Oakland Athletics – LF Yoenis Cespedes
That’s right, household name Yoenis Cespedes. Wait, you’ve never heard of him? Here’s some explanation then: Cespedes led a painfully light-hitting A’s team into the playoffs as the AL West champions. Well, he didn’t do it single-handedly, but his contributions were integral and necessary for such an anemic offense. Cespedes had a .356 OBP with a team-leading .505 slugging percentage, along with 23 home runs, 70 runs and 82 RBI. Cespedes was a huge contributor to one of the most unlikely success stories this season. The word “scrappy” gets tossed around a lot in sports these days, but it applies perfectly to these Oakland A’s. It’s a team full of widely unknown players like Josh Reddick (RF) and Jonny Gomes (DH), as well as aging castoffs like Brandon Inge (3B) and Bartolo Colon (SP).
Yet here they are, with home field advantage against the Tigers in the Division Series. Watch for Cespedes to be a big factor at the plate – he already came through big for them in Oakland’s final six regular season games, in which he hit .381 with a .500 OBP. The A’s won all six of those games to snatch the division from the Rangers on the last day of the season.
