| Revision as of 20:24, 5 August 2007 edit207.237.39.34 (talk) →Boston Red Sox← Previous edit | Revision as of 20:38, 5 August 2007 edit undoDavidwr (talk | contribs)50,107 edits →Early life: REWRITE: to be less essay-like, put {{cn}} after unsourced information that should remain if it can be sourced. Added reference information. Removed unencyclopedic information.Next edit → | ||
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| ==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
| {{essay-entry|section}} | |||
| From a ] family, Gagné grew up |
From a ] family, Gagné grew up in the small town of ], near ].<ref name="bio">, retrieved ]</ref> As a boy and at Montreal's Polyvalente Edouard Montpetit High School, he played ] and ].<ref name="bio" /> He eventually becoming a star with Canada's Junior World Championship teams.{{cn}} | ||
| Gagné grew up speaking French, learning English as a young adult.{{cn}} | |||
| ==Early career== | ==Early career== | ||
Revision as of 20:38, 5 August 2007
Baseball player| Eric Gagné | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Boston Red Sox – No. 83 | |
| Relief Pitcher | |
| Bats: RightThrows: Right | |
| debut | |
| September 7, 1999, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| Career statistics (through August 3, 2007) | |
| Win-Loss | 27-21 |
| Earned Run Average | 3.21 |
| Strikeouts | 660 |
| Saves | 177 |
Stats at Baseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| |
Eric Serge Gagné (born January 7, 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, pronounced "GAHN-yay"), is a right-handed relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
Signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent in 1995, Gagné started his career as a starting pitcher. After struggling in that role, the Dodgers converted Gagné from a starter to a reliever where for three years (2002-2004), he was statistically the most outstanding closer in the game, winning the Cy Young Award in 2003. During that period, he set an MLB record of 84 straight converted save chances.
More recently, he has struggled with injuries, getting Tommy John surgery in 2005 after only appearing in fourteen games that season. Gagné recovered from the surgery in the 2006 season, appearing in two games before injuring his back, missing the year. The Dodgers declined to extend Gagné contract after the 2006 season, making Gagné a free agent. On December 12, 2006, Gagne signed a one year contract with the Rangers worth six million with a chance of getting five million more based on performance. On July 31, 2007, Gagne was officially traded to the Boston Red Sox for Kason Gabbard, David Murphy and 17-year-old OF Engel Beltre.
Early life
From a French Canadian family, Gagné grew up in the small town of Mascouche, near Montreal, Quebec. As a boy and at Montreal's Polyvalente Edouard Montpetit High School, he played baseball and ice hockey. He eventually becoming a star with Canada's Junior World Championship teams.
Gagné grew up speaking French, learning English as a young adult.
Early career
Gagné was a 30th-round draft choice of the Chicago White Sox in 1994 (845th overall), but the following year he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent. Gagné, who spoke only French, went to study at Seminole Junior College in Seminole, Oklahoma. As a student, he taught himself English by watching various TV sitcoms and pitched for the college's baseball team.
He then went on to pitch in the minor leagues but missed the entire 1997 season due to Tommy John surgery. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers team for a part of the 1999 season; in his first year in the major leagues, he appeared in only five games as a starting pitcher. Over his first three seasons he met with only mediocre success, winning eleven games while losing fourteen in 48 games, 38 of them starts.
Major League success
At the start of the 2002 season, he was converted from a starting pitcher to a relief pitcher, and soon became the National League's leading reliever, earning 52 saves for the season. Gagné had a nasty assortment of pitches he used as a reliever but his most effective were his fastball and change-up. Gagné would set up hitters with his 98 mph fastball and eventually strike them out with his 78 mph "vulcan" change-up.
In 2003, as a closer, Gagné was called upon 55 times to save a baseball game and converted every one of them en route to becoming both the first pitcher to record 50 saves in more than one season and also the fastest pitcher to ever reach the 100-save plateau. His 55 saves in 2003 also equaled the National League record set the previous season by John Smoltz. Between August 26, 2002 and July 5, 2004, he converted 84 consecutive save chances, a major league record. More than half (55%) of the batters he retired during the 2003 season came by strikeout.
Gagné finished the 2003 season with a 1.20 earned run average and had 137 strikeouts and 20 walks in 82 1/3 innings pitched. This translated into an incredible 1.66 strikeouts per inning pitched. For his performance, he won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award and became the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win the Cy Young Award. With Ferguson Jenkins, he is one of only two Canadian pitchers to win the most prestigious pitching award in baseball. Ironically, he is the only pitcher to win the award while having a losing season (his record was 2-3). Despite this, he lost his arbitration case over the winter.
