Closing Time: Who is Cory Spangenberg?
The freshly-retooled Padres have plenty of guys who can knock the ball around the park and over the fence. You expect big things from Justin Upton and Matt Kemp. You liked Wil Myers as a late-round sleeper. You see the value of sneaky catcher Derek Norris.
The infield, that’s been a little dicier, with all sorts of moving parts. Today, we talk about Cory Spangenberg, middle infielder on the move. Start with his two homers from Thursday’s win, and then we’ll consider the bigger picture.
The 24-year-old lefty swinger has always been respected property; he was a first-round draft choice in 2011, and showed up on some rated prospect lists a year later. Spangenberg flashed respectable hitting ability in the minors (.296/.356/.405), along with 104 steals in 374 games. He didn’t embarrass himself in brief San Diego action last year, hitting .290 in 20 games (two homers, four steals).
Spangenberg (tha's SPANG-jen-burg if you wondered) has made 10 straight starts for the Friars this spring, some at second and some at third. Most of those appearances have slotted him first or second in the order, though he was buried on one occasion against a lefty. He’s on a .332/.432/.556 binge during that stretch, with four successful steal attempts. The Thursday homers were his first two of the season.
The Padres don’t lack for options at second and third, what with Jedd Gyorko, Will Middlebrooks and Yangveris Solarte. Gyorko and Middlebrooks opened the year as the starters, but they’ve done little to mark their territory - both carry an OPS in the low 600s. Solarte has been excellent at getting on base, though his slugging is under .400. There’s a reasonable chance Spangenberg could take a job, even if it’s a super-utility job, and run with it.
Spangenberg hit a modest 12 home runs during his minor-league days, so the Thursday pop is surprising and not something we should chase. That said, he’s capable of getting on base and stealing some bags, and at least he’s not a complete zero in the power category. Have room for a flexible infield lottery ticket? Spangenberg is still free to add in 97 percent of Yahoo leagues.
• Hitting the ball hard is the name of the game at the plate, and with that, I like to check on the hard-hit stats at Fangraphs every so often. It helps to sort through who’s been lucky and who’s been legitimate, and it can also locate an underrated property here and there.
A few weeks back, we identified Brian Dozier as someone who was hitting the ball consistently hard but didn’t have the results that he probably deserved. To no great surprise, Dozier’s production has perked up recently.
If you persure the hard-hit leaders Friday morning, you’ll note a few names that have low BABIPs despite their hard-hit success. So if you want a few buy-low players to consider, here are names I’d look to: Alex Rodriguez, Brandon Moss (he’s already spiked notably this week), Jay Bruce and Logan Morrison.
There’s a second side to this, the soft-hit guys who have lofty hit rates. Maybe we can’t trust those guys on surface value. It gets tricky when the players in question can run well, but I’d be careful with Angel Pagan, Wilson Ramos, Starlin Castro, Mike Moustakas and Marcus Semien.
• Motown was a hit-making machine in Thursday’s getaway romp over the Twins, but Yoenis Cespedes wasn’t in on the fun. He did score a run and drive one in, but otherwise it was an 0-for-4 performance. He’s now carrying an ordinary .267/.287/.459 slash line.
Cespedes has come to play every night of 2015, but his counting stats leave you wanting. He’s on pace for 65 runs, 19 homers, 88 RBIs, zero steals - and probably a home-run derby championship in the middle of the summer. He’s batted fifth for a few games recently, though he was back in the No. 6 slot (his standard position) Thursday. If you rank all the outfield-eligible players on their 5x5 stats to this point, Cespedes doesn't make the Top 50.
You expect him to hack first and ask questions later, but note Cespedes’s walks are down and his strikeouts are up. He’s also chasing more out-of-zone pitches than he ever has before. Is he pressing to impress a new club? Is he out of whack mechanically? Or maybe we should just admit Cespedes is a speciality player who isn’t really the superstar he’s made out to be.
Your witness. You know where I stand.
