Sleeping giants: 4 on verge of breakouts

Sometimes clubs surge in spite of their stars and not because of them. Running down — all the way down — the list of league leaders in run production, there are some notable names with long track records who find themselves near the bottom of the barrel. And yet their clubs find themselves above .500.

So an argument can be made that a few good clubs could be even better if these sleeping giants awaken.

All stats are through Wednesday night’s games.

Prince Fielder, Rangers .198/.260/.298, 2 HR, 7 2B, 20 RBIs

To be brutally honest, Fielder, much like Alex Rodriguez, is having the kind of season I expected of him in 2015, not ’16. As with A-Rod, a long layoff in ’14 made ’15 a mystery. And for Fielder, the recovery from a complicated neck procedure made it an open question as to whether he’d ever regain his old All-Star form at the plate.

Fielder responded with, yes, an All-Star season, a year in which he had an .841 OPS, 23 homers, 28 doubles and 98 RBIs to help lead the Rangers to a surprising American League West division title and edge A-Rod for the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Fielder’s numbers did tail off a bit in the second half (.264/.348/.294), but not to the degree that you would expect a 2016 free fall. Yet that’s just what’s happened in the early going. Though Prince has a handful of extra-base hits, he’s been almost invisible on a Texas team that has still managed to post strong enough offensive numbers to spar with a surging Seattle squad in the AL West. Manager Jeff Banister had little choice but to drop Fielder to fifth in his lineup earlier this week, the first time in nearly a decade that Prince batted in that spot.

Actually, Fielder’s issues aren’t especially difficult to diagnose. While there’s no denying he’s a year older (and aren’t we all?), the problem is he’s swinging at more pitches outside the zone (37.8 percent in 2016 vs. 33.8 percent last year) and generating less contact on those swings (62.3 percent in 2016 vs. 66.9 percent last year).

Adam Jones, Orioles .238/.298/.362, 3 HR, 4 2B, 14 RBIs

The Twins’ decision to pitch around Manny Machado to face Jones in the ninth inning Tuesday night told us a …

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