[USML Announce] Eric Karabell (a/k/a Blocker's Doppleganger) on Yoenis Cespedis

[Jeffrey Winick]

Because I know all of you are not ESPN Insiders, I wanted to make sure that none of you missed this article on Yoenis Cespedes, the still available stud outfielder for the Oakland Athletics (and Win Ick Ben Ein Berliners).



Yoenis Cespedes a worthy trade target 

April, 30, 2014
APR 30
10:05
AM ET

By Eric Karabell | ESPN.com



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Michael Zagaris/Getty Images
Nearly half of Yoenis Cespedes' 21 hits have gone for extra bases this season.
Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes returned to the team’s lineup Tuesday after missing four games with a tweaked hamstring, getting one single, two walks and three runs scored in a blowout win over lefty Martin Perez and the Texas Rangers. Cespedes, a seventh-rounder in ESPN average live drafts, remains 100 percent owned in standard leagues and certainly should be, but what kind of player is he? After all, there’s a certain Cuban slugger lighting things up for the Chicago White Sox (Jose Abreu), and there’s constant attention on the lightning rod in right field for the Los Angeles Dodgers (Yasiel Puig). Cespedes was terrific his first year and a bit less so as a sophomore. At age 28, it’s tough to know what fantasy owners will be getting, but he seems almost under the radar.
Through 23 games and just shy of 100 plate appearances, Cespedes has hit for the power we expect, and his walk rate has never been better. These are positives. In fact, the Tuesday free passes give Cespedes 12 on the young season, nearly a third of his entire season total from 2013. Cespedes hasn’t stolen any bases, but if we could get a combination of the power with a strong batting average -- and exhibiting this type of plate discipline would indicate that’s certainly more than a possibility -- we’d all take it. Cespedes hit 23 and 26 home runs his first two seasons, respectively, but lost 52 points of batting average the second year. We’d like that back!
Texas’ Perez entered play coming off four consecutive wins, and he hadn’t permitted a run in his past three outings, two of them shutouts, including one in Oakland his latest outing. So this wasn’t exactly a struggling pitcher; the Athletics got eight runs off him, and in another good sign, the one hit Cespedes had was a single the opposite way to right field. Cespedes is certainly capable of using all fields for his power as well. Again, April isn’t over but it’s been nothing but good signs, except for the missed games with injury. That’s been a staple of his early work with the Athletics over three seasons as well.
Overall, Cespedes isn’t really a building-block offensive asset in fantasy, not the way he was treated in drafts, but the potential is there for him to be one. Do you sell high thinking the newfound plate discipline is a ruse or do what it takes to get a guy with legit 40-homer upside, or perhaps 30 home runs and a strong batting average? I’m on the side of attempting to trade for him. It’s tough to expect more than 150 games -- he averaged 132 his first two campaigns -- but there’s so much power potential that this could be the big season, even if few realize it so far.


You know where to find me.


Jeff

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