FanPost

Kendrick Gave Angels One Last Assist

Howie... - Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

In his career as an Angel, Howie Kendrick completed 2696 assists on the field of play. On Dec 10th, 2014, he gave the Angels one last assist off the field.

On Thursday morning many Angels fans awoke to the news of Kendrick being traded to the Dodgers for pitcher Andrew Heaney. By playing great defense and being a good batter for the vast majority of the last decade for the Angels, Howie Kendrick even with just one year left on this contract, had enough value to net the Angels a high caliber, cost controlled, left handed starting pitcher, on the cusp of being major league rotation ready.

A year ago at this time, Angels fans were clamoring for a big trade or signing to bring in a top notch established MLB starter, myself included. Dipoto didn't flinch though, he took his time, made a great trade involving another fan darling Mark Trumbo, and rolled the dice on Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago. That was the trade of the year for the Angels because it completely turned around the franchise, in terms of pitching depth. In concert with the unexpected emergence of Shoemaker, and the quantum leap in Richards game, the Angels suddenly had a promising young core of starters, to go along with veteran ace Weaver and the somewhat chaotic Wilson.

In the last offseason, Dipoto passed on signing players that would cause the Angels to forfeit the pick that later became first round draft choice, Sean Newcomb, the 6 foot 5 left handed pitching prospect.

Last season the team won a league high 98 games, coasting into the offseason without even tapping the gas pedal for the last 10 games of the season. As fans, we feasted on wins all year long, and we got a taste of the playoffs for the first time since 2009. I sat in the stands of game 2 and watched a packed stadium of Angels fans live and breath a moment of playoff history, albeit bitter sweet.

Last season Howie was a huge part of that playoff push. During the longest winning streak of the year, 10 games in September which all but put away the AL West title, Howie hit cleanup for 9 of those games. In that streak of 9 games he went 20 for 40, scored 10 runs, drove in 13 RBI, slugged 2 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homers. He batted .500 for that stretch, and committed ZERO errors. 7 of those 9 games were on the road. That's what a Howie Kendrick can do for a team. He can get hot and hit with the best in the business.

That was some vintage Howie Kendrick, and that is the Howie Kendrick which the Dodgers just gave up a highly valuable young pitcher (Andrew Heaney) to acquire.

In his tenure as an Angel, Howie delivered a WAR of 27.6 to the Angels. He played in 1081 games. He batted .292 in his Angel career and his lowest batting average season was .279 He rarely committed errors just 65 in his entire career, with a fielding percentage of .985 He was constantly delivering a high quality performance for the Angel team and even on his way out, he gave the team one last boost in terms of delivering such a high caliber pitching prospect.

Some fans might feel angry, some might feel sad, but for me, seeing him play for cross town rival, the Dodgers is bitter sweet. I want Howie to succeed, and by him being on the Dodgers now, all of his fans will be able to watch him closely as his career continues. Now that Howie is a Dodger, he has the distinct chance of becoming Los Angeles' favorite second baseman, with two fan bases of fans pulling for him. It will be odd to see him play against the Angels in the upcoming season's freeway series, it will be surreal.

While I am sad to see Howie go, I am grateful for all that he brought to the Angels, from start to finish. Thank you Howie Kendrick for everything you have given this team.

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