MLB.com has re-published the thoughts of a fan named Sarah. It's the Kendall reference that caught my eye. She thinks Kendall caused a lot of resentment among the Pirates because he made a lot of money. So, the Dodgers shouldn't pay a lot of money to Adrian Beltre.
I'd be curious to learn how she observed this. While I generally believe that stars & scrubs is not the best way to assemble a low-budget baseball team, I don't understand how a fan can say she saw resentment among Kendall's 2004 teammates. And, for the record, I don't think Kendall's salary last year was as much as an albatross as it would have been in the final year of his contract. There's no evidence that the Pirates' sub-.500 season had anything to do with the portion of total payroll consumed by Kendall's salary. There appears to be a reading of Littlefield's Alex Rodriguez comments which infers that the GM and maybe some fans blame Kendall's salary for the Pirates' inability to win a lot of games the last few years. While I don't know what the GM meant by those comments, I doubt that's what he meant to suggest. The problem with Kendall's salary is that it grows year after year. And as it grows, it would continue to restrict the team's ability to pay his teammates more than a scrub's salary if, as I think we all anticipate, the current ownership does not significantly grow the team's annual payroll.
I think the trade looks OK for the Bucs because it frees money that can be used for the eventually arbitration-eligible guys we want to keep. Redman looks like a good replacement for Sean Burnett and, as unfashionable as it may be, I still think Rhodes is a bad-ass with at least one more dominant set-up season in his tank. All that said, we have to wait a few years before we can judge the trade with any justified conclusions. I've read a lot of commentary on the Kendall trade that reminds me of the cocksure snap judgments that were issued after the Pirates sent Giles to San Diego.
One more thing. Scroll to the bottom of Sarah's piece and click on her link. Is this something that would be called a blog?
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