Yoenis Cespedes incident

 Steve Delabar, shown left, was not greatly amused by kitty Cespedes' little strut.

..................

I/O:  Here's the incident on video.  

With two out in the 4th, and a 5-0 lead, Jason Vargas walked Jonny Gomes and then threw an 84 mph cut fastball to Terrell Owens, er, Yoenis Cespedes.  His Bling-ship accepted the invitation, launching the ball 462 feet into the night.

CRUNCH:  As you can see, Cespedes stood at home plate watching the flight of the ball ... no, actually, he goosenecked around the basketball court with his hand hanging up in there, giving Vargas an obvious "don't bring that slop into my house" facial.

The problem is that the American League is certainly not Cespedes' house.  Mike Blowers' disgust was instant:  "That is the second home run of his major league career."

Can you imagine, if a visiting white American player were in Havana, and he crushed a tape-measure homer, and stood and home plate with his arms up DON'T BRING THAT INTO MY HOUSE!  YEAH BABY!  Literally:  do you think he'd get home safely?  ... this was apparently explained to Cespedes, after the game, and he apologized and was clear that he would not do it again in the majors.

.........

Almost as if a drone character in a Dan Jenkins novel, Bill Krueger came on screen.  "What we are seeing here is that Cespedes has a slider-speed bat."  Which Krueger deduced from Cespedes being SO ready for an 84 mph pitch, and from the fact that Cespedes hit a Shawn Kelley hanging slider in Japan.

I couldn't tell whether Krueger was so offended by Cespedes' antics that he was hurling false accusations, or whether it was another sparkling instance of Krueger's lightning-quick game sense.  I wondered about it for a few minutes...

........

Dr. D could hardly believe his eyes as Eric Wedge, apparently wearing a wire, marched out EXACTLY before Cespedes' next at-bat and replaced the 87-mph Vargas with the 94-MPH Steve Delabar.  The Mariner bullpen comes into the 2012 season a bubbling mess of mystery meat, but this choice was simple, if you had believed Krueger.  You just go to your hardest thrower.  

Wedge did that.  Sometimes it is so fun to watch MLB(TM) virtuosos playing their games-within-the-game.

Delabar laid his index finger alongside Cespedes' nose and flipped his head sideways several times in the pre-rumble "interview."  Then he sucker-punched Cespedes in the gut, coming up from the floor and spilling His Bling-ship's cookies.  It was 1, 2, 3 pitches and Mr. 462 used his two-footed squat jump to leap back into the dugout as quickly as possible.  That real enough for you, bro'?  

His Blingage drew Tom Wilhelmsen the next time, and 4 pitches later he was welcome to slink away again.  There were no more "Don't bring that slop in here" noises, unless the noises were coming from the mound. 

.

CRUNCH:  Usually Dr. D is not fast to endorse MLB(TM) entitlement codes, and he's got nothing against fantastic things being done against the Mariners.  He laughed uproariously into the empty 3rd-deck bleachers, as did Junior into his glove, when Mark McGwire hit that Randy Johnson pitch off the back wall* of the Kingdoom.

But from street basketball, he does know how dangerous it is for a newbie to start strutting and staring people down ... after the newbie hits his first shot.  He has seen some really vicious fights start that way, including those involving the youngish Dr. D.  Major leaguers do need to find ways to keep the testosterone under some semblance of control.

SSI has to take Blowers' side on this one.  Cespedes is liable to wind up getting hurt out there, if somebody doesn't grab him by the dangling gold earrings and set him straight.

.........

Bo Jackson had a slider-speed bat, and he used to show off on mistake pitches.  As a first guess, we could imagine His Bling-Ness running a career sort of like Bo's.

 

Sudden thought.  Suppose that you own the A's, and you ask Billy Beane.  "Hey, how do we know that this guy does not have a slider-speed bat?"

If you're Billy Beane, how do you answer that?

Comments

1

Observations on the whole run of Doc's observations:
It was his 2nd MLB tater in 3 MLB games. So I'll give Cespedes a break. It was a pretty impressive shot, you will have to admit. Maye I'll give him the break because he soon got his slap in the face, well two of them. Delabar totally owned him on that AB. Wilhelmsen whipped him, too. But Cespedes will be fine, and he'll learn a touch of humility. By the way, his throw home on Ryan's slide, was a heck of a toss.
D-E-L-A-B-A-R! Wow!
Vargas' changeup to Pennington was wicked. Almost like something out of a Looney Toons episode.
Figgins made two good bunts, had one excuse me hit and made one good swing. That's certainly more than I expected out of him. I"ll be WAY glad when he's gone and out of the way of about 5 better players.
I thought Vargas competed like a champion.
How do you pitch to Ackley? Good luck.
I thought that on Saunders double, he did have that shortened stroke. Didn't pay attention on his other AB's, I suppose.
Ichiro looked cruddy.
And we get Felix up tonight. Go team.
moe

2

He's lucky this is 2012 and not 1972 or Delabar's first pitch would have been a 96 MPH shot to the ribs.

4
ghost's picture

I have nowhere good to put this comment...but I thought I'd point out that, as opposed to Vinny Catricala, who looked a little uneven, but capable at third, Mark Trumbo is being heavily panned at third in LA. They're saying he won't get more than 10 starts at the position if he plays like he did last night. Two errors, one fielding, one throwing...in three total chances. Yowch.
So...yeah...that experiment will not work. Which means the Angels have a line-up problem...how will they get Trumbo, Morales, and Pujols in there at the same time? Can they try Pujols at another position? He used to play LF and 3B.
I don't think the Angels are as good offensively as people assume.

