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My Take on KendallThere is a debate raging over at Pat's about the catchers impact on the pitchers, particularly Jason Kendall's. Pat contends that the catcher has a significant impact on a pitchers game. He's absolutely right, that much is obvious. What I disagree with is that this is something that Kendall was bad at.I'm of the belief that catchers, pitchers, and coaches sit down together before a game and discuss how each player should be pitched. If the catcher is not going to follow the game plan, he's going to be accountable for that. If this happens repeatedly then the public is going to get a hold of it. Something along the lines of "We didn't follow the gameplan," would be uttered, it even happened earlier this season, but I can't remember with who. Anyway, this is all conjecture. Pat says that in 1999, when Kendall got hurt, Joe Oliver really pumped up the staff. I don't really see that in the stats. If anything Kendall was getting better and better at calling pitches, and may have been at top form when he was injured. From Kendall's first year in 1996 to when Joe Oliver was here, the ERA and National League Rank of Pirate's pitching: Year ERA NL RankThe ERA is up in '99 but the rank is the same. A better arguement would've been the years following Kendall's return: Year ERA NL RankYou can tell the numbers started to drop off, but was that Kendall's fault. 1999 was really a swing year for the Pirate's pitching staff. The dissapation of a rotation that had been in place for three years, and thier replacement by the subsequent likes of Pete Schourek, Dan Serafini, Tony McKnight, Joe Beimel, Omar Olivares, and Ron Villone. It wouldn't be until 2002 the the Pirates and somewhat of a respectable rotation, and then the year after that we didn't have a bullpen. This year, with Kendall gone, we look awesome. The rank is about the same but the ERA is way down. My arguement is based on the idea that the pitchers as a group, are just better now then they were when Kendall was here. Consider, Kip Wells is good this year (3.39 after last night), but if you take away last year, he's just as good as his other two Pirate years (3.43), all of them were caught almost completely by Kendall, and I have a hard time believing last year was Kendall's fault with all the problems Kip had. Fogg has pitched better this year then he ever has (4.20/4.59 career), but his problem has always been the long ball and he's on pace to give up more this year (31) then he ever has (28 in 2002) If you want something more substantial his HR/9 was 1.17 his first three years here, it's 1.54 in 2005. Perez, in his first full season, was amazing last year (2.98) but I'll be fair and say that he's had a few bad starts to start the season and other problems and it's too early to make a call there. Dave Williams has been decent (4.06 after Tuesday), but he was more decent when he was pitching full time four years ago (3.71) before the injuries, and is just now returning to form. Redman has been spectacular of course (2.82) but considering that he wasn't here before only helps to explain the lower team ERA. All of this is what's happened after 1999, the year Kendall got hurt. I think you have to go back to when our rotation consisted of Loaiza, Lieber, Schmidt, and Cordova to have any significant arguement. I'm pulling stats out of the vault here. Cordova's career peaked and fizzled in five years. A career ERA of 3.96, he started to fall off the year Jason wasn't there, posting a 4.43 in '99 and he was finished the next season. Loaiza has recieved attention since leaving but he honestly only had one good season, putting up a 21-9 record and 2.90 ERA with the White Sox in 2003. Other then that he's been a dissappointment. His 4.35 ERA in his 3 seasons with Kendall catching in Pittsburgh is less then his career number of 4.65. Lieber has had a strong consistent career since getting out of town. We all now what I attribute that turn around to. Despite that, his 4.22 ERA with Kendall at backstop is the same as his career. Jason Schmidt is the case that I'm sure everyone who wants to argue with me is waiting for, and they should be. He didn't suck at Pittsburgh, but he has been ridiculous in San Francisco. The stats don't support me, and I know nothing of he and Kendall's relationship. All I know is how I feel about the situation, (this is highly subjective) and that's the Jason Schmidt is a big pussy. He wasn't successful in Pittsburgh, and he was never going to be. At least Kendall tried every game, Schmidt didn't care about the Pirates. The man went to the Giants and lost 40 lbs. Suddenly his ERA is under 3.5 and that's Kendall's fault. He said things about Pittsburgh that would make a little kid with hope cry. It's hard to win here because players like you didn't try, not because the team has a bad attitude, only you did. The only other real case I could see being made is that of Todd Ritchie. The stats suggest that he and Kendall didn't work too well together. His 3.49 ERA in 1999 makes it seem like he was a very capable pitcher, but you could make a case that Ritchie wasn't as good as those stats would suggest. I love Todd, but even his 2000 and 2001 stats (4.81 and 4.47 respectively) are better then the numbers he had anywhere else. You can try and blame Kendall for the non development of Jimmy Anderson, Bronson Arroyo, and Kris Benson, you might have a case with Arroyo, but there's little to suggest that those other guys don't just suck. Plus Kendall had amazing success in 1998 with Jose Silva and Chris Peters. Their careers were effectively over about the same time Kendall went down. That's my take on the debate of Kendall's influence on pitchers, but it's not my opinion as to why the pitchers have played they way they were. I think before PNC the Pirates pitchers by-in-large over-achieved (except Schmidt). I attribute it to the coaches, and while I think the catcher may have something to do with it, I don't think it really mattered who that catcher was. When we got in the new park we were putting up the number we should have been, but we've been getting better ever since, and right now we're really putting it together. posted by Rory at 12:34 PM | |
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This is a blog about the Pittsburgh Pirates. My vision: to write about the games at the games. Want to email me? Make it out to rory at bleache... you know the rest. |
