Kendall next to pay the price?

by badgermaniac on Aug 13, 2009 5:01 PM CDT Comment 33 comments

Macha just said that Rivera deserves to play and will be in the lineup tomorrow.

I don't know if it is accurate, but he also said that they are 6 games over .500 with Rivera, which would mean they are about 8 games under .500 with Kendall.

If they are going to make Hardy pay the price, then Kendall better be right there in the same boat. If you really don't have any answers on the pitching staff, you might as well try to outscore people.

I hope he gets an extended look and won't find himself on the bench, playing once every 10 days, if he goes 0-3 tomorrow.

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Its not like

playing Rivera is going to hurt us more than having kendall hit so why not?

Friends don't let friends be cub fans

by BIGPAMPERINO on Aug 13, 2009 5:46 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It's time.

by Zorakathura on Aug 13, 2009 6:00 PM CDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs

From McCalvy:

Manager Ken Macha intends to start Rivera for a second straight game when Yovani Gallardo takes the mound against the Astros at Miller Park.

And why not? Rivera, who has been with the Brewers all season but only had 63 at-bats before Thursday, belted a pair of home runs and drove in four as Milwaukee beat up on, then held off the Padres to salvage a win in the series finale. Macha wouldn’t commit past Friday, but the sense was that Rivera, who provides some pop to an offense that, outside of Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Mike Cameron has little, could see more playing time over the final six weeks.

Another puss who hides behind crap.

by Zeyes on Aug 13, 2009 8:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Heh

It’s still weird to think of a Brewers lineup struggling for power.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 13, 2009 8:51 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

my thought exactly

that really caught me off guard

by marty22 on Aug 13, 2009 10:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Weeks gone, Hardy bad

That’s a lot of power there. Counsel’s cranked it up this year, but he can’t make up for that power outage.

by ecocd on Aug 14, 2009 10:43 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

BTW...

as of today’s game, Rivera finally has more plate appearances for 2007-2009 combined (162) than he got in his first season as a Brewer (158 in 2006).

Another puss who hides behind crap.

by Zeyes on Aug 13, 2009 9:06 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Also

He has more HR in his last 320 PA than Kendall does in his last 3571.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 13, 2009 9:17 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

He has more home runs in his last 5 than Kendall does in his last 3571.

by levnclf on Aug 13, 2009 9:52 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Wow

Sucks it took three guys getting the boot to start thinking about whether you were playing the guys you need to win but whatever, good for Rivera

by warwick5s on Aug 13, 2009 10:49 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

well, i think this is coming down from Doug Melvin

Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".

by tcyoung on Aug 13, 2009 11:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I still think he's just the baseball "decision-maker" in the middle

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 14, 2009 8:33 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I heard an interview earlier in the week

where Melvin talked about it being a shame that Rivera hasn’t gotten more of a chance. It sounded like he wants him to play more. I’ve also heard Macha say that Doug wants Escobar to play 4 days a week. That would lead us to believe that Melvin is poking his head into the lineup.

It would also lead me to believe that macha’s job is safe if he follows Doug’s orders. At the end of the year, how can Melivn fire Macha for following Melvin’s orders.

Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, ""That’s all they need is another home run hitter".

by tcyoung on Aug 14, 2009 10:16 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wonder...

if Melvin originally was the one who wanted Kendall playing most of the time… both with Yost and Macha. In fact, I often wondered if Yost was following Melvin’s orders during his tenure particularly he would continue trotting out guys who were struggling like Turnbow, Gagne and Hall.

After Rivera’s numbers from last season (with limited playing time), I was sure that he was going to get more playing time this season. In fact, when I met Rivera during the Brewers On-Deck event this year, I asked him about if he thought he was going to get more playing time. He smiled and said that he didn’t know for sure, but that with a new manager he was hopeful.

I’m looking forward to seeing how he does with more playing time.

by sjlee on Aug 14, 2009 1:47 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can't remember which article/blog spot specifically gave me this impression but...

somehow it almost seemed to me that installing Rivera as an equal rather than just as a backup is Macha’s idea, as a sort-of response to the roster shakeup otherwise ordered from above.

Another puss who hides behind crap.

by Zeyes on Aug 14, 2009 4:27 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That was a really weird typo for "post"...

Another puss who hides behind crap.

by Zeyes on Aug 14, 2009 4:27 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Melvin could fire Macha for whatever reason he wanted, but I get your point

But I wonder if Melvin is thinking of these things or if Mark A is prodding him.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 14, 2009 1:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mark A.

I know that some people here think that Mark A. meddles with the team, but I’m under the impression that he doesn’t really get involved until there’s a crisis… like last season’s firing of Yost and the recent changes.

by sjlee on Aug 14, 2009 2:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I suspect wanting Rivera to play more (or Kendall less, if you prefer) is part of the recent changes

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 14, 2009 3:33 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Didn't Macha and Kendall have a falling out over playing time in Oakland?

by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Aug 15, 2009 3:04 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pay the price...