5
ghost's picture

...when Wedge went to Delabar, there was a tiny part of me that was hoping he did that just so that the hard throwing could bury one between that little punk's shoulder blades at 97 mph. Taste the delicious pain, you little wannabe. Unfortunately, there were two men on base and the game was not out of reach. Alas...retribution will have to be limited to striking his immature little heiny out twice in a row and demonstrating that, here in the big leagues, we throw harder than 89, kid.
Sorry...I don't take kindly to showing off, and even less kindly when you're not good enough to show off. Cespedes does, IMHO, have a slider-speed bat, and mediocre pitch recognition. I was watching the White Sox/Rangers game and seeing how easy it was to toy with Viciedo and and Alexi Ramirez despite their obvious talents. I think Cespedes is the same old song and dance. Cuban players just aren't smart baseball players...and no, that's not a racial comment...they just don't play the game with a lot of careful deliberation down there, apparently, because I have yet to encounter an intelligent Cuban position player (baseball intelligent). There are a few smart Cuban pitchers, obviously, but they all look like Yuni Betancourt to me on offense. Some more talented, some less, but all "see ball hit ball" guys who aren't especially adept at learning and working to get better.

6
ghost's picture

...Oakland's offense is TERRIBLE. Really REALLLLY bad. They might actually be worse than Seattle's from last year. Their number four hitter against lefties is Jonny Gomes? Really? Their number six hitter is Kurt Suzuki? EW!
If I were an As fan...I would seriously wonder if my team were even capable of batting around this year.

7

was a smash 10 feet to the left of the right fielder as well, it is pretty amazing how much confidence he instills with less than a full season under his belt.
I was really impressed by Delabar as well, it seemed like he was hitting his spots well for a guy that's getting compared regularly to Aardsma. Willhelmsen, on the other hand, seemed to be missing his spots by a foot every other pitch, it took 10 or 12 pitches before he was able to reign it in.

8
Steen.'s picture

And, The batter is holding a bat afterall. If he wants to make things extra fair all he needs to do is beat the catcher to the mound.

9

The tape-measure home run is perfectly permissible.  It is the taunting that is asking for an answer...
In NPB, don't pitchers tip their hats after hit batsmen?  Suppose they did a Riverdance?  :- )

10

It's like the Knicks are being blown out 77-49, but then Carmelo throws down a dunk and walks over to the crowd and takes bows?
Oh yeah baby!  We're here to see me!  There's a certain disrespect of your OWN TEAMMATES when you're styling despite getting blown out.  Who cares about the game?  I'm on ESPN!
Sixth grade yes, grown men no.  It's supposed to be about the scoreboard.

12

I'd be pretty psyched about the upside.
Ka'aihue
Reddick
Seth Smith
His Bling-ship
Gomes
Suzuki
Looks like a Taro draft in rounds 10-17.  For the dollars spent, that's some interesting fantasy baseball IMHO :- )

13
ghsot's picture

You had Kila and you tried to sell him to me in a trade as being a lock for 40 doubles and a .400 OBP or somesuch. My response, as I recall, was, "LOL...love ya man!" I found it humorous. Kila is exactly the kind of player moneyball says you get...but Kila is also never going to be successful in the big leagues. He's Kotchman minus fastball-hitting ability. Looks good in AAA mashing on the mush in the backs of those minor league rotations...gets his lunch handed to him in the bigs. AAAA all the way baby. Gomes has no upside anymore. Sorry. Seth Smith also has no upside anymore...he is what he is...which is a nice piece to have, but they're going to be batting him third against righties...he ain't no number three hitter. Cespedes is certainly NOT a cheap upside guy...he's an ENORMOUS gamble and IMHO...talents and all, he will fan 160 times and bat .230.

14
paracorto's picture

well, looks like he learned quickly to hit Delabar's 94mph fastball. I'm afraid the Cespedes story will be much the same than Kendry Morales's one. Better be careful in underrating Cuban players I guess.

15

Cespedes is giving as good as he's getting.  Kudos to him.  
Also, Krueger on the postgame was quick to give him his due, cheerfully admitting this time that Cespedes is a very exciting new player.
We haven't triangulated the man yet, and if I were an A's fan, I'd be jacked up.  Anybody hit three dings for the Mariners this series?  Supposing Montero had?

16
paracorto's picture

before being labeled as a star, that's obvious. What I wish to say is that when you have a very young Cuban player (especially a position player) who has already showed to be a special one in his Country we should be just careful. This is not a 17-years old unknown baby from the Dominicana, here's we have a player who performed at the highest level in what I consider the competition environment closest to MLB - and he did it at a very young age. For many years has been fabled about how Cuban baseball could have performed vs major league teams. I still believe that an infield made up by the likes of 1B Kindelan, 2B Pacheco, 3B Linares, SS Mesa and C Pestano could have been extremely adequate to play in the majors. Just my opinion of course - well, perhaps that was the same opinion showed by some MLB front offices who tried repeatedly to lure all of them at that time...

18
ghost's picture

He did hit a 94 mph pitch for a dinger...but it was a 94 mph pitch directly in the center of the plate on a 2-0 count with no movement. That's a BP fastball even at 94. Slider speed bats can hit 94 mph fastballs that are right down the middle of the plate, expected, and lifeless.
Felix seemed to have fun toying with Cespedes.
He's got some awesome power, but I think he's going to have long slumps this year against better pitching...all of his homers have come late in games against meatball relievers or against starting pitchers with mediocre effectiveness. Call me when he tortures real pitching.

Add comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.