Joe Kennedy wasn't a superstar. He wasn't Buck O'Neil, he wasn't Kirby Puckett, he wasn't even really Cory Lidle. So what do you say when he goes? You loved him. You send your condolences. You will keep his family in your prayers. But what does that do? There's Joe Kennedy. Joe Kennedy is dead. But where's the thing that made him move? It had to be something, didn't it?Terrible news coming out of Florida today: Blue Jays' pitcher Joe Kennedy died this morning of a currently unknown cause. His agent confirmed the news and the A's (who he pitched for from 2005 until August of this season) have released a statement: "The entire Oakland's A's organization sends our thoughts out to Joe's family," said Oakland assistant general manager David Forst. "He was a valued member of our organization for almost two years, and certainly a guy we loved having around.''This is really tragic and shocking news, especially given the timing. As mentioned above, there's no official cause given yet, though some sources are indicating it may have been a brain aneurysm. Anyways, keep his family, including his wife and young son, in mind today. Condolences go out to them and all of Kennedy's family. RIP, Joe.
After we passed along the news Friday that Carlos Zambrano had signed a five-year extension with the Cubs, we tried to analyze the impact of the deal. Was it fair value, was it good for the sale of the team? Personally, I was ecstatic when I heard the financial terms of the contract; it's cheaper than the one Barry Zito signed over the Winter, indicating to me a declining, more affordable market. But Andrew at True Blue LA explains to us why the signing might not be such a good thing. With Zambrano off the market, the starting pitching market this offseason is empty. If you assume that teams are going to activate the options on their good pitchers, the best available pitchers this offseason are Tom Glavine and Curt Schilling. When the free agent class is lead by two quadragenerians, it's a very, very bad sign. After those two pitchers, you have some pitchers that you've heard of, but aren't any good like Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, and then you get into the Odalis Perez/Joe Kennedy quality of pitcher.Yikes! I wouldn't want to give more than a one-year deal to any of those arms. That also helps explain why there weren't too many deals made at the deadline -- there's an increased premium on homegrown talent since the free agent market doesn't have much to offer. That's also why I'm surprised the Red Sox traded away Kason Gabbard. But hey, when you're trying to win a World Series title, you have to go all out. So like I said, your pitching suck? It's probably not getting better next year, unless your farm system is locked and loaded.
Charles Finley hasn't owned the Athletics in years, but apparently his outlook towards the money he paid his players is still alive within the organization today. You may remember that Finley broke up one of the most dominant teams in baseball history after the Athletics won three straight titles because he didn't want to give his players a raise. So instead he just sold everybody. Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, he sold everybody.Asked if he thought the A's decision to remove him from the rotation had something to do with that, he simply said, "Do the math."I can't blame Kennedy for being bitter about the whole thing, but I don't think this was all just about money. Do the A's really want to give Kennedy an extra $200,000? Not really, but something tells me if he was 9-3 with a 3.37 ERA they wouldn't mind paying him the bonuses.
On Saturday when Rich Harden was scheduled to make his first start since April, I wrote that the Athletics shouldn't get overly excited by his return. The possibility Harden would get hurt again was too great. Of course, after 66 pitches in that start, Harden was hurting again."I think at this point, after what's transpired the first part of the season, it would be sort of foolish to plan on Rich being back soon,'' Beane said. "We won't know until he sees the doctor, but, obviously, this has been bothering him for quite awhile. It's been almost three months, and it's still bothering him. To expect he'll just be better in two weeks is unrealistic.''Harden is currently in Los Angeles right now to meet with Angels team doctor Lewis Slocum to get his opinion. He's hoping he can be back to Oakland in time to work out with the team on Wednesday.
Asked if exploratory surgery might be a possibility, considering that the injury apparently hasn't responded to rest and treatment, Beane said, "We'll wait and see what the doctor says, but, ultimately, it will be up to Rich."
After Barry Zito hopped across the bay this offseason to be with his hetero lifemate Barry Bonds, it left a hole in the Athletics starting rotation. This is a problem that the Athletics are familiar with though, as they've lost Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson in recent years too.
The team was hoping Joe Kennedy would be able to move from the bullpen into the fifth spot of the rotation, but that plan isn't working out as well as they'd like. Oakland will tell you that the spot is still Kennedy's to lose despite the fact he's put up a stellar ERA of 20.48 this spring, but word out of Denver is that the Athletics are doing what they can to help Kennedy lose the spot.
With the back of their rotation a growing concern, the Oakland A's have shown interest in available Rockies starter Byung-Hyun Kim, according to multiple major-league sources...Kim's name was connected with Oakland when he became a free agent after the 2005 season. He's guaranteed $2.5 million this season, a portion of which the Rockies would likely have to absorb in any trade. Josh Fogg, in whom Baltimore has shown interest, appears to have the edge on Kim for the Rockies' fifth starter's job.
Kim went 8-12 with a 5.57 ERA in Colorado last season, and so far this spring he's sporting a 9.00 ERA in 13 innings, but if you add both of those numbers up it's still less than Kennedy's 20.48, so it's an improvement, right?
