Kennedy or Miles?

Colbert Rasmols · Post by **Colbert Rasmols** » June 10 07, 12:12 pm

Kennedy began this season with a career batting line of .280/.332/.398. He's currently at .219/.290/.275. He turned 31 in January. What the heck is going on?

Fat Strat · Post by **Fat Strat** » June 10 07, 1:34 pm

C2k7 wrote:Kennedy began this season with a career batting line of .280/.332/.398. He's currently at .219/.290/.275. He turned 31 in January. What the heck is going on?

OPS+ per season for the last 5 years and this season:

113
102
98
97
90
54

Notice a trend? He'll probably get it up around 80-85 or so by the end of the season, which is right about what I expected. Signing him to that contract wasn't the best move ever. I didn't think it would matter much because at that time I still believed we were going to get a couple starters and some more offense.

Colbert Rasmols · Post by **Colbert Rasmols** » June 10 07, 1:43 pm

Yeah, those numbers aren't going in the right direction.

Jmodene · Post by **Jmodene** » June 10 07, 2:33 pm

indyredbird wrote:Don't get me started on why they didn't resign Belliard.

They didn't sign Belliard because he was looking for a fairly hefty salary, as he made $3 million in 2005 and $4 million in 2006. We went with Kennedy instead.

Belliard got surprised as nobody bit, and wound up having to take the minor-league contract with the Nationals. But I don't think anyone (much less the Cards' brass) saw that coming; I remember that San Diego, in particular, was supposed to be interested in signing him but then was able to make the deal for Marcus Giles instead.

But unless we were prepared to go all winter without signing a second baseman, we couldn't have gotten Belliard as cheaply as the Nationals did. For us to sign him in November or December (when we signed Kennedy) we would have had to meet his price.

BW23 · Post by **BW23** » June 10 07, 2:42 pm

I bet Kennedy could use more playing time to get on track. No reason to sit him against righties, IMO.

Fat Strat · Post by **Fat Strat** » June 10 07, 3:44 pm

BW23 wrote:I bet Kennedy could use more playing time to get on track. No reason to sit him against righties, IMO.

I agree. It's driving me nuts.

I realize that Kennedy's not hitting well, but he's almost certainly going to produce better than Miles in the long run. We are, after all, paying him to be our starting 2nd baseman for a couple years.

CarpMan · Post by **CarpMan** » June 10 07, 3:54 pm

Edgar Gonzalez. Saw him in ST and he looked pretty good. Pretty good stick. Some say they don't like his D.

Colbert Rasmols · Post by **Colbert Rasmols** » June 10 07, 4:05 pm

Fat Strat wrote:
BW23 wrote:I bet Kennedy could use more playing time to get on track. No reason to sit him against righties, IMO.
I agree. It's driving me nuts.

I realize that Kennedy's not hitting well, but he's almost certainly going to produce better than Miles in the long run. We are, after all, paying him to be our starting 2nd baseman for a couple years.

I agree, as well. Even though Miles and his whopping .613 OPS (entering play today) has been more productive, Kennedy needs to start nearly every game. Like it or not, he's our 2nd baseman for the next 2.6 years and we need him to come out of his funk.

sept79 · Post by **sept79** » June 10 07, 4:07 pm

BW23 wrote:I bet Kennedy could use more playing time to get on track. No reason to sit him against righties, IMO.

But he is not hitting and he is not fielding. How does that warrant playing time?

Jmodene · Post by **Jmodene** » June 10 07, 4:37 pm

CarpMan wrote:Edgar Gonzalez. Saw him in ST and he looked pretty good. Pretty good stick. Some say they don't like his D.

*Everybody* says they don't like his D.