Second Base Sleepers: Power Hitters or Scrubs?

I don’t know if it’s short-man’s syndrome or if Dave Kingman and Rob Deer have suddenly (somehow) inspired a new generation of second-baseman-wannabe power hitters. It’s been talked about before, but it bears repeating: good second basemen used to hit around .270 with 70+ runs, a handful of home runs, and about 15-20 stolen bases, all while playing good defense.

With the steroid era, we started seeing second basemen launching 20+ home runs on a regular basis. In fact, it became expected. Now that Major League Baseball is cracking down on PEDs, we’re starting to see a reversal of expectations for these Jeff Kent, Bret Boone-wannabe second basemen.

Dee Gordon led the charge in 2014 by being a total throwback to the Whitey Herzog style of baseball: slap the ball, leg it out, steal second (and maybe third), then score however you can. Oh yeah – and play great defense, too. 2014 saw a few potential power-hitting sleepers at second base emerge, but don’t be jaded by the home run stat alone.

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