Then if his OBP is still under .300 (it's .234 now) then he should become the backup catcher to Piazza.  Cust becomes the full time DH.  

Melhuse should go to AAA till Sept.  Whoever's healthy of Swisher, Kotsay, Bradley, Kielty, Snelling, Buck, and Stewart should play OF.

that we go into next year starting a catcher with zero or near zero (say a September call-up) big league experience.

If Zooks isn't up in the next month or so, expect him to start 2008 as a backup.

Catcher is completely and fundamentally different from every other position on the diamond. It's about so much more than how much talent and physical ability you have.

I have no doubt that Zooks can catch the ball, throw the ball and hit the ball better than Jason Kendal ... but is he a better catcher than the rugged one? I can't say for sure, but I doubt it. If Kendall is really gone after this year, I would very much like to see Zooks up ASAP, splitting time and getting about 30-40% of the starts so he can learn the craft of catching from Kendall ...

that Kendall deserves alot of the credit for their success. It's hard for me to discount their view.

(though we know A's ballplayers will stick up for each other publicly, at least while they're still on the same team. Not a word was uttered publicly, for example, about how some of the A's pitchers didn't like Miller's gamecalling, and had asked for Melhuse instead, until after Miller wasn't re-signed following the 2004 season).

I would like to see Suzuki as a September callup (so he can play regularly this summer, which he wouldn't do if he was called up earlier). How often he actually would play in September would no doubt be determined in part by how the A's are doing in the division race. But at least he could participate in the preps for the games and begin to get to know the pitchers more.

I also think Kendall will begin to hit better... I just don't think it'll be good enough for him to be in the lineup every.single.day.

As for his game-calling and staff-handling skills:  Part of me wants to take the pitchers' & coaches' words for it, and part of me agrees with OaklandSi's Damian Miller example, above.  I think Kendall's game preparation & pitch calling skills were probably critical to the success of the pile of baby pitchers we had in 2005, but they're big boys now and I think they could do just fine with Melhuse "handling" them once in a while.

Also, maybe Kendall would work out whatever he needs to work out in order to hit better if he actually had some COMPETITION for the job.  He's not the kind of personality that would consciously do anything less than "his best," but on some level I'm sure he realizes that he could just wrap his jock around a bat and send it up there to hit, and he still wouldn't get benched.

Kendall's OPS is presently a breathtakingly awful .435.

In the last 10 years, the lowest OPS for a player getting at least 300 plate appearances is .524 by Homer Bush of the 2000 Blue Jays (325 PA).

The last player to post a sub-.500 OPS with at least 300 PA was Rafael Belliard of the 1992 Braves (315 PA, .494 OPS).

In the last 4 years, no one with an OPS below .550 has gotten as many as 300 plate appearances.

If Kendall continues to flail this badly, you simply cannot continue to send him to the plate 4 times a game.  Consider any and all alternatives, but this performance is totally unacceptable.

In checking the numbers I found an interesting resemblance between the careers of Kendall and Tony Pena.  Kendall is in his 12th season as a regular catcher.  In 1993 Pena was in his 12th season also, with the Red Sox.  His offensive numbers had been declining for several years and in 1993 he collapsed to a .502 OPS in 347 PA.  1993 was Pena's final season as a regular catcher.  After his 1993 debacle, Pena moved on to Cleveland as Sandy Alomar Jr.'s backup.  In that role he had moderately productive offensive seasons in 1994 and 1995.  In the Indians' 1995 World Series year he actually caught a few more games than the oft-injured Alomar.  But 1996 saw him drop to .195/.255/.236, and his career ended with cameos with the White Sox and Astros in 1997.  A difference is that Kendall is about 3 years younger now than Pena was in 1993, but the total games caught at that point of their careers is pretty similar (i.e. very high).

washed up.  gone.  I think Piazza will be the starting catcher when he comes back.

Perhaps Cust 5 days DH 2 days OF, Piazza 2 days DH, 3-4 days catching, with Kendall catching the rest?

Lots of smart people fear what might happen if Piazza were the primary catcher, mostly from base stealers gone wild.   My question is this:  would the cost of the (presumed) increased steals on Piazza's watch outweigh the benefit of having Piazza's bat, as compared with Kendall's presence?  This has to be at least estimateable, perhaps using the steals against numbers from San Diego last year.

Numbers mavens?

