A's resign Kennedy

by limecat on Dec 19, 2005 2:57 PM PST

The A's have resigned left-handed pitcher Joe Kennedy to a one-year deal.

Details here. Seems like a good reliever for the A's to have. Someone who can eat up a lot of innings and make spot starts.

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Kennedy = A's LOOGY?

Should this re-sign be read as Kennedy being the top contender for the LOOGY postion in the A's 'pen?

What about Rheineker, Flores?

One day I'll figure out how to do a fancy link here to my baseball website.

by Baseball is Life on Dec 19, 2005 3:01 PM PST reply actions

what are his lefty-righty splits?

I'm not sure, but I don't recall him being notably tougher on lefties than righties.

by OaklandSi on Dec 19, 2005 3:09 PM PST reply actions

Damn...

Would you mind hyphenating your title? "Re-sign".

I got all excited about Joe resigning...

by HigherPie on Dec 19, 2005 3:11 PM PST reply actions

Three-year splits:

vs RHP: .311/.374/.495
vs LHP: .226/.303/.348

Copernicus felt the same way about the geocentric crew.

by salb918 on Dec 19, 2005 3:14 PM PST reply actions

well, that's pretty dramatic

probably mostly as a starter, I imagine. Hasn't he only pitched in relief with the A's?

by OaklandSi on Dec 19, 2005 3:23 PM PST up reply actions

I hope he doesn't have issues

with not starting

by OaklandSi on Dec 19, 2005 3:25 PM PST up reply actions

I think he had 6 or 7 starts,

and his ERA was at least one run higher than in relief. Clearly with these splits, this guy belongs in a relief role.

she was never able to watch me play because the games were too late back home, and now she's got front-row seats to every game.. Swish re: his grandmother

by alamedaman on Dec 19, 2005 9:34 PM PST up reply actions

Wow

With those numbers against right-handed pitching, I think weve found the ideal DH platoon partner for Kielty...

by OaktownTribesman on Dec 19, 2005 7:01 PM PST up reply actions

Basically,

if Kennedy faces Kielty, it's a hit.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 19, 2005 7:51 PM PST up reply actions

over his career, will be a better pitcher than Kennedy, in fact we have upgraded our LOOGY: from an aging specialist who only used to dominate lefties, to a guy whose domination of lefties has been obscured by his inability to retire righties combined with teams' willingness to keep letting him try.

Now that's a bloomin' long sentence right there.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 19, 2005 3:23 PM PST reply actions

word

that's a bloody short way to say "I agree with what you just wrote, Nico."

by Schinto on Dec 19, 2005 9:33 PM PST up reply actions

One down seven to go

from the A's website:"The remaining seven players are right-handed pitchers Kiko Calero and Juan Cruz, catcher Adam Melhuse, infielder Mark Ellis and outfielders Hiram Bocachica, Milton Bradley and Bobby Kielty."

Today is the day for them to at least offer a contract, or the player is non-tendered and becomes a free agent, correct?

Anybody want to lay odds on who if any won't be offered a contract today?

by OaklandSi on Dec 19, 2005 3:28 PM PST reply actions

Tomorrow

Today is the day for free agents who were offered arbitration to accept or decline. Tomorrow is the last day to tender contracts to arb-eligible or pre-arb players.

Of those seven, I'm sure Calero, Melhuse, Ellis, and Bradley will be offered arbitration. Bocachica I'd expect to be non-tendered (and possibly re-signed later to another minor league deal).

Kielty and Cruz are the ones I'm not sure about. Kielty has some value, but is getting expensive relative to his production. Cruz is awful, but he may be deemed to be worth keeping because of his "great arm."

"Don't go getting all Alexander Haig on me, either." - Billy Beane

by andeux on Dec 19, 2005 3:38 PM PST up reply actions

thanks

I was a little confused between today and tomorrow

by OaklandSi on Dec 19, 2005 3:54 PM PST up reply actions

Today pitches

Tomorrow catches.

by hunter on Dec 20, 2005 12:37 AM PST up reply actions

That sounds good, but

how much money?

by Hang Man on Dec 19, 2005 3:31 PM PST reply actions

2.4 million, one year deal

so says yahoo....

