Cubs Trade Rob Bowen and Jerry Blevins for Jason Kendall

[Rob]

So wait...

 

We get an old catcher who is terrible offensively and defensively, and takes up a huge chunk of the payroll.

 

In exchange, we give up a better young catcher under club control for a few more years, plus a prospect.

 

How much are the Brewers paying Hendry to do this?

[Banedon]

I'm admittedly not a minor league guy, so I don't know a lot about Blevins, but I while there's not a ton to be excited about, I'm not sure it's as bad a deal as is being made out here. All we gave up was Bowen, who sucked anyway, and a minor leaguer. I just can't get too upset.

[Jon]

The laughter in Oakland this evening must be deafening.

[moorecg]

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.

[Guest]

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.

 

can you tell us a bit about Blevins? Not familiar with him.

 

Lefty reliever, 91-93 FB (tops out at 95), plus change, good slider.

[Soriano12]

Isn't this Sunnydoo's dream come true? Jason Kendall? :lol:

[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.

[USSoccer]

This is so beyond awful. Not only did we not clear a roster spot, but we aquired someone who is just as bad as our existing c atchers, but costs like 20x as much.

 

AND we gave up a useful P.

 

Jim Hendry is so, so, so bad it's unbelievable. It's not 1998. Jason Kendall is a sack of suck. He's worse than Cesar Izturis, sucks defensively, and by all accounts is a tool in the clubhouse.

[Jon]

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.

[Soriano12]

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.

[imb]

So wait...

 

We get an old catcher who is terrible offensively and defensively, and takes up a huge chunk of the payroll.

 

In exchange, we give up a better young catcher under club control for a few more years, plus a prospect.

 

How much are the Brewers paying Hendry to do this?

 

I really don't think that we're going to end up paying too much of the contract. Kendall was basically a sunken cost for the A's, they were going to pay him for the remainder of the season either way, and just decided that they would rather be done with him (and pick up a guy in Blevins that can probably help them in the majors right now).

 

I really can't see us taking on too much of Kendall's contract.

[bhogg]

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.

 

 

Can't fault a man for trying to feed his family. . . .

[Vinestal]

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.

 

I feel the same way, I think at worst its a wash and Kendel is just Bowen with a different name. We may have thrown away a solid bulpen prospect but thats not the end of the world. Who knows maybe switching leagues re-energizes Kendel and he is able to have a great second half. I dont really see this as something to be horribly angry about.

[USSoccer]

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.

 

Unreal. This is such a horrid move. People are going to be begging for Michael Barrett in about a month.

[YearofDaCubs]

So much for finding out what Soto had. Instead we are going to rely on an over the hill catcher. Hendry is so bad, it's not even funny.

[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.

 

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.

[Iceblink]

I'd sooner have every single hair on my body yanked out all at once than see us trade for Kendall.

 

I stand by this. Who's up for rapid depilitation with me?

 

To illustrate how far he's declined after the nice numbers early in his career, his most similar hitters by age are Rod Carew, Barry Larkin, Tony Fernandez, and Hellen Keller.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kendaja01.shtml

[Bruno7481]

So is Koyie DFA'd tomorrow? Or do they Keep him and send Soto down?

[Soriano12]

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.

 

Unreal. This is such a horrid move. People are going to be begging for Michael Barrett in about a month.

 

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

[USSoccer]

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.

[Mizzou]

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.

[USSoccer]

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.

[Soriano12]

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

[imb]

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.

[Brian]

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.

 

Isn't Pittsburgh paying most of his salary already?