Coastal Carolina’s Paez at core of team’s lofty expectations for 2016

Michael Paez isn’t really interested in talking much about his stature as a preseason All-American, and he definitely doesn’t want to dwell on how big this season could be for his draft stock and the promising future he’s built for himself in the game.

As challenging as that can be to ignore at times.

“It’s a little hard, but at the same time that’s what my family is there for and my teammates just keep me level-headed [to] not even worry about that stuff,” he said this week. “Because that stuff will come. [I just want] to help the team out and win as many games as we can, go as far as we can and let all that stuff happen.”

All of that goes hand in hand, though.

Coming off a promising 2015 season that saw the program return to the NCAA Regionals after a one-year absence, the buzz surrounding this new baseball season for Coastal Carolina is palpable. The Chanticleers have aspirations of hosting a regional like they did in 2007, 2008 and 2010 and making a push toward the school’s first College World Series berth.

There are any number of reasons why that all seems plenty realistic as they open their season Friday afternoon at home against Appalachian State.

There’s the deep pitching staff that is, for once, pretty much fully healthy entering the start of the season. The veteran lineup that returns all but one major contributor from last year.

And, yes, a star shortstop in Paez coming off a breakout season with the potential to be one of the most impactful players in the country this spring.

“He needs to be our most consistent gap-to-gap doubles guy that is just a terror at the plate,” Chanticleers coach Gary Gilmore said. “He needs to be for this team a little bit like what [future Major Leaguer] David Sappelt was in 2008. He needs to be the guy that they just go, ‘Damn, I don’t want to face this guy.’ And I think Mike has that in him.”

Simply put, he’s the keystone for a lineup that could be very, very entertaining this year. And if he’s the force the Chants hope he can be, those accolades will fall into place and that draft stock will continue climbing over the next several months.

Already a dazzling defensive shortstop while debuting as a freshman starter two seasons ago, Paez broke out offensively in 2015 while raising his batting average more than 80 points to .326 along with 17 doubles, a triple, eight home runs, 42 RBIs, 58 runs scored and 19 stolen bases in 23 attempts.

Paez then spent the summer playing in the vaunted Cape Cod Baseball League, where he was named an All-Star and was picked as one of 31 players – and just six infielders – for the year-end all-league team. His .295 batting average was the 14th-best in the wood bat league.

“It definitely is a great league, a lot of guys that had a lot of hype from past years. I think I proved that not just me, but our program belongs in that league,” he said of that experience. “A lot of times a lot of guys from big programs like UCLA and all those schools are the guys that go, but it just showed that we’re all capable of playing in a league that that’s major.”

As for the season that debuts Friday, Paez said he’s challenged himself to improve in two key areas.

He wants to be more disruptive on the base paths this spring.

“I definitely want to change the game when I’m at first base, for the pitcher to know I’m there,” he said.

And he wants to be sharper defensively. That’s a point of emphasis Gilmore has honed in on with his star shortstop as well. For all the flashy highlight-reel plays Paez racked up last year – and there were many – Gilmore wants to see him cut down on the 13 errors that came too often on unforced throwing mistakes.

“He makes incredible plays,” Gilmore said. “The non-forced errors, if he can eliminate the majority of them, that’s the majority of his issues when he does have errors – that throw that he should make 100 times out of 100 and be nonchalant just enough that it runs away from us.”

At this time last year, Paez was still a promising young player with a ton of untapped upside. Now he’s one of the veteran leaders of a team ranked No. 23 in the country in Baseball America’s preseason poll.

Now he’s one of the guys – if not the guy – the Chants are looking at to lead the way in what everyone in and around the program seems to agree could be a very special year.

“The main thing with him, he’s always been a very talented player – he came in freshman year, played a lot and did some really good things – but maturity,” senior third baseman Zach Remillard said. “When you get those two years under your belt, I mean he’s a vet out there and it’s pretty good to have that guy playing next to me.”

Paez knows this may be his final season in Conway if everything goes according to plan, and to that end feels he has plenty of unfinished business left to take care of in the meanwhile.

But any potential All-American honors or accolades that come along with that will be the byproduct of those other goals, he said.

“Like I said before, that’s a great honor to have,” Paez said. “But I just want to win a championship, go to regionals, host a regional and whatever happens after that.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina’s Paez at core of team’s lofty expectations for 2016."