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-athleticsmoves&prov=ap&type=lgns

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on Dec 19, 2005 4:19 PM PST up reply actions

good investment

YABU: You're always eating cheese. ...Is cheese good for you? . FISCHER: IT'S BETTER THAN SUSHI!!!

by ConditionOakland on Dec 19, 2005 4:09 PM PST reply actions

Will the A's

offer either Ellis or Calero or anyone for that matter a multi-year deal so they don't have to go through arby anymore?

by BashBrothers89 on Dec 19, 2005 4:10 PM PST reply actions

Ellis would make sense

He showed enough last year, and has the most years left to "buy." Calero's elbow is going to give out sooner or later, so I wouldn't tie up too much in him if I had to. I don't think any of the other ones make sense.

A Beane in the hand is worth $60M in payroll

by jeepers on Dec 19, 2005 5:27 PM PST up reply actions

Also

Kennedy was coming out of the bullpen for Colorado before he go traded to the A's.

by BashBrothers89 on Dec 19, 2005 4:11 PM PST reply actions

3rd time's a charm

Or we'd better hope so, because off the top of my head I can think of 2 other LOOGY's for the A's whose initials were "JK":

Jeff Kaiser
Joe Klink

Klink was an improvement over Kaiser, so maybe the trends are going our way.

And sorry if any of you read this right after eating a meal.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Dec 19, 2005 4:21 PM PST reply actions

Mention of those

two hurlers just turned me into a hurler.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 19, 2005 5:04 PM PST up reply actions

perlude to a trade...

...this numb-skull kennedy wants to start. no way he'ii settle for LOOGY. now that beane has kennedy's '06 contract out of the way hopefully he'ii trade kennedy's ass (and left arm).

by bigelephant on Dec 19, 2005 4:27 PM PST reply actions

Inner editor seeping in...

Nothing against you as an poster but...

resign = stepping down, quitting
re*-*sign = signing a contract extension

Sorry about this. I think that, providing Kennedy's willingness, he can provide us great depth and flexibility in the rotation and the bullpen. He was normally a starter in TB and COL, and from the sounds of it, he's somewhat reluctant to be minimized to a couple batters a game a few times a week. But I could be wrong.

"Free." - Dan Johnson's beer of choice... RIP Richard Pryor

by JLaff on Dec 19, 2005 5:23 PM PST reply actions

Yeah

I realized that after I'd posted the diary. :)

by limecat on Dec 20, 2005 2:20 AM PST up reply actions

technically ...

... the "to sign again" form does not necessitate a hyphen, depending on the particular style book you're using (and most stylebooks are moving away from overhyphenation).

For clarity, yes, the hyphen can be helpful.

But even in the case of this diary header, with a clear subject ("A's") and object ("Kennedy"), it takes a willful misread to interpret "resign" in the "quitting a position" sense.

@('.')@

by monkeyball on Dec 20, 2005 10:51 AM PST up reply actions

but when Theo resigned from the Sox

the hyphen was necessitated because he could also have easily re-signed, correct?

Damn! Street is so imposing, he even causes the earth itself to freeze in fear! - monkeyball

by Jjjsixsix on Dec 20, 2005 2:46 PM PST up reply actions

depends ...

... if the header is "Theo [verbs] from Red Sox," it's clear that he's quit; if it's "Theo [verbs] with Red Sox," it's clear that he's extended his contract -- unless he and the whole team are resigning from MLB to go and form their own league ...

Basically, if there's a preposition in there, it would indicate the meaning without a hyph. Which isn't to say the hyph would be wrong per se (unless, again, it's a stylebook violation). Just unnecessary/redundant.

@('.')@

by monkeyball on Dec 20, 2005 3:48 PM PST up reply actions

Let's face it, folks--

historically, far, far more baseball players have re-signed than have resigned. It's like 28,000 to 0 as of this morning.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 20, 2005 4:19 PM PST up reply actions

But Clemens ...

... has hyphenlessly resigned at least twice in the last two years, hasn't he?

@('.')@

by monkeyball on Dec 21, 2005 9:55 AM PST up reply actions

Good.

Kennedy's a flexible pitcher, it's nice to see we're hanging on to him.

"Baseball fans are junkies, and their heroin is the statistic." -Robert S. Wieder

by Kyli on Dec 19, 2005 7:33 PM PST reply actions

I like it...

