Macha considering Kendall at leadoff...

[GormanHarvey]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/41505067.html

[patrickgpe]

i've sad this before but Kendall has no speed and a lower obp than Weeks. Rickie should lead off.

[LS Brewer]

Please tell me this is a little bit of misdirection to throw the fans off track rather than an actual "idea". The article mentions Kendall's career stats as a potential justification for the move but does not mention Kendall's diminished performance over the past three years. Rickie is certainly a better option.

[Buckethead Brigade]

might as well have Counsell bat leadoff....

[fondybrewfan]

And I thought Kendall batting 9th was a stupid idea. I just don't think this "idea" is going to last very long. The only thing Kendall is good at is not striking out, he isn't good at hitting anymore and deserves to be in the 8th spot. Even with Rickie's shortcoming, he is still far and away our best option for that spot

[RyDogg66]

might as well have Counsell bat leadoff....

or cleanup for that matter.

[joepepsi]

I like the idea he's thinking out of the box a bit. I like that he's thinking about putting hitters who take a lot pitches at the top of the lineup. I like that he's thinking about running up pitch counts on pitchers early in the game. I like that he realizes "small ball" takes a back seat to power. I don't like the idea of Kendall hitting leadoff on a regular basis. Why not have him bat 2nd?

[logan82]

"What he does is almost every at-bat is a seven-pitch at-bat," said Macha. "He'll take a walk"

 

P/PA- Kendall/Weeks

2006 4.08/3.89

2007 3.96/4.18

2008 3.63/4.14

Career* 3.92/4.09

 

PA/BB Kendall/Weeks

2006 11.8/13.8

2007 65.7/6.5

2008 11.7/8.5

Career 11.6/8.9

 

 

I think it is safe to say that 2007 was an outlier for Kendall as far as walks are concerned. I don't think that Macha is a numbers guy. That doesn't make him a bad manager though.

 

People say a typical leadoff hitter can steal a base. I don't want to be giving up outs on the bases with guys up there who can hit homers.

 

I like that quote a quite a bit.

 

 

*Career for Kendall is actually 2002-2008 since ESPN.com calculated his P/PA at 2.12(obviously wrong) and didn't have number of pitches before 2002

[Fatter than Joey]

I like the idea he's thinking out of the box a bit.

 

I don't.

 

There are probably 7 other guys in any given lineup I'd rather have leading off than Kendall.

[TheCrew07]

I get what you're trying to say, but pitches per plate appearance doesn't prove Macha wrong, just like the pitch counts you posted yesterday which I'm sure were incorrect. Weeks will see quite a few pitches per PA as does Hall, and I don't think Hall is a particularly patient hitter. I'm no fan of Kendall's offense but I think it's fair to say that he'll give you a pretty decent AB each time up, he just doesn't have much left in the tank, so not much good comes of those ABs.

 

I selfishly wish the team had a different option to leadoff as I don't think Weeks is thriving in that role by any stretch. Is Kendall the answer? Without being too hateful I don't think so, I really wish the team still had Brantley, the system doesn't have a good player for that role in the pipeline anymore. OBP jsut isn't an organizational strong suit at this point in time with only Green and Gillespie showing a solid BB ratio ratio in the minors. That's not to suggest that Gamel, Salome, Cain, etc won't develop some patience, but it's not anything I'd rely on.

[logan82]

I like the idea he's thinking out of the box a bit.

 

I don't.

 

There are probably 7 other guys in any given lineup I'd rather have leading off than Kendall.

8 if Gallardo is pitching. Don't get me wrong I really like Kendall, but his value is not in his bat at this point in his career. If we were talking about 2006 and earlier Kendall, that would be awesome, however we are not.

[liveforoctober]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea. I do think that Weeks is the best lead off option among our starters..... but I think he is a better offensive option somewhere else in the lineup where he can be a free swinger. I also think that of all of the spots in the order... leadoff is where Kendall would be most effective because he will take pitches and let the other guys see what's in the arsenal.

 

With that said... I'm trying to decide whether the switch is better for the team overall.

