Cubs - “Acquired” Kendall
Oakland A’s - Have reportedly acquired C Rob Bowen, an unnamed minor league pitcher and the state of existence which entails not having Jason Kendall on your team from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for, hopefully, something or other.
You’d have to hope that the A’s are at least chipping in something for Kendall’s remaining salary this year, otherwise, this trade is just unecessarily cruel. Kurt Suzuki is going to be hard-pressed to be a league-average catcher, but just the improvement from Jason Kendall to Non-Joke is just about the biggest positional upgrade any contender will make this season. Rob Bowen, bad Cubs start aside, is also a better player than Jason Kendall, which is kind of damning with faint praise as Bowen’s just normal-bad rather than notably-bad. At this point, I’m not sure that the unnamed minor league pitcher involved in the trade wouldn’t be an upgrade at catcher over Jason Kendall.
The Cubs won’t miss Bowen and probably aren’t going to miss the pitcher, given that the player in return was Jason Kendall. It hurts the team - while this is the first year that Geovany Soto’s ever shown anything, he clearly should be starting over a player as bad as, well, Jason Kendall (anyone catching the theme here?)
2007 ZiPS Projection - Jason Kendall
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Period AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG
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Actual 2007* 292 24 66 10 0 2 22 12 27 3 .226 .264 .281
Rest of 2007 240 29 64 10 0 1 22 17 23 3 .267 .331 .321
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2007 Total 532 53 130 20 0 3 44 29 50 6 .244 .295 .299
2008 503 55 125 18 0 1 42 37 50 5 .249 .315 .290
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* - Includes minor league translation, if applicable.
Top Comp - Joe Girardi
2007 ZiPS Projection - Rob Bowen
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Period AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG
———————————————————————————————————-
Actual 2007* 113 15 24 9 0 2 13 17 41 1 .212 .315 .345
Rest of 2007 94 13 21 6 0 2 9 12 26 1 .223 .318 .351
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2007 Total 207 28 45 15 0 4 22 29 67 2 .217 .316 .348
2008 216 32 53 14 0 5 24 28 60 1 .245 .335 .380
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* - Includes minor league translation, if applicable.
Top Comp - Alan Ashby
2007 ZiPS Projection - Geovany Soto
———————————————————————————————————-
Period AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG
———————————————————————————————————-
Actual 2007* 221 18 66 16 0 9 43 22 54 0 .299 .362 .493
Rest of 2007 157 14 41 9 0 4 23 15 37 0 .261 .329 .395
———————————————————————————————————-
2008 360 28 91 21 0 9 47 34 86 0 .253 .321 .386
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* - Includes minor league translation, if applicable.
Top Comp - Ramon Hernandez
Dan Szymborski
Posted: July 17, 2007 at 12:49 AM |
106 comment(s)
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Jason Kendall in a Cubs uni.
Kendall's OPS+ so far as a Cub: 102.
Of course that's going to go down. But quick comparison time:
With San Diego, Micheal Barrett's at: .228/.235/.287 with an OPS+ of 41.
Their lines for the entire season:
JK: .236/.283/.299
MB: .247/.285/.381
Sure Barrett has the OPS+ lead, but that overstates their differences because it weighs SLG the same as OBP, when they're even by the latter. When you factor in Barrett's excramental defense and ballrunning this year, as well as Barrett's greater number of GIDP (in fewer at bats), then not only have the Cubs improved themselves in the clubhouse, but also on the field via their two catcher trades.
3 more hits last night.
Kendall is now hitting .317/.414/.417 in a Cubs uni.
I know it can't continue, but still...
Other than, you know, Koyie Hill/Rob Bowen to Jason Kendall.
Yes, Kendall can be expected to regress substantially, but Szym completely missed the boat on this one.
Not forever, but I won't be shocked if he continues to hit somewhere in that neighborhood for awhile. Lately he seems to be hitting the ball hard, unlike right after the trade, where it looked like he was trying to swing an I-beam.
Kendall has been MUCH better than I expected, but he's only played 18 games for the Cubs and, interestingly, has played exactly TWO games for the Cubs in a ballpark with a park factor under 100 (under 102 for that matter) (St. Louis - park factor of 98). I get the average OPS+ of the parks he's played in as a Cub so far at 104 (which is Wrigley's Batting park factor this year). Nevertheless, even with that caveat, he's still a HUGE upgrade over Hill/Bowen.
When you factor in Barrett's excramental defense
I guess it hasn't been Barrett-level bad but Kendall's defense has struck me so far as pretty unimpressive. At least none of his starting pitchers have felt the need to beat the crap out of him, though.
Well, technically, that's not the part that I've missed the boat on - the A's do now have a starter with an OPS 150 points better than Kendall did with the A's!
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