoff series since 2002, Figgins is batting .182 (18 for 99) with a .214 on-base percentage, 11 runs, four stolen bases, five runs batted in, 32 strikeouts and only three walks.
Granted, his last walk was one of the biggest of his career, a ninth-inning free pass that was part of a three-run rally that gave the Angels a 7-6 division-series clinching win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in Fenway Park.
But for the Angels to beat the powerful Yankees in the best-of-seven ALCS and advance to the World Series, they're going to need Figgins to provide more of a spark.
"I know I need to get on base," Figgins said after Tuesday's workout in Angel Stadium. "I will get on base. When I do, I'm able to do so much. I can steal, take a base on a ball in the dirt, go from first to third on a single, score from first on a ball to the gap."
Figgins did none of that against the Red Sox. The walk he drew in Game 3 was the first time he reached base in 13 division series plate appearances.
"I know he had a rough division series, but other guys stepped up and filled the void," Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said. "Imagine when Figgy gets hot. It's going to be a lot of fun."
