Oct 7, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Oakland Athletics left fielder Yoenis Cespedes (52) at bat during game two of the 2012 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

Yoenis Cespedes, 26, officially latched on with the A’s on February 13^th, 2012 and was unveiled a few weeks later on March 4^th during Spring Training. He was summoned to the big show with a multi-million dollar contract in hand and high expectations that followed. Remember, the A’s made this surprise signing after they had traded their three best pitchers (Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, and Andrew Bailey). Furthermore, they had just committed to Coco Crisp on a pricey multi-year deal to man center field. To justify his signing and contract Cespedes would truly have to have a Rookie of the Year type of season.

He proved himself capable of handling the adjustment as he bypassed the A’s minor league system completely. He had an immediate impact in Japan where he homered against the Mariners during their season opening series. By the end of 2012 Cespedes had rewarded the A’s faith with a .292 batting average and 82 RBIs. He went on to crush 23 home runs and post a .356 on base percentage in 129 games. Defensively he was able to play center field and left field. He proved to be a true 5-tool player with tremendous upside. Despite missing some time with injury, Cespedes was 2nd overall in Rookie of the Year Voting. While we will never know what Cespedes’ final stat line would be had he been healthy the entire year, with the use of a formula we can make some projections to serve the purpose of comparing the rookie seasons of Canseco and Cespedes.

Canseco played in 157 games in his rookie year and compiled impressive power numbers (well they were REALLY impressive before the syringe pile was uncovered). Cespedes, however, missed 33 games. Therefore, in order to complete this rookie season comparison we can make some final projections by tabulating a 162 game stat line that theoretically would have been derived based on them both playing each and every game.

For example: Cespedes actually hit 23 homers in 129 games, or once every 5.61 games. Therefore, over 162 games, using a ratio of 1 homer in every 5.61 games, Cespedes would hit 28.88 homers for the year. Canseco actually hit 33 homers in 157 games, or once every 4.76 games. Therefore, over 162 games, using a ratio of 1 homer in every 4.76 games, Canseco would hit 34.051 homers for the year.

Projected Home Runs over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                 34.051

Cespedes                                28.884

Projected RBIs over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                 120.726

Cespedes                                102.977

Projected Hits over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                  148.586

Cespedes                               178.326

Projected Extra Base Hits over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                  65.006

Cespedes                               66.558

Projected Strike Outs over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                  180.573

Cespedes                               128.093

Projected SB over 162 Games Played

Canseco                                  15.48

Cespedes                               20.09

At Bats Per Home Run

Canseco                                 20.67

Cespedes                                21.17

At Bats Per Strikeouts

Canseco                                  3.897

Cespedes                               4.774

Slugging %

Canseco                                  .457

Cespedes                               .505

OPS (OBP in parenthesis)

Canesco                                  .775 (.318)

Cespedes                               .861 (.356)

Batting Average

Canseco                                  .240

Cespedes                               .292

The above analysis over 162 games shows that Canseco had a little more home run power and drove in more runs. In nearly every other category a healthy Cespedes would have come out ahead. In fact, Cespedes had a dramatically better batting average and OPS. If healthy, Cespedes also would surprisingly out-steal Canseco, who went on to swipe 40 bags in 1988. Cespedes also clearly posted a significantly better strike out ratio. Canseco would have struck out a whopping 180 times had he played 162 games.

If it wasn’t for Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera having truly phenomenal years there is no reason to dismiss that a healthy Cespedes, playing in 162 games, would contend for not only Rookie of the Year honors, but maybe even garner some 2^nd or 3^rd place MVP votes (not win MVP, necessarily). His 162 game statline would have been: .292 average, 28-29 home runs, 102 RBI’s, .861 OPS, 20 SB, and .505 slugging. And all of this on a 1^st place A’s team as compared to Trout’s 3^rd place Angels team. His success truly contributed to the team finishing in 1^st place in the division.

May 17, 2012; Newark, NJ, USA; Worcester Tornadoes infielder Jose Canseco (left) moves out of the way of a pitch during the game against the Newark Bears at Bears

In closing, Cespedes actually had a better rookie year than Canseco in many ways. As a fan I am excited to declare the obvious: Cespedes is not the 2^nd coming of Jose Canseco, he’s better. Before Jose Canseco was, well, Jose Canseco on Steroids, he was actually an extremely successful and popular player with the A’s in the 1980’s. Canseco was phenomenal in his first 4 years in the league. Like Canseco, hopefully Cespedes will have an MVP under his belt along with a World Series ring – with the A’s – in 4 years as well. Knowing that Cespedes over 162 games would have bettered Canseco’s statistics in several aspects, his future looks bright and hopefully he can have a long and healthy career.