 

Would a leadoff platoon be advantageous at all? Where Rickie leads off against lefties and Kendall leads off against righties? Against LHP, Rickie can be Rickie... and against righties... Kendall can do his patient thing and Rickie can swing at what he likes and not get taken advantage of while trying to fight the "passive-aggressive" nature of the spot. Does that make sense at all? I guess I'm just confused over the issue...

[endaround]

No giving your worst hitter the most PAs is never a good idea.

[Invader3K]

This is one of those things a manager just toys with during spring training that he will probably never do during the regular season. I'm not too worried about it right now.

[danzig6767]

I'd be fine with Kendall leading off, if it was 2004 instead of 2009

[stoops17]

I hope it doesn't stick mainly for the fact it bumps Hardy out of the 2 spot if Rickie moves there.

[RightFieldCoder]

I like how the article compares the players when they batted lead off. Kendall has a career .370 OBP batting lead off, which ignores the last few years he's been batting eigth or ninth. Weeks has "struggled" his whole career and yet his OBP is .362 in the same spot. I think it's a no brainer that Weeks will be a better lead off hitter than Kendall in 2009. Which means we might have Kendall lead off 40-50 times.

[davego]

What if Ken is willing to PH (I know, PH for a position player is crazy-talk in Milwaukee) for Kendall later in games? Wouldn't that make him in the leadoff spot more...interesting?

[trwi7]

Not really. Then all you're doing is giving your worst hitter three at bats and then giving bench players the other two. So overall your worst hitters are getting the most at bats.

[owbc]

I can't believe Macha is seriously considering this. Rickie Weeks scored 89 runs last year. If the purpose of being a leadoff hitter is to score runs, then Weeks did a great job.

 

Instead of having Weeks on base 1/3 of the time making opposing pitchers constantly worry about him stealing bases, we'll be stuck with our worst hitter?

 

At least Yost's Kendall experiment had some statistical logic behind it.

[monty57]

I think Kendall's patience, willingness to take a walk and ability to put the bat on the ball makes him an ideal #8 hitter. That's what frustrated me last year when Yost batted the pitcher 8th. If Kendall bats leadoff, does that mean Hall will bat 8th, where his unwillingness to walk will make the pithcer lead off more innings?

 

Plus, Hardy has flourished when batting #2, likely due to seeing more fastballs in front of Braun and Fielder. I don't want him moved from that spot, so where does that leave Weeks? Swapping Weeks and Kendall wouldn't seem smart, as Weeks does everything that Kendall does and then some.

 

Batting Kendall leadoff seems to create more problems than it solves... if it indeed solves anything.

[Ennder]

This thread really bothered me but then I read what Macha actually said and it is no big deal. Against certain matchups Kendall might leadoff, that is much different than Kendall is our new leadoff hitter.

[rluzinski]

I can't fathom a scenario where batting your 8th best hitter, leadoff it a good idea. He doesn't even project to have a good OBP anymore.

 

Macha has already made a number of head scratching comments and he hasn't even managed a real game yet.

[JoeHova]

Macha's comments so far this season have not been encouraging. Why can't the Brewers just get a solid manager? Is it really that difficult to find one?

[Thurston Fluff]

Macha has already made a number of head scratching comments and he hasn't even managed a real game yet.

 

Maybe he wants to get it out of his system before the games count. Seriously though haven't most of us been saying all along every manager does some very odd things? Stuff that just doesn't make sense. It always seems the one you see the most makes the most stupid moves or say the stupidest of things. That is because we hear every stupid comment and see every stupid move. Then we spend page after page talking about it and breaking down every syllable. Lets face it without these comments we'd have very little to talk about. Like pyros are drawn to flame we have to talk about baseball and this has got to be one of the most boring springs I can remember. So it's Macha's turn to give us fodder. Thanks Ken and please make a few more questionable comments. Maybe talk about kendall as a leadoff hitter or Counsell playing at least 5 times a week. Junkies need their fix and, without Ned, we are very low on fun things to talk about waiting for summer to come.