A recent discussion in the Bay Area sports scene has been about the play of Oakland Athletics’ star left fielder Yoenis Cespedes.  The discussion, though, has not been as much about his sophomore slump that he is going through, but rather the way he plays on the field.  Occasionally Cespedes will not hustle down the line on a pop up or will take a crazy route to the ball.  Discussions have swirled around if he is just lazy, or if it is a cultural thing.

It is quite obvious that Cespedes will often take unorthodox routes to the ball, and there is an easy excuse for that.  Cespedes is a center fielder, and has always been a center fielder, but now he is in his second season as a left fielder.  Even though some would argue he should be more accustomed to the position after a full season, he isn’t learning this position in the minors where if he makes a mistake it’s not a big deal and he can just work on it until he gets it right.  No, he is learning at the major league level where every small mistake is magnified and every mistake he makes could cost the team a crucial game.

The other thing that has come into question is his sometimes “lazy” base running.  The most recent time this has come into question was on July 28th when he hit a lazy fly ball to right center field.  Cespedes was noticeably upset with himself when the ball left the bat, looked at his bat, tossed it aside, and began jogging to first.  Mike Trout was playing center, and is normally a defensive stud, but he could not find the ball in the sun and the ball dropped.  Watching the game you could hear the announcers, Scott Hatteberg and Glen Kuiper, upset that Cespedes was standing on first because he did not hustle out of the box.  This is not the first, nor will it probably be the last time that Cespedes does something like this.  The guy is a competitor, and when he knows he missed something, he gets upset.  In this case, and many more like it, he was upset with himself and gave up on the play.

Now, I said it won’t be the last time this happens because I believe it won't, it’s just the way Cespedes plays.  I don’t believe it is an issue, though, and this is why.  Later in the game, with two men on base, Cespedes came up to bat and he was still upset with himself from not hustling on the earlier play.  All he did was lace a double into the left centerfield gap and hustle so hard he would have turned it into a triple had Brandon Moss not stopped at third on the play.  Cespedes then had to hustle back to second.  So, while there will be instances where Cespedes may get upset and not hustle, they will be followed by the most motivated man you may ever see on the playing field.

Now, the question is, is he an enigma in Oakland?  Yes, because he has instances like this when he will seem lazy and without his head in the game, and then the next minute he hustles so hard he almost passes his teammate on the base paths.  Should fans be worried about it?  Absolutely not.  The reigning AL Manager of the Year, Bob Melvin, sees nothing wrong with it and sees Cespedes as a fierce competitor, and as long as he doesn’t have a problem with it, neither should you.