After all, Canseco is still being paid to play baseball at age 48 (no seriously, see here).

Pregame ceremony including a jet flyover at O.co Coliseum (Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

It was a night of “unusuals” for two main reasons, first the impressive display of power not seen in Oakland since the likes of Jason Giambi first wore the white spikes, or perhaps harkening back to the Bash Brothers era with Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, and second, the large crowd that was there to witness it.  It’s been a constant thorn in the side of dedicated A’s fans that the Coliseum is largely empty most games these days.  But this night, 35,067 fans jam packed the place to get the first true look at the 2012 A’s.

I arrived roughly an hour before game time, the trek from the North Bay down 580 and 880 is nothing short of arduous, so I consider that an accomplishment.  We (myself and my wife-to-be) settled into our cozy seats in section 119, feeling every bit as excited as the bleacher creatures who had been there since the parking lot opened at 2PM.  A little pomp an circumstance took place, fireworks, color guard, an oversized flag, and don’t forget the sweet jet flyover.  A moment of silence for the victims of that horrible shooting at Oikos University in Oakland earlier in the week was a very nice touch as well.  The introductions of the players were the norm, “And now the Assistant to the Travelling Secretary!”  It was good to see Dallas Braden there and get some love, he seemed to appreciate it too.  A big welcome to Oakland from me to Jonny Gomes, the aforementioned pride of Petaluma.  The part everyone was waiting for certainly was the introduction of CF Yoenis Cespedes, he probably received the loudest ovation of all.

The game itself was not all that unusual, the A’s shot themselves in the foot a few times, gave the Mariners extra outs and it cost them the game.  Brandon McCarthy didn’t have a lot of help, but he did not help himself either.  It was a game that I think most realistic A’s fans in attendance knew wasn’t going our way fairly early on in the evening.  The error by Josh Donaldson was frightening to me, his throw led Jemile Weeks right into the runner, causing him to collide with his left arm and shoulder, spinning him around.  We’ve seen this before, and guys easily get separated or dislocated shoulders for their troubles in this situation, thankfully Jemile did not receive such punishment.  The game became almost comical when on consecutive plays Cespedes and RF Josh Reddick caught potential sacfrice flies only to drop the ball during the transfer to the throwing hand.  The runner on 3rd Chone Figgins respected the arm of Cespedes and was simply bluffing, but he scored easily on the fly to Reddick.  Neither were errors, but ominous signs of the defense we have to look forward to.

The crowd was at its angriest on two occasions.  When Jemile reached base on a throwing error, and went all the way to 3rd when 3B Kyle Seager airmailed the ball to the Seattle bullpen, only to have the entire play wiped out when the home plate umpire decided he fouled the ball off his foot.  Jemile subsequently swung at strike 3 that appeared to be around his eyeballs.  The other play that angered the masses was the sacrifice fly that plated Brendon Ryan, but after further review later on, a nice slide and a lack of blocking the plate by Kurt Suzuki was the culprit.

The A’s tried to spring to life in the 8th, but it was far too little too late.

I felt very similar to how Chris Townsend described it on A’s Talk on 95.7 The Game afterwards as we made our way back north.  It was an ugly game, and if we see this a lot we most likely won’t see a ton of wins, but Yoenis Cespedes gave us all reason to watch these guys all season long.  Watching that home run on television simply does not do it justice, watching it in person does.  I’m hopeful a few of the fans who attended last night’s game were sold on the idea of attending more to see the power display that can be put on by Mr. Number 52.  I know I’ll be there (next game Monday night vs. the KC Royals).  I hope to see many of you as well.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.

Earlier this evening ex-Athletic Jose Canseco tweeted the following:

home runs should not count if you lose and count doble if you win

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 25, 2012

So what exactly would this do for Jose Canseco’s career numbers? Well, let us have a look.

Thank to baseball-reference.com we see that Canseco’s wins/loss/tie splits comes out as follow:

By his own admission we can remove those 155 home runs he hit in losses. That takes him down to 307. Double that and you, of course get 614 home runs.  Good enough for #32 on the all-time leader board, as Jason Wojciechowski shows. But what does that do for his overall numbers? Well, they would look like this:

Hits       ABs          BA       2Bs         3Bs       SLG        OBP        OPS
———————————————————————-
2028      7055    .287    339        14         .688       .376     1.064

Interesting.