I don’t think that Kendall will be gone before the end of the season… otherwise, they’d need to promote someone from the minors to play as backup. If nothing else, they keep Kendall around as a backup until the end of the season and let him go to free agency.

by sjlee on Aug 14, 2009 1:50 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

It would be kind of strange to dump him completely right now. He’d be perfectly fine as a backup.

If anyone is interested, BRef has a breakdown on how the Brewers pitchers perform depending on the catcher. It’s nearly identical between Rivera and Kendall this year and last year it was almost the same other than Kendall’s incredible year at throwing people out. This is one of the reasons why I think his game calling skills aren’t really worth much and should be pretty much ignored.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=p&team=MIL&year=2009#catch

by kingcharlesxii on Aug 14, 2009 2:30 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That link is really interesting

Based on the limited Rivera sample, it appears the pitchers are throwing more strikes (more Ks, fewer BB) but aren’t getting hit any harder in power numbers. They are also giving up 0.23 fewer runs per nine innings with Rivera catching, which doesn’t seem like much, but it is almost 4 wins per season. Now this may just be random noise due to Rivera’s limited playing time, but there is only one way to filter out random noise from a small sample size.

But if you might have found a way to become 4 wins better by playing the cheaper, younger option who is under team control for another 3 years it is almost criminal negligence not to find out exactly what you have.

by Getting Yosted on Aug 14, 2009 3:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Back before the season started

I used those numbers and looked at how pitchers did with Kendall behind the plate as opposed to the other catchers his teams had over the course of his career. It doesn’t include 2007 because it would have been tough figuring out who was backing up who when on two different teams, but this is what I got:

Kendall – 14152 innings – 61460 PA – .267/.338/.418 – 4.80 R/9 – 30.6 CS%
Others – 3123 innings – 13583 PA – .266/.336/.422 – 4.73 R/9 – 27.5 CS%

I didn’t really look into if backups caught certain pitchers (sort of the way Greg Maddux pitched more often to the backups in Atlanta) more, but I doubt it would skew the numbers back in Kendall’s favor.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 14, 2009 3:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting that Kendall doesn't get any "credit"

for the pitching staff’s performance these days?

Doesn’t the catcher get kudos on how well he handles the staff on the mound when everything is positive?

Rivera has earned a decent shot. Kendall has earned himself a bunch of off days – to give his body a break if nothing else.

Macha says “These guys earn their way into the starting lineup” So prove it, Kenny.

"At times I'm emotional," --Ryan Braun, 7/7/09

by heybatterbatter on Aug 14, 2009 2:34 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Mike Rivera calls a good game, too

It’s documented – http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rivermi02.shtml

That’s science talking.

by Marty McSuperFly on Aug 15, 2009 7:10 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Grist for the argument

Thanks. Few Es or PBs. Damn good when you consider how little playing time he’s gotten since 2005.

"At times I'm emotional," --Ryan Braun, 7/7/09

by heybatterbatter on Aug 15, 2009 4:08 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

kendall's back in the lineup today

we just scored 12 and 13 runs with rivera in the lineup.

by Cervercero on Aug 15, 2009 3:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

kendall has like an .800 BA with 20+ PAs against the opposing pitcher

so…not incredibly opposed to it, as long as rivera gets to play tomorrow

I’m going to start an unsubstantiated rumor that Mike Rivera is the son of Peter Rivera. Being under-appreciated runs in the family. Pete Rivera was the lead singer and drummer of the white Motown band Rare Earth.

by PagsBrewCrew on Aug 15, 2009 3:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

maybe it's not entirely unsubstantiated...

from peterrivera.com

At present he lives with Dabar, his wife of thirty-two years, and his family in Southern California. He tours the world with the Classic Rock All Stars and is currently involved in projects that include writing and producing music. He has authored his autobiography and is currently working on a book-to-movie project. He has three children. Two sons are in professional baseball and his daughter is a senior softball star at a Division I college.

by PagsBrewCrew on Aug 15, 2009 3:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

raining on my own parade

It’s unlikely that his sons have the last name “Rivera”, given that was his stage name (who he incidentally took from his cousin who was also pro baseball player, but didn’t make the bigs)

This is one of the sons according to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Hoorelbeke
And this is likely the other: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hoorel001sea
and his daughter: http://www.myspace.com/blakeyblake44

by PagsBrewCrew on Aug 15, 2009 3:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think we should call him Baby Bombo

After the ’70s outfielder.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Aug 15, 2009 10:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

works for me

by PagsBrewCrew on Aug 16, 2009 7:12 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

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