Cubs Trade Rob Bowen and Jerry Blevins for Jason Kendall

[TheDude]

We should have given Soto more than 1 week to prove himself at this level. This organization destroys prospects.

 

Soto isn't a real prospect. He's had a hot hand, but it's not like he's been penciled in at C for the big league ever. Needless venom here.

[Bruno7481]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

Its because the super inept Hendry traded with the Genius. So therefore its a negative.

[nilodnayr]

Yeah, at least he didn't buy high.

 

 

He paid a high price with Blevins.

 

Beane saw Hendry looking to acquire a veteran catcher and sold him on Kendall while robbing us of a prospect, who while not spectacular likely could have been a successful reliever in the major leagues.

 

THat was one of those comments that would have been followed with the eyeroll smiley if it weren't banned :D

[Mephistopheles]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

and I'll wager his OPS will still be below 700

 

and ill wager it will be higher than the catchers we would have had (outside of barrett)

[Derwood]

so, big picture, the trade actually was Barrett/minor leaguer for Kendall/minor leaguer

[Soriano12]

We should have given Soto more than 1 week to prove himself at this level. This organization destroys prospects.

 

Soto isn't a real prospect :roll: . He's had a hot hand, but it's not like he's been penciled in at C for the big league ever. Needless venom here.

 

hahhahaha...that is funny...give me a break.

[Mizzou]

Looks like Kendall had a solid June...and has been great in the OBP department his entire career...if he can catch a decent game, and can put up a .330+ OBP he's better than what we had and I like giving Soto a year as a back up....color me not too upset.

 

It doesn't matter how good his OBP is because Izturis can outslug him for crying out loud. Kendall freaking sucks.

 

We are worse off now than we were 24 hours ago.

How?

[seanimal]

What a terrible, pointless trade.

[TMan92]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

It just gives the people on this board something to b*tch about. Man, the whining on these boards amazes me sometimes. We got rid of a catcher that would never stay in our system and a AA reliever. Hide the razor blades!!!!!!!!!!

[Danny82]

However, including Blevins makes me dislike the deal. I honestly know nothing of Blevins, but his numbers look good and I'll defer to the minor league experts on the board that he has potential.

Except that most of the "minor league experts" on this board routinely overvalue our prospects.

[TMan92]

As I type this Hill hits into a double play....perfect

[Exile on Waveland]

I would have definitely traded Bowen for Kendall. Kendall at least gives you the hope of decent production -- he's been good in his career and decent as recently as last year. Hell, he can't be any worse than what they got catching so far. And, according Cot's, this is the last year of his deal.

 

NONONONONONONONO.

 

He's so, so bad. Kendall is really bad. Offensively and defensively. Instead of upgrading at SS or RF, we somehow managed to downgrade our C position.

 

Oh, my first reaction was "Please no." It's on the board. Kendall sucks this year, obviously. 46 OPS+, 260 obp, 280 slg, etc. That's awful, I know. But I have more hope for him than Bowen/Hill (I don't have faith that Soto was going to get a real chance this year). I am NOT on board with the deal because of including Blevins, but I think Bowen for Kendall is a low-risk (albeit low-reward) move.

[Guest]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

Be wary of catchers who's performance go downhill as they get much older.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

There are reasons for Blevins improvement which at least give you a very good reason for him maintaining his success beyond this season. The Cubs tinkered with making him a side-armer the last few years and he lost a lot of velocity. His velocity is now in the low 90s and change also has improved quite a bit this season to become a plus pitch.

[weis21]

Looks like Kendall had a solid June...and has been great in the OBP department his entire career...if he can catch a decent game, and can put up a .330+ OBP he's better than what we had and I like giving Soto a year as a back up....color me not too upset.

He's making $13 million plus this season.

 

Well, the pirates are paying 5 million of that 13. That leaves 8 and I'm pretty sure the A's would pick up close to half of that. This is the last year of the contract and his PECOTA for this year is:

 

.274/.346/.333

 

Not great but not terrible. Let's hope he can turn his season around to something around that line. I'm going to let this one play out before i'm ready to throw in the season.

