…And the Winner is…..the Oakland A’s?

By Corey R. Cunningham

I have always been a baseball fan of the Oakland A’s, as they have a very good reputation. Although over the recent years, the reputation of not winning, but of putting out young talented ball players through their system. Just recently, the A’s won the bidding war, on a talented Cuban player, Yoenis Cespedes. A’s signed Cespedes to a 4yr-$36MM deal. This shocked most of the MLB analyst, and fans. There were numerous teams in the running, and rumor mill for the 26 yr old Cuban outfielder, (Marlins, Cubs, Yankees, Orioles) to name a few, but the sneak attack team was the A’s.

Cespedes has spent the last 7 years in the Cuban league and has been very productive, but I am not sure those numbers he managed to put up in the Cuban league can be subject to the same numbers we should expect in the MLB. Some say, those numbers will diminish to Low-A or High-A numbers, basically taking away 25-35% of his numbers. With the A’s having the OF set this year, Seth Smith LF, Coco Crisp CF, and Josh Reddick RF, I don’t think to expect to see Cespedes on ESPN for MLB, but I do expect to see him in the MILB. Below I have posted a stat courtesy of ‘Fangraphs’.

Year	AB	H	DB	TP	HR	BB	SO	R	RBI	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
2004	288	87	17	7	9	28	65	50	42	3	3	0.302	0.379	0.503
2005	339	106	22	5	15	34	59	69	51	5	2	0.313	0.398	0.540
2006	339	119	24	4	23	44	43	89	78	8	3	0.351	0.442	0.649
2007	340	103	24	3	17	42	53	79	66	15	10	0.303	0.398	0.541
2008	366	104	16	2	26	32	50	82	78	4	4	0.284	0.342	0.552
2009	328	106	19	0	24	43	40	83	76	4	4	0.323	0.411	0.601
2010	342	118	19	4	22	42	45	87	67	5	3	0.345	0.426	0.617
2011	354	118	17	1	33	49	40	89	99	11	3	0.333	0.424	0.667

His best year came of course in 2011, and as most players due produce the last year of a contract (go figure). These numbers are consider ‘ludicrous’ to most baseball fans, but one has to realize if these numbers were reliable, and a great source to what has yet to come, how comes he was not offered more money?, and why take an offer from Oakland? You can locate Cespedes workout mentality on YouTube, or perhaps that might just be a show off factor, who knows if it is real, or who knows if Yoenis Cespedes is really his correct name, anyone remember Fausto Carmona?, I don’t. I have read in recent articles it’s hard for any Cuban / Latin American citizen to survive, so they take every chance they can to do the best for themselves/family. I of course would do what it took to provide for my family, however, I am not sure committing a federal felony would be one of those options for me, as it has more repercussions.

It has been a known fact for many players, from Little League World Series to Cuban/Latin American players to lie about age, and names. One may never know the true identity of most of the players in MLB, however, we concentrate on the talent portion, and not so much the stereotypical image of the person themselves. If Yoenis can produce for the A’s and help the small market ball club, which they choose to be, then great. I hope the best for Cespedes and the Oakland A’s; however, if he would have gone to a big market team, I could not say the same.