Back in the late 90’s my fantasies were filled with Catherine Zeta-Jones.  The exotic beauty had it all – the face, the body, the uber-sexy Welsh accent.  A talent indeed.  She even made us watch Entrapment, a ridiculous movie that I actually have on DVD, but have never opened, just to see her wind around red laser beams in a skintight black get-up.  That is what the movie was about right?

Well it just so happens that right around that same time period, Roto-heads were fantasizing about a player with a rare combination of power, speed, average, and position scarcity.  That’s right folks, we’re talking Jason Kendall.  In 2000 he peaked with a BA of .320, 14 HRs, 22 steals, and 112 runs.  Pretty sick stats compared to the average catcher.

Flashbacks are nice and all, but if you haven’t noticed, CZJ and Kendall have both since crashed and burned as fantasy options.  Zeta-Jones due to the fact that she married Old Man River himself – Michael Douglas and Kendall because he has gone from a top of the order hitter, to the opposite end of the lineup and has seen his once double-digit home run power dissipate into a measly 3 bombs over the past two and a half seasons.

Now that Kendall has been traded to the Cubs, it is entirely possible that he could see a small spike in his stats.  He is after all a career .297 hitter and is making a jump from pitcher friendly McAfee Coliseum to Wrigley Field.  But the real impact to fantasy teams will likely be seen by those who own Oakland hurlers as Kendall was an above average defensive catcher and did an excellent job handling the starting staff.

The A’s have had three catchers play this year and here are the breakdowns of their catcher ERAs.

	Innings Caught	Earned Runs	Catcher ERA
Jason Kendall	723.1	275	3.42
Adam Melhuse	64	34	4.78
Kurt Suzuki	82.1	55	6.01

The A’s staff already started coming back to Earth even before Kendall was traded, so let’s not put too much weight into the catcher ERA stats, especially given the small sample size for Suzuki, but growing pains with a new rookie starting catcher like Suzuki are to be expected.

Factor in the A’s recent offensive struggles and the fact that they just recently snapped a 9-game losing streak and there is definitely reason to look for better options in fantasy leagues.  So if you can get close to equal value for your A’s starters, I’d definitely look to sell high because Haren, Blanton, Gaudin, and DiNardo will be very hard pressed to match their first half stats.