Kendall is best in majors at throwing out runners

[DrWood]

I was surprised. CS: 0.469.

[rluzinski]

I'm sure that will go down as teams realize that Kendall isn't the liability behind the plate that some thought he might be.

[brewizard]

Hmm... Shouldn't Ned Yost get some credit here? Does anybody remember reading about a mechanics flaw that Ned helped Kendall correct? Or was that just something Ned said?

[True CryM]

I remember hearing that Jason did extensive work with his dad.

[RockCoCougars]

I would hate to see where this team would be right now with Estrada behind the dish. Kendall has been one of the best free agent signings this team has made in years. The guy is a true pro.

[SeriesFinale]

I knew he'd been much better than last year, but I didn't know he was the best.

 

I love him for his hustle and play-discipline and professionalism alone, and I can also imagine he's a great leader...I knew he'd be better than Johnny at throwing out runners (despite the guffaws of my Cub fan friends), but this is a really pleasant surprise.

[JoeHova]

Wow, that's really funny. People acted like he was Piazza back there, but that hasn't been the case so far. I hope he can keep it up. I wonder what went so wrong for him last season. IIRC, Cubs fans said he only caught 1 guy stealing (vs. 52 successes) while he was with them last year. The other 4 CSs were supposedly actually pick-offs which got scored as CSs because the runner broke for 2nd.

 

and just to throw another hat in the ring, I think I remember Anderson and Schroeder saying that Ted Simmons was helping Kendall with his throwing mechanics as well.

 

just for fun, I'll calculate the career caught stealing percentages of all 4 interested parties (and might as well throw Schroeder in there as well) to see who Jason should listen to the most (these numbers will include the odd caught stealings that I referenced above because I don't know how to find and remove them or if that would even be possible):

 

Jason Kendall- 28.8% CS

Fred Kendall- 30.8% CS

Ned Yost- 15.6% (!) CS

Ted Simmons- 33.9% CS

Bill Schroeder- 24.4% CS

 

So, looks like Ted was the best of the group by a fair amount, while Ned was the worst by far. The two Kendalls are pretty close. Interesting that Simmons caught more than 1/3rd of base stealers because his defense seems to be what's keeping him out of the hall of fame. 1/3rd doesn't seem horrible at all.

[RU Rah Rah]

We kept hearing that Kendall couldn't throw guys out, and that he was a DP machine. So he's exceeded expectations in both regards. I just hope he holds up in Sept. -- it seems like he's behind the dish for every game.

[JJHardy7]

Hmm... Shouldn't Ned Yost get some credit here? Does anybody remember reading about a mechanics flaw that Ned helped Kendall correct? Or was that just something Ned said?

 

I remember hearing that too. Ned does deserve some credit here. I expect Kendall's number will go down a bit, but he's a pretty big upgrade over what we had last year. I would like to see him get a few more days off so he doesn't breakdown later on in the season, but he is a "gamer".

[TooLiveBrew]

What I'd really like to applaud Jason for is his athletic, attentive defense behind HP. The RTO%, imo, has been icing on the cake (and I agree with rluz that it's largely due to teams testing his arm... plus don't forget most SB are on the P, not C). Jason's exhibited cat-like reflexes blocking pitches, and for the first time in my baseball fan life, 'He calls a good game' is actually real. I can't recall a Brewers C that could get down to his knees to block pitches as (seemingly) lightning-quick as Jason does -- it's a thing of beauty to watch for me.

 

This might go down as DM's best FA signing in Milwaukee, given the positional premium, black-holey-ness of Estrada, and how washed up the vast majority assumed Kendall was. I might go revisit some of those offseason threads discussing Kendall... should be interesting.

[jhart05]

At a game last weekend, some casual fan sitting right behind me was talking about how much Kendall stinks and how he was against the sigining from the start.

 

I wanted to point out his verteran leadership for a young team, his work ethic, that he's great with handling the pitchers, and not to mention he's been pretty consistant at the plate.

 

But, I held my tongue, as I could tell he already had a few beers in him, and he probably didn't really know much about baseball when sober anyway.

[hauser42]

Hmm... Shouldn't Ned Yost get some credit here? Does anybody remember reading about a mechanics flaw that Ned helped Kendall correct? Or was that just something Ned said?

From what I read he worked with his dad, but Simmons found a flaw in his throwing early in spring and helped change it.

[jeffy]

Hmm... Shouldn't Ned Yost get some credit here? Does anybody remember reading about a mechanics flaw that Ned helped Kendall correct? Or was that just something Ned said?

 

True CryM wrote:

---

I remember hearing that Jason did extensive work with his dad.

 

 

So Ned Yost is Kendall's dad...who knew? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[clancyphile]

Actually, one has to ask if an extension for Kendall be a bad idea at this time.

 

Offer him three years, $20 million ($2 million bonus and $6 million a year).

[tristarscoop]

Hmm... Shouldn't Ned Yost get some credit here? Does anybody remember reading about a mechanics flaw that Ned helped Kendall correct? Or was that just something Ned said?

From what I read he worked with his dad, but Simmons found a flaw in his throwing early in spring and helped change it.

I had a fan say that all game at Miller Park and then a very stupid fan yell it all game at Wrigley on May 1. Do they watch ANY games?

 

[BrewCrewForever]

I have always thought of Jason Kendall as a solid defensive catcher. Not great like a Molina or Rodriguez. But very solid all around, I knew he would not be as bad as he was last year throwing guys out and knew he couldn't be worse then Johnny Estrada was so when we signed him I was very pleased. He has exceeded my expectations and it's nice that he has hit good around the .280 mark. If he can stay around that average all season and continue to play solid defense he was a great pickup by DM.

[logan82]

Kendall has an option for next year that vests at 110 games.

[DrWood]

I didn't know that fred was his dad. didn't he play in SD?

[TooLiveBrew]

One thing I love about baseball-reference.com is that their player pages will always (usually?) note "Son/Father/Cousin/Brother of _____"

 

Pretty awesome website/database.

[Crewin06]

Kendall has an option for next year that vests at 110 games.

 

And Angel is about 1+ years away.

 

Hopefully catcher is a position we don't have to worry about for a long time.

[logan82]

Crewin06 wrote:

And Angel is about 1+ years away.

 

Hopefully catcher is a position we don't have to worry about for a long time.

That's all? I got the impression he was more like 2+ away. During spring training Melvin said that Rottino was the closest to being MLB ready in our system.

[uwisfan]

It's been said on other threads that Salome is not very serviceable defensively, which deeply concerns me. Lucroy is 2+ away.