Carolina Mudcats center fielder Dave Sappelt has been with the team barely a month, but he has already had an impact.
The 5-foot-9 former Coastal Carolina player from Graham, who was promoted to Double-A in the spring, leads the Mudcats with a .351 batting average. The Mudcats (25-34) come home to play the Huntsville Stars at 7:15 p.m. today at Five County Stadium in Zebulon.
"He has been a great addition to the ballclub in terms of everything: defense, offense," Mudcats hitting coach Ryan Jackson said. "He's had a great start here in the Double-A and has a nice blend of power - he's already got a couple of home runs here - running down balls, stealing bases. He's really showing it all in terms of hitting to the opposite field."
Sappelt, 23, already has two decades of baseball experience. The Southern Alamance High graduate started playing the sport when he was 3, hitting balls in his dad's indoor batting cage in Buffalo, N.Y. Sappelt helped Southern Alamance win a state championship before playing for the Chanticleers.
A ninth-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds in the 2008 Major League Draft, Sappelt started out playing for the Billings Mustangs in Montana and quickly advanced the next year to the Single-A Dayton Dragons and Sarasota Reds before a stint in 2010 with the Advanced Single-A Lynchburg Hillcats.
Sappelt has caught on quickly with his Mudcats coaches and his teammates.
"He's a guy that has a lot of talent, and he can do a lot of things on the baseball field really well, like covering a lot of ground in the center field, running well, and hitting the ball with authority," Mudcats manager David Bell said. "But overall, he's just a guy that brings a lot of positive energy to a ballclub. He's a big part of the team and has been right from the beginning. He has a way about him. He's comfortable with those around him, people like him, and he mixed in right from the beginning. I think he's become a big part of this team, both on and off the field."
Sappelt calls himself a joker, laid back and relaxed, but still intense and filled with the determination to win.
"It took a little while to adapt to the new level, like new personalities and new faces, but I feel like I'm in now," he said. "Not too many people have my personality, and I think that fits in well with the team. I'm funny and always telling jokes, always talking, and I just like to have fun. I also love to win, and I'm always out to win."
And though the young player has just gotten used to playing in a higher division, Sappelt is setting his sights farther and hoping to eventually play in the major leagues.
"That's the goal - to go up there and help them win in any way I can," he said. "I just need to keep doing well and keep learning the game while I'm here until I'm ready to go there."
Others, however, such as John Manuel, the editor of Baseball America, has his qualms about Sappelt because of his small size.
"As far as a pro prospect, as a guy who is 5-9, he's always going to have his doubters since there are not a lot of guys his size in the major leagues," Manuel said. "Usually guys who are smaller and who aren't necessarily going to be starters in the major league have to be versatile, defensive players. We rated him as the best defensive outfielder in the [Cincinnati Reds] organization, but we didn't put him in our top 30 prospects."
Sappelt said that he doesn't see size as a significant issue, however, and believes that through skill and practice, he can be propelled into the major leagues.
"If you can play the game, you can play the game," Sappelt said. "It doesn't matter if you're 6-5 or 5-9. I've seen terrible 6-5 guys and terrible 5-9 guys, but it doesn't matter. It just matters how you play the game, if you can get the job done or not."
Bell believes that Sappelt has the right tools to bring him to the next level, though maybe not as quickly as hoped.
"He's done well at every level, and if he just continues to play and play and continues to do well, there's no reason why it won't happen for him," Bell said.
