Orlando Cepeda

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Orlando Cepeda

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Orlando Cepeda

Orlando Cepeda was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1999.

Five highlights of Orlando Cepeda's career:

Orlando Cepeda's major-league debut was the first major-league baseball game ever played in California, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Cepeda went 1-for-5 with a home run in the game. Cepeda went on to win the National League Rookie of the Year award that season. That season, Cepeda batted .312/.342/.512 and led the NL with 38 doubles.

Cepeda was named an All-Star in seven seasons. He received MVP votes eight times.

Cepeda finished second in NL MVP voting in 1961. That season, Cepeda batted .311/.362/.609 and led the NL in home runs (46) and RBI (142).

Cepeda won the National League MVP award in 1967. That season, Cepeda batted .325/.399/.524 with 37 doubles, 25 home runs, 91 runs scored, and a league-leading 111 RBI.

Orlando Cepeda was the first designated hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox. That season, Cepeda played 142 games, all at DH, at batted .289/.350/.444 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI, winning the first-ever DH of the Year award.

The first two tables below present Orlando Cepeda's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1958	SFN	20	148	15.6	14.7	0.9	-0.6
1959	SFN	21	151	19.1	16.7	2.7	0.9
1960	SFN	22	151	19.5	18.1	1.7	-0.2
1961	SFN	23	152	20.6	16.2	4.8	2.9
1962	SFN	24	162	18.8	14.9	3.9	2.2
1963	SFN	25	156	20.0	14.7	5.6	3.9
1964	SFN	26	142	18.1	13.5	4.8	3.2
1965	SFN	27	33	0.8	0.9	0.0	-0.1
+– 1966		28	142	15.6	13.2	2.3	0.9
	SFN		19	2.0	1.0	1.1	0.9
	SLN		123	13.5	12.1	1.2	-0.0
1967	SLN	29	151	22.7	13.8	8.9	7.1
1968	SLN	30	157	17.9	15.1	2.5	0.9
1969	ATL	31	154	18.9	16.1	2.3	0.5
1970	ATL	32	148	16.1	15.4	0.2	-1.3
1971	ATL	33	71	7.7	6.7	0.9	0.2
+– 1972		34	31	2.2	2.4	-0.2	-0.5
	ATL		28	2.1	2.2	-0.1	-0.4
	OAK		3	0.0	0.1	-0.1	-0.1
1973	BOS	35	142	14.3	13.1	2.7	0.9
1974	KCA	36	33	2.5	2.6	0.2	-0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,124	250.3	208.0	44.3	20.9
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			22	1.8	2.7	-0.9	-1.2
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,146	252.1	210.6	43.4	19.7

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1958	SFN	20	148	15.8	14.4	1.5	-0.0
1959	SFN	21	151	19.7	16.2	3.9	2.1
1960	SFN	22	151	20.6	17.0	3.9	2.0
1961	SFN	23	152	20.8	16.0	5.1	3.2
1962	SFN	24	162	18.4	15.2	3.1	1.4
1963	SFN	25	156	20.1	14.6	5.8	4.1
1964	SFN	26	142	18.4	13.3	5.2	3.6
1965	SFN	27	33	0.7	1.0	-0.2	-0.3
+– 1966		28	142	15.7	13.0	2.8	1.4
	SFN		19	1.7	1.4	0.4	0.3
	SLN		123	14.0	11.6	2.4	1.1
1967	SLN	29	151	21.5	15.0	6.4	4.6
1968	SLN	30	157	17.1	15.9	0.9	-0.7
1969	ATL	31	154	18.1	16.9	0.6	-1.1
1970	ATL	32	148	17.6	13.8	3.5	2.0
1971	ATL	33	71	7.5	6.9	0.5	-0.2
+– 1972		34	31	2.4	2.1	0.3	0.0
	ATL		28	2.4	2.0	0.3	0.1
	OAK		3	0.0	0.1	-0.1	-0.1
1973	BOS	35	142	13.5	13.9	2.0	0.2
1974	KCA	36	33	2.1	2.9	-0.5	-0.8
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,124	250.0	208.3	44.9	21.5
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			22	2.1	2.3	-0.2	-0.5
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			2,146	252.2	210.6	44.7	21.0

On March 17, 1969, Orlando Cepeda was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Atlanta Braves for Joe Torre.

In retrospect, this trade was significant for two reasons. First, both Cepeda and Torre won MVP awards as Cardinals - Cepeda in 1967, two years before the trade, and Torre in 1971, two years after the trade. Second, both Cepeda and Torre are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Torre is technically in the Hall of Fame because of his managing, but his playing career was very impressive. So impressive, for example, that he is in the Baseball Think Factory Hall of Merit. Orlando Cepeda is not, in fact, in the Hall of Merit.

The next table compares the career records of Orlando Cepeda and Joe Torre, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Games	pWins	pLosses	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLosses	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Orlando Cepeda						Joe Torre
1958	148	15.6	14.7	0.516	-0.6	0.9
1959	151	19.1	16.7	0.534	0.9	2.7
1960	151	19.5	18.1	0.519	-0.2	1.7	2	0.1	0.0	0.861	0.0	0.0
1961	152	20.6	16.2	0.561	2.9	4.8	113	10.0	9.9	0.503	0.4	1.4
1962	162	18.8	14.9	0.558	2.2	3.9	80	5.9	6.5	0.475	-0.4	0.2
1963	156	20.0	14.7	0.576	3.9	5.6	142	15.4	13.8	0.527	1.4	2.9
1964	142	18.1	13.5	0.573	3.2	4.8	154	18.2	14.9	0.550	2.9	4.6
1965	33	0.8	0.9	0.462	-0.1	0.0	148	16.6	13.4	0.554	3.2	4.7
1966	142	15.6	13.2	0.542	0.9	2.3	148	18.1	14.1	0.562	3.9	5.5
1967	151	22.7	13.8	0.621	7.1	8.9	135	14.8	13.3	0.526	1.7	3.1
1968	157	17.9	15.1	0.542	0.9	2.5	115	13.5	11.6	0.539	2.0	3.2
------	------	------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------	------
Before Trade	1,545	188.7	151.7	0.554	21.1	38.1	1,037	112.6	97.5	0.536	15.2	25.7
------	------	------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------	------
1969	154	18.9	16.1	0.540	0.5	2.3	159	18.6	14.4	0.563	2.5	4.1
1970	148	16.1	15.4	0.511	-1.3	0.2	161	18.5	17.3	0.517	1.0	2.8
1971	71	7.7	6.7	0.534	0.2	0.9	161	26.2	17.1	0.605	8.3	10.5
1972	31	2.2	2.4	0.478	-0.5	-0.2	149	17.9	16.4	0.523	0.8	2.5
1973	142	14.3	13.1	0.522	0.9	2.7	141	15.4	13.3	0.536	0.8	2.3
1974	33	2.5	2.6	0.492	-0.1	0.2	147	15.4	13.3	0.536	0.7	2.1
1975							114	10.8	10.6	0.504	-0.2	0.8
1976							114	8.2	8.0	0.505	-0.5	0.3
1977							26	1.0	2.0	0.330	-1.1	-0.9
------	------	------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------	------
After Trade	579	61.6	56.2	0.523	-0.2	6.2	1,172	132.0	112.4	0.540	12.3	24.5
------	------	------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	2,124	250.3	208.0	0.546	20.9	44.3	2,209	244.6	209.9	0.538	27.6	50.2

Article last updated: April 29, 2020

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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