Jason Kendall is on fire. After four hits yesterday he now has a nine game hitting streak and is batting .382/.432/.471 on the young season. What's missing in this feel good story is that though Kendall's numbers have declined the last several seasons he still has these types of productive outbursts.
Last season he hit .241/.331/.305, a truly dismal season, but had three stretches where he OBP'd over .400 over the course of nine games.
6/5 - 6/16: 33 PA's .379/.455/.379
8/16 - 8/29: 39 PA's .406/.500/.500
9/18 - 9/30: 36 PA's .355/.429/.548
The first nine games of the 2008 season he hit .483/.515/.655 and then had another nine game stretch in June where he put up a nice .400/.486/.567 line. His final numbers that season, .246/.327/.324, were less than impressive.
So what does this mean for 2010 Kendall? Probably more of the same. He'll look good for short stretches and then really bad for longer ones. I know I'll take some heat for being unnecessarily negative and believe me I'd love to be wrong, I just don't think I am. The bottom line is I'm not buying Kendall's hot start, I am enjoying it, don't get me wrong. I'll enjoy it for however long it lasts and given his recent history its most likely almost over.
It's a nice story so far but it's one he's written before and the end result will look nothing like the first chapter.
4 comments:
Couldn't agree more. It's actually pretty sad that the Royals are 4-5 when we might have just seen the best 9-game stretches from 3 regulars -- Pods, Kendall and Guillen, not to mention Parrish and Banny too.
So true, this team should be at least 7-2. Of course we can expect that when the bullpen rights itself the offense or rotation will fall apart. Such is life as a Royals fan.
I think what we are seeing from Kendall right now is a mirage, much like TPJs first season. Once the AL teams figure out just how shallow they can (and should) play Kendall, all of those bloopers are going to be outs. His swing is atrocious and he can't run anymore. I thought that anything would be better than watching Olivo grip-it-and-rip-it every time up, but this might be worse. At least when Olivo made contact something good happened.
We didn't sign Kendall for any offense, and he hits low in the order, so anything we're getting now is just a bonus (even if it's not doing anything). What we do have is Ankiel who should hopefully make up for the loss of Olivo's power. And Guillen of course is on fire. The offense might not keep up the AVG/OBP, but they also aren't bound to be this inefficient the whole season, right?
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