#MyCardMonday Thank you Yoenis Cespedes

I guess you could say this is a second part of my last blog post about David Price being traded away from Detroit. I will save my ramblings about why this was for the good of the team, because you can just go back to the last post to read that.

Yoenis Cespedes spent a half season with the Detroit Tigers before he was traded to the New York Mets for two prospects, Mike Fulmer and Luis Cessa. In the half season he spent in Detroit, Cespedes put of some of his best numbers yet as a major leaguer. He posted .293/.323/.506 with 18 home runs and 61 RBIs while having an OPS+ of 126. He was on pace to have his best season yet. I hope he finishes the season out strong for the Mets and maybe from the rumors (he has been telling friends and family that he would like to come back to Detroit) he will re-sign with the Tigers in the off-season. Either way thank you Cespedes for the exciting half season we were able to watch you play.

The Trade: Cespedes for Porcello

The big trade for the Tigers this off-season was with the Boston Red Sox. The BoSox needed pitching and had a surplus of outfield bats and the Tigers need help in the outfield. I would like to say Detroit had a surplus of arms, but I personally don't think they do. Detroit would end up sending Rick Porcello to Boston for Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Wilson, and Gabe Speier. On paper this looks like a pretty even trade for both teams.

Rick Porcello made his major league debut back in 2009 as a 20 year old for the Tigers. Over the next 6 seasons he would go on to win at least 10 games for each year. He has shown signs of being a good middle of the rotation pitcher. He is known as a ground ball pitcher. He might not blow you away with a strikeout, but with a good defense behind him he can rack up the ground balls with a career rating of 52.1%. It seems for the past few seasons a lot of people were saying "this is going to be Porcello's breakout year." Well I would say 2014 was his breakout year. He had a career low 3.43 ERA and won a career high 15 games for the Tigers. The one thing I like to stress about Porcello is the fact he is only going to be 26 years old this season and has already 6 full seasons under his belt.

The centerpiece in trade that the Tigers received for Porcello is outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes is a Cuban born player who was originally signed by the Oakland Athletics in 2012. He would make his debut that year at the prime age of 26. Last year before the trade deadline the Athletics would flip him to the Red Sox for Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes. Now that trade didn't make much senses to me. In Boston they have a mind set of going to the plate and looking for a walk before a base hit. This is not Yoenis Cespedes. He is a free swinger that only walks 6.5% of the time in his career and has struck out 20.9% of the time. That is the downside of Cespedes. The upside of him is that he has averaged almost 24 home runs and 87 RBIs (with a career high last year with 100). Now the other plus side is the cannon of an arm he has in the outfield. He has a total of 35 outfield assists in his 3 years in the majors. He will be a deadly force for the Tigers in the outfield and hitting behind Miggy and V-Mart.