Free John Lackey!

[dxmachina]

About a year and a half ago, Jason Kendall signed with the A's, a move that disappointed me mightily as I hoped DePo would sign him for the then catcherless Dodgers. Since then, though, it's become readily apparent that DePo was right, and I was wrong about Kendall. He seems to have completely forgotten how to hit, and recently his mental makeup seems to have gone completely around the twist, almost making his teammate, Milton Bradley, look like Casper Milquetoast by comparison.

Kendall charged Angels' pitcher, John Lackey, after Lackey had made a not so polite suggestion from the mound, setting off a brawl. In the aftermath, both Kendall and Lackey were suspended. Lackey, feeling that he has been grieviously wronged, says "I’ll appeal this one until I die." Lackey's attitude is summed up in Free John Lackey!, a hilarious send up that was posted over at Idiots Write About Sports.

Comments

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Kendall has always been kind of a craxxy guy. Last year, he started a brawl too -- while wearing catching gear. I don't remember over what, but I watched the clip on MLB.com.

Also, I am pretty sure he was traded to the As, and Beane swallowed a fair amount of an unpleasant contract to get him. Whoops!

I did a scatterplot over the winter of catchers' BA to slugging, for the 2005 season (I selected for fulltimers only). It was really sort of funny, all of them clustered over here in the middle, the strikeout/longball guys over in a cluster over here, and all by himself, way over in the other corner, lonely Jason Kendall, with a crappy average AND crappy slugging.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

You're right about it being a trade. I was misremembering.

Kendall was never much of a slugger, but since he went over to the A's, he's fallen off the charts. The other day, Mike Carminati was looking at the fact that Kendall hasn't hit a homer since July of 2004 (http://mikesrants.baseballtoaster.com/archives/370424.html).

[hecubot.livejournal.com]

The suspension is actually helping us. Kendall's backup, Adam Melhuse, has hit two homers in two games. More than Kendall has hit in a year and a half.

Kendall's been suspended four times for starting brawls. Mostly charging pitchers who have disrespected him. (Once with current A's teammate Joe Kennedy.)

That noted, he does have a flair for the dramatic and has won games for the A's in a variety of ballsy and/or sneaky fashion. He stole home when the Angels' pitcher got sulky about a call and missed the throw back from the catcher. (A's fans call this the Sulk Off). Game winner. Of course, there was his face-plant-into-spikes to get the final out and preserve a win against Texas last year. This year he finessed a game-ending double play by getting the strike out and then making sure his follow-through on the throw to second base hit the batter who was leaning over the plate. That is, his hand hit the batter at the end of his throw and he got an automatic out for interference. He pulled the same trick on another team one week later.

Worse than his slugging percentage (if you can imagine anything worse) is his propensity for grounding into double-plays. Such a rally killer.

On the plus side, he has rebounded from being the worst throwing catcher in the AL last year (after much off-season work with his dad, a former major league catcher) and is something like 8-14 in throwing out baserunners this year.

I'm not that sympathetic to Lackey though. He did come off the mound and start jabbering at Kendall, which is equivalent to poking the bear repeatedly with a stick until it wakes up. Also, it took Lackey out of the game, and had the added benefit of taking Kendall out of another double-play situation. Win win!

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Lackey is a jabberer. I'm sure some day Josh Beckett, bellower par excellence, will get charged for his behavior too. Still and all, Kendall, woobie, where is your head at?

He stole home when the Angels' pitcher got sulky about a call and missed the throw back from the catcher. (A's fans call this the Sulk Off).

ha! I call it the Reverse Hidden Ball Trick, because it works on the same principle of the ball theoretically going back to the pitcher, but not really. Except in reverse, because it's the offense taking advantage of the discrepancy rather than the defense. It was a pretty clever play, something I'd never seen before.

[hecubot.livejournal.com]

>>It was a pretty clever play, something I'd never seen before.

It's a pretty common play in Little League and we actively teach our baserunners to come down the line while the pitcher is waiting for the throw back, in case it is mishandled.

Of course, the fact that it's taught in Little League means you should never see it happen in a Major League game. The pitcher is taught to never turn his back on a baserunner at third. You walk back to the mound facing the baserunner.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

He stole home when the Angels' pitcher got sulky about a call and missed the throw back from the catcher.

I wrote about that play (http://dxmachina.livejournal.com/240403.html) when it happened last year. It was the same week that Luis Terrero fell for a Mike Lowell hidden ball trick.