The Beane-Watch Continues

Asher B. Chancey, Baseball Evolution, July 9, 2005

Last night's game in which the Athletics beat the White Sox brought up an interesting comparison between current Athletics and former Athletics.

As you may recall, the A's decided not to pick up a hefty option on Jermaine Dye in the off-season. Dye signed with the White Sox and is making $4 million this year.

The A's did, however, decide to trade for Jason Kendall, a very high priced catcher from the Pittsburgh Pirates. This was done ostensibly because Kendall has a fantastic career on base percentage.

How about a little Tale of the Tape:

Jermaine Dye	Player	Jason Kendall
RF	Position	C
31	Age	31
$ 4 million	Salary	$ 10.571 million
279	AB	302
.272	AVG	.272
.334	OBP	.355
.534	SLG	.315
20	BB	32
50	K	22
19	HR	0
45	RBI	22
42	Runs	39
12	GDP	13
149	TB	95

Well, Billy Beane has done it again! Jason Kendall DOES have a better on-base percentage!

That Billy Beane is a genius!

But seriously folks. Its amazing that no one predicted that Jason Kendall would be a disappointment at the time the trade was made.

Oh wait . . . someone did.