Key Stats: Howie Kendrick's infield fly ball percentage last season was 0.0% - nobody else in baseball did that last season. When he puts the ball in play, there's a great chance he's going to get a hit. When he puts the ball in play being the key part of that sentence. Kendrick had the worst strikeout rate of his career last season striking out more than 6% more than he did in 2010.
Skeptics Say: The 18 home runs that Kendrick finished with is a bit of a head scratcher. He hit one home run every 60.4 at-bats up until last season. Last season he hit one home run every 29.8 at-bats. It could be the fact that Kendrick is finding his power stroke heading into his late 20s, but I doubt it. The 16.5 HR:FB rate was a career best and about 10% better than it was in 2010.
Peer Comparison: Tristan Cockcroft and Rotochamp have Kendrick ranked a lot higher than we do here. Usually I dislike tiers because players can be in the same tier, but if there is a two home run differ...
Original Story:
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November 23, 2011
