Jason Daniel Kendall is a California native and is 33 years old. He is the son of former catcher Fred Kendall who had a 12 year major league career with only three teams, spending most of his time in San Diego, where Jason was born. Kendall graduated from Torrance High School in California where he played ball and had ridiculous numbers, the most impressive being a 43 game hit streak , then a national high school record, and a .549 Avg his senior year. Because of this he was a highly touted prospect and was recruited by Pirate scout Ed Roebuck.
He was drafted out of high school in the first round (23rd overall) by the Pirates in the 1992 amateur draft. He started immediately after being drafted and played for the Bradenton Rookie League team. Kendall started 30 games behind the plate batting .261/.311/.279 while allowing 13 passed balls, which led the league. He was promoted the following season to A-Augusta where he batted .276/.317/.352 with 1 HR and 40 RBIs. He was named to the mid- and post-season All Star teams while throwing out 30% of basestealers.
In 1994 Kendall started the year at A+-Salem and batted .318/.395/.437, while swiping 14 bases. It appears it was here that he learned how to take pitches and walk quite a bit more. These numbers earned him a promotion to AA-Carolina. Here he batted a woeful .234/.265/.277 in 13 games. At this point he was named the 2nd best prospect in the Pirates organization.
1995 was the breakout year for Kendall. He played the entire year with AA-Carolina batting .326/.404/.448, while swiping 10 bases with 8 HRs and 71 RBIs. These phenomenal numbers earned him the Southern League's MVP award and paved the way for his call-up the following year. Baseball Prospectus agreed that Kendall was going to be pretty good, but felt that he needed a little over a year in AAA before making the jump. They were wrong.
Kendall's rookie campaign was pretty impressive. He retained his offensive prowess from the minors by going .300/.372/.401 with 42 RBIs and 3 HRs. The power is still not there, and it'll never get there, but that didn't stop the Sporting News to award Jason with the 1996 Rookie Player of the Year Award. Additionally he was selected to the Rookie All-Star team. He made 117 starts at catcher and was HBP 15 times, Rickie Weeks style. He was later named to the NL All-Star Team, which is a rare feat for any rookie. Only 5 rookie catchers have ever done that, the most notable being Johnny Bench in 1968. The only blemish on his resume is that he only threw out 31 of 167 baserunners, which is a whopping 18.6%. He committed 18 errors that year and surrendered more stolen bases than everyone in the league except for Mike Piazza. Definitely a step down from his last year in AA-Carolina.
In 1997 Kendall established himself as a long term catcher, improving his defense, OBP and power. He posted a .294/.391/.414 Avg/OBP/Slg while hitting 8 HRs with 49 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. He struck out a bit more, but walked just as much more as well. Even better, he made 139 starts behind the plate. Wow, that's some serious durability, but i guess you can do that when you're 22. My new favorite Kendall stat: He was hit by a pitch 31 times that year, only 3 behind good ole Craig Biggio. He cut down the basestealers by throwing out 35% of attempted thieves. Ultimately the year resulted in a four year contract offer by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who realized this guys potential.
It's scary to think this guys numbers could get much better, but in 1998 Kendall just ketp going off his rocker. He went .327/.411/.473 at age 24. Those are amazing numbers for a catcher. He compiled 12 HRs, 75 RBIs and 26 SBs. It looks like the Pirates made the right choice of giving the guy his contract. BP refers to him as the unquestioned outspoken leader of the Pirate team. He was drilled with 31 more pitches and ranked 7th in the league with this beyond respectable .411 OBP. Unfortunately his throwing tailed a bit punching out only 25.2% of attempted stealers. These numbers earned him another All-Star appearance.
Things didn't change much in 1999. The guy was as consistent as ever going .332/.428/.511. That's good stuff right there. Add on 8 homers, 41 RBIs and 22 swipes and you've got another solid season from a young catcher. Those numbers seem pretty low, but you should know that Kendall only appeared in 78 games that year because of an injury he sustained against Milwaukee midway through the season. Kendall laid down a bunt and took off trying to beat the throw from the 3rd baseman (I think. I remember the play oddly enough but I can't remember who threw the ball). When Kendall hit first base he dislocated his ankle, forcing him to get surgery on July 4th, ending his season. Threw out 40% of runners that year. Could have had an MVP year.
Kendall returned in 2000 healthy to make yet another all-star team. He went .320/.412/.470, hitting his career high 14 HRs, 58 RBIs, taking 22 bases and walking a career high 79 times. He played in 152 games that year, which is absolutely sick for a catcher, and made 145 starts behind the plate. Because of this Kendall was able to finish the year having scored 112 runs which is something to truly be proud of. It didn't hurt that he spent a better portion of the year batting in the leadoff spot. Kendall also became the first catcher since 1985 to hit for the cycle. He was able to throw out 28% of thieves this time around and ended his season by having his cheek bone fractured by a pickoff throw at first base. Pittsburgh signed him to an additional multi-year deal after the year was finished (6-years $60 Mil).