I must be the only guy who thinks Kennedy has some sort of upside as a starter. This is the same guy who put up one of the best pitching lines ever at Coors in 04, and he's only 27. I love him as a reliever leveraged against lefties, but if he regains his on again/off again velocity, he could step into the rotation in the event of injury/poor performance and pitch fairly well... I'm not nearly as down on him as most people seem to be...

by Little Rickey on Dec 19, 2005 8:43 PM PST reply actions

My problem with Kennedy

as a starter is that he just isn't good against righties and never really has been. And if Kennedy starts, the opposing manager has the opportunity to stack the lineup with 8-9 righties.

But as a LOOGY, I think Kennedy could be among the league's better. I think the A's--and Kennedy himself--would be wise to look at redefining what Kennedy is as a major leaguer. Better to be a successful LOOGY than a failed starter.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 19, 2005 8:50 PM PST reply actions

I agree

by OaklandSi on Dec 20, 2005 7:22 AM PST up reply actions

Once through the order

I think the ideal situation to use him would be in middle relief. He can go once through the order once - especially if he is replacing a right handed starting pitcher and hence the line-up isn't righty dominated. In that case it would be unlikely for the other manager to PH righties because it is still early enough in the game and he knows that he would lose his lefties when Calero, Duke, and Street came in later. Of course with our starting pitching their may not be too many innings available for a middle reliever except when they play in Arlington.

It remains to be seen whether Kennedy can adapt to facing one lefty in the 8th inning.

by Larry E on Dec 20, 2005 10:40 AM PST up reply actions

Excellent point--

Kennedy could also thrive, and be of more use, in the middle-relief role you describe. I could see him generally being "second man up" (Saarloos being first as long-reliever), but if he's available on a day where no bullpen is needed in the first 6 innings, he could be used that day to get one tough lefty out, with Duke/Calero/Street available to get the other 8 outs.

And then there's Witasick. What a dream bullpen this could be!

Nico

by Nico on Dec 20, 2005 10:58 AM PST up reply actions

saarloos vs kennedy

IF beane were to decide to keep kennedy for the 'pen it would mean the end of saarloos as an A. given saarloos' durability issues and apparent fragile arm condition I relly don't see him being a good fit in a bullpen situation. I know he was a reliever in college but that was college and this is now. I'd go with a 11 man pitching staff:

SP:

zito
harden
haren
loaiza
blanton

RP:

street
calero
kennedy
cruz
duke
witasick

Barring a trade, this is what i think it should look like. But, it probably doesn't matter anyway because kenny will probably go with a 12 man PS, abuse it, and have no bench to work with.

by bigelephant on Dec 20, 2005 11:15 AM PST up reply actions

I don't like our pen...

nearly as much without Saarloos. Kennedy and Witasick will cost us more games than they'll hold. Cruz is a question mark in my mind. Duke, Calero and Street are the only solid guys in that pen (and Calero's had his moments where he's made me a doubter).

Hang on to Saarloos! Don't we have any good lefties in the minors we can bring up to use as a LOOGY? Why spend $2.4 million on a guy who is going to face one or two batters a game? Hell, bring up Dallas Braden and let him do it!

by FoolshGame22 on Dec 20, 2005 4:50 PM PST up reply actions

Well...

Given that his out pitch is a screwball, I'd guess Braden is, if anything, tougher on righties.

But anyway, I don't agree that Kennedy and Witasick will "cost more games than they will hold," in that your back-end pitchers aren't there to be lights out (if they were that good they wouldn't be back-end pitchers). They are there to steal a few wins, and save your front-end guys, on bad days.

Indeed, Kennedy and Witasick are not great pitchers--as starter and set-up man, respectively, they would be big weaknesses. But as back-end guys go, they are above average. As are Calero or Duke when used as "set-up to the set-up guy". As is Saarloos as a long man...

If everyone is pitching one level behind their ability, we're in great shape.

Nico

by Nico on Dec 20, 2005 7:20 PM PST up reply actions

Too much $

While I agree talent-wise Kennedy should either be a LOOGY or a middleman, he's not worth $2.4 million in those roles. Sure, he has the flexibility to be a below average starter (based on his career numbers), but I don't think that should nearly double his true value.

Of course, looking back, Chris Hammond earned $2.4 million in 2004 for the A's as a 2nd lefty, but I'm pretty sure the Yankees picked up a big chunk of that.

If the A's are willing to pay Kennedy that much, they probably see him as a starter, either with Oakland or somewhere else...

by andyinfremont on Dec 20, 2005 3:06 PM PST up reply actions