A couple quick notes about the subject:

• I've never understand the idea that you need a veteran catcher to be the "starter", and a rookie can only be a backup. If Suzuki is the best option, both offensively and defensively, he should be the start. If "calling a game" was a problem, I imagine that would surface in the minors, and they would address it and/or promote him accordingly. Call him up in Sept., have him work with the starters all spring training long. Good enough.
• Kendall simply doesn't have anything left. Sometimes I wonder if he's going to just retire, as he seems like too proud of a player to continue to be THIS BAD. And even on defense he looks terrible. Piazza is bad on defense, but right now, not much worse than Kendall.
• I guess the choice is pretty much between playing Piazza at catcher (Cust as DH) or Cust in the OF (Piazza at DH). If Kendall gets his throwing straightened out, I could envision a platoon of sorts, where against teams that run a lot, the lineup is C-Kendall, DH-Piazza, OF-Cust, and for teams that don't, it's C-Piazza, DH-Cust, OF-other. That makes the most sense to me.

Isn't there at least one weak link in every team's lineup? Kendall is ours. But, would we be focussing on Kendall's faults as much if everyone else in the lineup with such 'great potential' start producing like like they should be?

in Sacramento 2 years ago, I can tell you that calling him "miserably bad" is quite an upgrade over his actual ability with the glove.

He'd make you long for the days of T-Long and Jeremy Giambi.

My guess is that Beane will continue to misinterpret the concept of sunk costs, and will continue to insist that Geren get their "money's worth" out of Kendall, a la Hatteberg in late '04 and '05.

Quite honestly, my inclination at this point would be to DFA Kendall, and call up Suzuki to platoon with Melhuse. I'd throw caution to the wind and lay Cust in LF a couple times a week to get Piazza "showcase" ABs in the interest of shipping Mike out by the trade deadline. And I'd give Kotsay maybe 1 start per week to rest Swisher, and use Kotsay judiciously as a late-inning defensive replacement (esp. in the games where Cust is in LF and we have a lead).

but according to the story on MLB.com, the players attribute a lot to Kendall and the players don't care what he is hitting.

If the teammates don't care, and actually say stuff like "He is the reason we beat Zito so badly, with his (Kendall's) scouting report." do the fans need to think about all "the above"???
?

* Kendall is the starting C the rest of the season, playing 7 of every 8 games.  The only change is that Piazza will get the 8th game rather than Melhuse when he comes back.  I don't see them calling up Suzuki, making Piazza the starter, or platooning with Melhuse.  
* Kendall, Melhuse and Piazza will all be gone next season with a new veteran and Suzuki splitting time.
* I expect Cust to settle down around a .250 BA, but an .875 OPS, making it difficult for Piazza to displace him (given Piazza's fairly anemic numbers prior to his injury).  

Suzuki isn't ready. He would probably struggle horribly if called up now. Kurt's stength through AA was his control of the strike zone, that was the key to his offensive success. He has struggled with that all year in AAA. His struggles would only get worse if he started playing at the highest level.

Kendall needs to play less and Melhuse more. The only other option is to call up Jeremy Brown and send Melhuse down. I suppose Melhuse/Brown could contribute more than the sub-.500 OPS Kendall is offering, but I figure the odds are about 50-50 that Kendall could up his numbers to match most of what a Melhuse/Brown platoon could offer.

If you cut Kendall you're still going to be eating his contract so no money saved. It's doubtful that there is a realistic option right now that would increase offense from the Catcher's position. Moving Piazza back behind the plate could happen, but let's see if that's really an option a month from now. Cust has been great, can he keep it up?

Back in April 2000, (okay, you can certainly get washed up in seven years, so I already know that "that was then this is now") Kendall was hitting .179 on April 11.  He then went on a tear, hitting 24-for-52 and raised his average to .351 !!

This includes a home run at the end of the streak.

So we know that at least he has the "mental" experience of getting hot for weeks at a time.  And it is a very mental game.

Let's go Jason!

around .265, he's gonna hit .300 from now on. the best is yet to come. don't bail now.

For which the A's are paying 8.  They aren't going to pay a bench player that much, and they certainly can't move a guy at his age with this skill set.  He'll finish out the year, taking up more plate appearances than any other catcher in the league, and the 9th spot (hopefully where he stays) will continue to be a black hole.

Piazza at catcher would be atrocious.  The A's get by on pitching, defense, and guile.  Weakening the defense-- at a very key position-- to improve the offense by a relatively small margin would be a bad move, in my opinion.

Melhuse presents an interesting case.  Not as good defensively as Kendall, but better offensively in short bursts.

This will all be so much easier to deal with when Kendall goes off into free agency and Suzuki gets called up next year.