[Mephistopheles]

Is this a freaking joke? He has a .542 OPS, this fixes nothing, and unless the A's picked up a ton of money, all this does is hamstring us in the future.

 

Jesus christ why can't the Cubs just let an inexpensive young player fill a freaking role? God dammit.

 

the future? unless im mistaken he's a free agent after this season. I don't think he's a very good player anymore but this isnt the worst deal hes done. the money isnt an issue for the Cubs and its a buy low chance. there's a pretty damn good chance kendalls obp is .340+ the rest of the season. power? no but as long as hes not an auto out im happy.

 

I'm talking about for this season. How much money can we add before the deadline? Whatever that theoretical number is, this takes a chunk out of it (unless we got the A's to eat a ton of money), making it harder to pick up an actual difference maker, instead of a guy that can't out OPS Izturis.

 

he has about 4 million left. the cubs gained 1.5 mil out of the barrett deal. dumping izturis and/or jones would make the money issue back at zero.

 

Really? Just four million? I was thinking it was something more like six. That makes me feel a bit better.

 

I still would have rather just let Soto try to do his thing because I really think he can outdo what Kendall has done so far. If the Cubs aren't going to do that, I guess we just have to hope that Kendall can get on base a little bit, because we sure as hell know he isn't going to hit for power.

 

another thing to consider is that this last offseason he was a type a guy. he probably wont this year, but hell certainly be a b.

[Sosa21MVP]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

[Mephistopheles]

Well, the pirates are paying 5 million of that 13. That leaves 8 and I'm pretty sure the A's would pick up close to half of that.

 

I forgot about that. Then there's probably about 3 left. The A's may not pick it up.

[Guest]

another thing to consider is that this last offseason he was a type a guy. he probably wont this year, but hell certainly be a b.

 

But can you see the Cubs offering Kendal arbitration? He'd surely accept.

[Exile on Waveland]

I like this move.

 

Kendall is obviously having a poor year, and was dreadful in the first two months, but he hit .295 in the month of June, so he's getting better. And it's not like he's always been bad. In fact, he's always been solid up until this year. He's a career .298 hitter with a .375 OBP. And that includes this year. Our catchers have sucked this year - even worse than Kendall has. He will surely be an upgrade. I'd be willing to wager that he hits at least .270 with a .340 OBP for us. Probably better than that.

 

And while it would've been nice to keep Blevins, the prospect who was nothing short of flat out terrible the last two years, who is having a great year this year, I'm not going to get upset about trading a relief pitcher in AA. I always read on here how relievers are so unpredictable and vary from year to year, yet people are flipping out about dealing this guy... who sucked for two years, and is good now. It's comical.

 

Mizzou, I don't care about Blevins. He was possibly a useful piece, but I'm not going to lose sleep over him getting traded.

 

I am upset that we added someone who's old, overpaid, and bad.

 

He's certainly overpaid. But I think that'll be a moot point for the Cubs after factoring in the portion Pittsburgh is paying, the pro-rated portion that has already been paid and whatever Oakland (HOPEFULLY) will pick up.

[Abe Frohman]

If the Cubs are only paying 4 million for Kendall, this is a good acquisition.

[Mephistopheles]

another thing to consider is that this last offseason he was a type a guy. he probably wont this year, but hell certainly be a b.

 

But can you see the Cubs offering Kendal arbitration? He'd surely accept.

 

hopefully someone signs him before. he probably wont be. its just something that could materialize.

[98navigator]

MLB 's headline has Kendall for Marshall.

 

If it said that it has since been corrected

[cheapseats]

At least Blanco will be back soon.

 

:evil:

[Iceblink]

Maybe Kendall will produce a bit, and we'll somehow pull off the Juan-Pierre-ish thing where we can offer arbitration and get picks for him without really being in danger of resigning him.

 

Yeah, that'll only happen for the Padres.

[Omar]

The Cubs just got BeaneOWNED.