Mike Kinkade

Mike Kinkade was considered by some to be an interesting acquisition by the Orioles at the tail end of the 2000 season. He had hit pretty well at every stop along the way in the minors, and was the MVP of the Texas League, albeit at the less-than-tender age of 25. Nevertheless, it would have appeared that a guy who had averaged over .300 every year of his minor-league career would be someone worth looking at.

Kinkade was used sparingly at the beginning of the season due to injury, which may have cost him dearly. By the end of May, he was hitting around .270 with an OBP of around .320, although with no power. This, unfortunately for the Orioles, placed him among the top offensive performers. Around this time, an announcement was made that Kinkade was going to pick up some of Cal Ripken’s playing time, as the team was going to take a serious look at him at third base.

But the strangest thing happened…instead of more playing time, he got less. He was hurt right after the announcement (that timing issue again), and when he returned to playing shape, Cal had begun hitting the ball better. Instead of taking the real look at him that had been announced in a press conference (he started only six games at third), Kinkade was once again relegated to a part-time outfield position. He was later hurt again, and played very little in August and September.

Still, Kinkade got to play nearly 300 big league innings. What does one see when one reviews his performance?

Mike Kinkade is one of those guys who you see all the time in AAA at 30, and wonder, probably just as he does, "What if?" What if he hadn’t begun his professional career at 22? What if he had a little more speed? What if he had a little more pop in his bat? What if he were a stellar rather than below-average fielder?

But…he did, he doesn’t, he doesn’t, and he isn’t.

Kinkade, at 28, is a man without a position. He doesn’t have enough pop in his bat or speed to play the outfield, and certainly not enough pop to play third or first. Even though he can probably hit .270-.280 as a major leaguer, he can’t do anything else. He doesn’t show a platoon differential that would make him death to lefties. He’s probably not a bench player because he doesn’t run well or play good defense. His best role seems to be as the AAA player that you call up to cover for a couple of weeks when someone goes down.

On the Orioles, he looked pretty darn good when he was healthy, but that’s only relative. By ML standards, despite the nice minor league numbers, he’s a marginal talent, at best. Hitting the ball on the ground when you're 6'1", 210, is usually not the way to become successful in the majors.

He adds depth to someone’s farm system, but to count on him for more than that is dicey.

Mike Kinkade was not kept on the 40-man roster and will not likely be seen again in Orange and Black.

Notes: hit .360 in his 10 games at third base…hit .333 in four games against the Tribe…only hit four HR but hit two of them in three days against the Phillies...managed to see only 3.5 pitches per plate appearance and was only at 3.4 in his other real ML stint with the Mets in 1999.