Yanks vs A's: Game 11-open thread

What you fail to grasp is that the catcher position is typically devoid of good hitters. How devoid? Paul Lo Duca is considered an average hitter among catchers - that's how bad the position is offensively. So when you can find a catcher that can consistenly get on base over 37% of the time, you tend to boost your offense considerably.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/kendaja01.php

From 1997-2000, Kendall was one of the best hitting catchers in the game, usually falling behind Mike Piazza and Jorge Posada, and ahead of Ivan Rodriguez. Then he had two down years in 2001 and 2002, only to follow those years with two fine performances in 2003 and 2004, where his OBP just touched .400 (it was .399 each year.) In those years Kendall was one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball. You won't find many better than he during those 6 years.

Jason Kendall has a career 63.6 WARP (that's wins above replacement player) for the 10 years he's been in the league. His career WARP3 (adjusted for all time) is 68.0. To give you some perspective, Jason Varitek has a career WARP3 of 43.9, and he's only been in the league 2 fewer years.

By the way, the games played do matter. Having a good hitter at catcher for a full season is much better than having a great hitter at catcher for only half a season. The games played means he provided more value to his team than someone comparable for a shorter period of time.

You seem to be the only one who thinks that Kendall was a bad hitter, and yet you offer very little proof to support your disdain for him, other than what he is today. Yes, he's not a good hitter anymore, but that doesn't mean he wasn't one in his prime. You can babble on about how much he sucked, but until you actually show that he sucked, all it is is babble.