The dropoff began in 2001, at age 27. Kendall had a contract slump year going .266/.335/.358. He hit for 10 homers, 53 RBIs and swiped only 13 bags. BP suggests this was a result of playing with a bad thumb on his throwing hand, which he remedied by having surgery in October. Oddly enough they tried to put him in left-field for a few games, which I don't understand.
Kendall returned healthy once again in 2002, improving his numbers while shaking off some rust. he went .283/.350/.356 with only 3 HRs and 44 RBIs with 15 SBs. Unfortunately these aren't the numbers of a $10 million dollar player and there was lots of trade talk going on, since the walk numbers dropped so much. The worst thing for Pittsburgh was Kendall had a pretty solid No-Trade clause in his contract, leaving him to do what he wants. Side Note: Kendall reached his 1,000th hit that year, a milestone for any major leaguer.
2003 was a bounce back year and probably a big relief for a team dedicated to this guy for 4 more years. Kendall went .325/.399/.416 with 6 homers and 58 RBIs. The stolen bases are pretty much not worthy of discussing any further. However, Kendall started another 145 games behind the plate and reached elite status once again as a catcher.
2004 was almost a mirror image of '03 with a .319/.399/.390. He led all catchers with 146 games, 86 runs scored and 183 hits leading to a trade to Oakland at the end of the year. Without going into a bunch of details, Kendall was essentially pushed off in order to save some cash. In return the Pirates received LHP Mark Redman and LHP Arthur Rhodes. Oakland got a steal there considering they had the money, which was 3 years and 34 mil.
His first year as an Athletic was a weak one, and the post-30 catching cough got to him. Kendall hit .271/.345/.321 amassing no homers and 53 RBIs. I guess the change to the AL wasn't kind to him. (Interesting factoids are on MLB.com about how bad his slugging was, but more interesting for me is that Willie Randolph was a former Brewer who had the record of the most RBIs recorded in a season with no homeruns: 54). Kendall started a record high 146 games behind the plate, which confuses me because most teams in the AL give catchers more time off with the DH position available. Briefly, so everyone knows how bad his season really was, Jason managed to GIDP 25 times and threw out 15.1% of runners.
2006 was a little bit better, but the elite status is gone. .295/.367/.342 is better, but the slugging leaves A LOT to be desired. He started 42 straight games that year and 141 games total. This puts him as the most in the majors for the 6 years prior. He appears to have turned into a second half player, batting .323 after the break which we'll see again in the following year. After 9 years in the league, he finally made his first post-season appearance.
Finally, in 2007 Kendall dropped off the face of the Earth. In his first 80 games in Oakland he batted .226/.261/.281. UGLY! No wonder he was shipped to Chicago for Rob Bowen and RHP Jerry Blevins. The trip to Chicago was a kind one. He batted .270/.362/.356 in his final 57 games for the guys from the North Side and resurrected his free agent value, all while opening the door for 4-star prospect Geovany Soto, who the Brewers will get a mighty taste of.
This is what I gather. The Brewers have obtained a serious emotional leader. He's the kind of guy you root for because he's the average Joe with no power but knows how to play the game, isn't afraid to take one to the noggin and fights for his fellow teammates. If he can get his OBP back up into the .350s, I think we've found ourself a good guy to teach these young guys some veteran rules of thumb.
That's about it. All of the stories and stats presented here were taken from Baseball Prospectus, ESPN.com, MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com if you wanted to see some more stuff. But I think this is pretty thorough.
If you guys are reading this, pass the site on. I would love for this to turn into a more interactive thing and will take suggestions and other stories you would like me to research and write up. I'm not that great of a writer, but the more you write, the better you get. Take care and go Pack! I'll be in the North end zone cheering them on.
2 comments:
Excellent biography of Mad Max Jason Kendall....but you left out that most strange and exotic stat of Kendall being one of only 12 catchers to be involved in 3 No Hitters....
Maybe, we can startr a pool predicting his fourth? I'm crystal balling Yovani and Kendall in early July.
I was glad to learn that Jason had some success throwing out runners in one or two seasons...It makes his plea to improve in that area sound more convincing.
Again, a great article on Kendal!
By the way, those numbers on Thatcher that you provided are scary. I forgot about his performance with the Padres last year. Do the Brewers have a draft pick in compensatin for Linebrink which is two degrees connected to losing Thatcher?
The Brewers did get a compensatory pick for Linebrink and Cordero as well. Linebrink was a class A free agent, however, because he signed with the White Sox, we did not receive a first-round pick. This is because the White Sox had a terrible win-loss record. As a result the Brewers received the Sox second round pick and a sandwich pick after the first round.
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