| Garrett Wilson. 10th August, 2006 - 7:54 pm
 It’s easy to get excited about a hot young prospect for your favorite team. Fans desperately want to believe that their team has just uncovered the next Alex Rodriguez, when in reality, most of the time the rookie is a lot closer to John Rodriguez, but every once in a while, the rookie actually lives up to the hype. Already this year there seems to have been a plethora of new superstars making their debut: Francisco Liriano, Justin Verlander, Ryan Zimmerman, Andre Ethier and John Papelbon. Well, it looks like the Los Angeles Angels are going to get to add a name to that list, Howard “Howie” Kendrick III.
Kendrick barely has 100 major league at-bats under his belt but already he is displaying the kind of skill that helped him post four straight minor league seasons with a batting average in the high .360’s. In fact, Kendrick’s offensive output, including a recently ended sixteen-game hitting streak, since being recalled in mid-July is a major reason that the Halos did not acquire an additional bat at the trade deadline.
It hasn’t been an entirely smooth ride for the second baseman though. Kendrick actually made his debut for the Angels back in late April and received sporadic playing time over the next few weeks. The rookie ended up hitting a whopping .115 during that eight-game span. Despite the small sample size of twenty-six at-bats, many called into question whether or not Kendrick was really the hitting phenom that he had been touted as for the last two years. But if there was one thing that nobody ever questioned it was H3’s work ethic and mental fortitude.
Kendrick was demoted to Triple-A Salt Lake in May and immediately set about proving his detractors wrong. Whereas many young players would have had their confidence shaken by such a rough experience and struggled for a short time once back in the minors, Howie did just the opposite. Within weeks of his demotion, Kendrick raised his batting average over .400 and held it there for a few weeks before coming back to earth. Before long, the Angels had summoned him back up to the Big Show.
Of course, manager Mike Scioscia decided to add a new degree of difficulty to Kendrick major league experience. Not only would Howie have to show he could hit at this level, he would have to do it while playing first base, a position he had never played before… in his entire life. Unphased, Kendrick immediately went on a tear, raising his average over .300 while hitting ten doubles and one homer in nineteen games, securing himself an everyday role with a team contending for a division title.
Before the Kendrick Lovefest gets out of hand though, it is important to remember that he barely has over 100 at-bats right now. But if the youngster can maintain his current level of play over the rest of the season, then Angel fans have every reason to get excited.
It isn’t just that Kendrick has the ability to hit for a high average, it is how he is doing it. Baseball is steadily growing more reliant on muscle-bound, pull-happy ogres who either hit a homer or strikeout and nothing else. Mixed in with those ogres are light-hitting, slappies like Juan Pierre who hit for high averages by barely dumping soft loopers to the opposite field. The Angels rookie falls into neither category. Kendrick is throwback to the days of the pure hitters. H3 has one blanket approach: square the ball up and hit it where it is pitched. That approach can be seen in his results, almost everything Kendrick hits is a line drive. It doesn’t matter to what part of the field either. Howie is just as likely to rip a ball into the left-center gap as he is the right-center gap or even either foul line. The kid can flat out hit.
With Adam Kennedy headed for free agency next year, Kendrick will get an opportunity to take over as the Angels’ second basemen full-time. If he keeps hitting the way he’s hitting right now, it should be his job for the next fifteen years.
Questions? Comments? Misplaced aggression? Contact Garrett at gwilson40@gmail.com. |