On July 15, 2004 – just ten days after his saves streak ended – Gagné collected his 130th save as a Dodger in a 5-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona, surpassing Jeff Shaw for the most career saves in team history.
Prior to the 2007 season, Gagné has converted 161 saves out of 168 save opportunities for a conversion rate of 96.6%, the highest in Major League Baseball history with at least 100 saves.
Injuries
Gagné battled injuries of several kinds in early 2005, pitching in only 14 games, though still very well (2.70 ERA, 8 saves in 8 opportunities). On June 21, 2005, it was announced that Gagné would undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery to repair a sprained ligament in his right elbow. Recovery would take a year or more; furthermore, a return to major league pitching after a second Tommy John operation (Gagné's first was in 1997) is still unprecedented. However, as surgeons began to perform the operation, they discovered instead a nerve entrapped by scar tissue and were able to release it with a less invasive procedure. Gagné was still unable to play for the remainder of the 2005 season.
Gagné expressed hope that an accelerated recovery would allow him to pitch for Canada in the World Baseball Classic in March 2006, but he eventually decided that it was not worth the risk, and to focus on preparing to pitch in the regular season.
After some encouraging outings in early spring training, pain in Gagné's pitching elbow forced him to undergo a second surgery, this time to remove entirely the nerve that doctors had previously attempted to stabilize. More recovery time ensued, but Gagné finally pitched in his first regular-season game of 2006 on June 3. He made two appearances for the Dodgers, pitching two scoreless innings and earning one save, but pain from the nerve in his elbow recurred, and he returned to the disabled list on June 12. A further (and apparently unrelated) setback occurred on July 4, when Gagné awoke with intense pain in his back. An examination revealed two herniated discs, and Gagné underwent a season-ending back surgery on July 8.
Texas Rangers
The Dodgers declined to extend Gagné's $12 million contract after the season, making him a free agent.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Gagné started to make his recovery by tossing in three minor league games, two of them on consecutive days, allowing a home run and having one loss. In his last minor league game, Gagné retired all three of the batters he faced, and he was activated on April 13.
In his first week back, Gagné pitched three innings, earning one save. But in the middle of his second save situation, Gagné left the game after complaining of leg pain. He said that it would take about a week to recover from the injury, but the Rangers, not taking the risk, placed Gagné on the disabled list with a hip injury. He was reactivated on May 8 and returned to the closer role. So far this season Gagné is 2-0 with 15 saves and a 2.23 earned run average in 33 games.
Boston Red Sox
On July 31, 2007, Gagné was traded to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher Kason Gabbard and minor league outfielders David Murphy and Engel Beltre. Gagné is expected to serve as a setup man for current closer Jonathan Papelbon, and it is widely speculated that he will leave via free-agency at the end of the season. He will wear the number 83, as starting pitcher Curt Schilling already wears number 38.
On August 2nd, 2007, Gagné made his first appearance as a Red Sox, against the Baltimore Orioles. He appeared in the ninth inning in relief of Hideki Okajima. He struck out the first two batters he faced and allowed one run in the 7-4 victory.
See also
- List of players from Canada in Major League Baseball
- Players from Québec in MLB
- List of MLB individual streaks
- List of Major League Baseball saves champions
- List of Major League Baseball all-time saves leaders
References
- ^ "Rangers complete deal with Gagne". ESPN. 2006-12-19. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) Cite error: The named reference "signed" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Detailed biography of Gagné, retrieved 2007-08-05
- ^ "Gagne get comfortable on mound, not trying to throw hard". ESPN. 2007-02-22. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Gagne agrees to $6M deal with Rangers". ESPN. 2006-12-12. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Gagne to Have Surgery, Done for Season". MLB. 2006-07-07. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Gagne tosses in straight days for first time in 2 years". ESPN. 2007-04-07. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Rangers activate Gagne, put starter Wright on DL". ESPN. 2007-04-13. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Rangers place Gagne on 15-day DL". ESPN. 2007-04-23. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - "Gagne returns to Rangers after stint on disabled list". ESPN. 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
External links
- Career statistics from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs
| Preceded byRandy Johnson | National League Cy Young Award 2003 |
Succeeded byRoger Clemens |
| Preceded byJohn Smoltz | National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year 2003 & 2004 |
Succeeded byChad Cordero |