Article: Bobby Kielty, Greek God of Vibes

[Mac]

An early sabermetric darling, Bobby Kielty was an outfielder who never fully put it together in the majors.

During the 2002 trade deadline, Oakland GM Billy Beane was making one final effort to acquire minor leaguer Kevin Youkilis for his A’s. Cliff Floyd was about to be sent from Montreal to the Red Sox, and as told in Moneyball, Billy tried to worm his way into the trade by asking Expos GM Omar Minaya to acquire Youkilis and flip him to Oakland.

Unfortunately for Beane, Youkilis had already been deemed untouchable in Boston by rising front office executive Theo Epstein. And even if he hadn’t, using Omar Minaya to help you acquire useful players is like planning a bank heist with a group of preschoolers. So the following year, when outfielder Bobby Kielty became available, Beane worked instead with his closest friend in baseball to acquire the player he wanted.

Beane and former Blue Jays GM J.P. Riccardi go back. They were minor league teammates in the Mets organization in the early 1980s (with John Gibbons!), and when Beane took over as GM in Oakland in 1997, Riccardi became the team’s director of player personnel. Riccardi was still in Oakland when Toronto ownership, ears flickering at the sound of baseball being done for cheap, hired Riccardi to run the Blue Jays’ baseball operations. Riccardi’s first trade running the Jays was done with Beane: Billy Koch went to Oakland for Eric Hinske and Justin Miller.

A scene from the unreleased Moneyball sequel: “It’s called Moneyball T, and we can replace Delgado with Josh Phelps.”

Kielty was an undrafted success story that made it to the major leagues. He grew up in California and attended USC as a two-sport walk-on athlete. The baseball team got Kielty to give up playing water polo, but a year later, the Trojans told him he would only pitch for them, and Kielty transferred out. Heading into his draft year, Kielty injured himself in a ski accident, which had unfortunate timing. The injury would carry through his season, and no team would call his name on draft day.

Kielty went to the Cape Cod League, where he was a teammate of Reed Johnson and also won league MVP. He would sign with the Twins organization and tore through their minor league system. He made the Twins in 2001 in just his third professional season and would break out the following year. Kielty finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting when he slashed a Youkilian .291/.405./484 across 289 at-bats (2.7 WAR) in 2002.

Minnesota had tried to beef up during their 2002 stretch run by acquiring Jays outfielder Shannon Stewart, but Riccardi rebuffed the Twins. Things had changed by 2003 for both teams. Despite being above .500, Toronto was nine games back in the hellish AL East at the All-Star break. Stewart was a pending free agent and was almost assuredly gone the following season. Meanwhile, the Twins were scuffling themselves, losers of 22 of 28, when they finally met Riccardi’s asking price for Stewart.

Which was apparently another outfielder in Kielty? Kielty had many years of team control left compared to Stewart – he was not eligible for arbitration until the following season – but Toronto had a crowded outfield even after trading Stewart. Even Riccardi admitted after the trade that he was trying to get pitching back in trading Stewart, but no one would part with an arm.

Yet.

Kielty joined the Jays after the All-Star break in Boston. He singled in his first two at-bats as a Blue Jay and homered in his third, contributing to a 5-2 Toronto win over the Red Sox on the back of a Roy Halladay complete game. He continued to hit, reaching safely in his first six games as a Jay and 14 of his first 19. Kielty was making a name for himself all over the field, including this catch to rob Trot Nixon of a home run.

Halladay got the 19th win of his 2003 Cy Young season on September 6 against Detroit with his only help coming from Kielty. Facing Fernando Rodney, the righty came off the bench to drive home the winning run with a base hit over a drawn in Tigers’ outfield in the 10th for a 1-0 win. Yes, Roy Halladay threw a complete game, ten inning, three-hit shutout. Detroit lost 119 times that season – still, incredible.

Kielty played well enough to keep his name on the lineup card as an everyday player through the end of the season, although his production did drop off from his time in Minnesota. He continued to showcase his plate discipline but only hit four home runs with the Jays and especially struggled against right handed pitching. In 287 at-bats against righties, Kielty slashed just .216/.328/.328.

Kielty did provide some memorable moments in his short time in Toronto but he seemed destined to be somewhere else. Weeks after the Marlins shocked the Yankees in the World Series, Riccardi and Beane finalized a trade; Kielty was sent to Oakland for pitcher Ted Lilly. Some ex-teammates of yours, huh Gibby?

If you keep reading these, we are going to remember this one. A lot.

Lilly was an All-Star the following season for Toronto and the deal worked out well for Minnesota as well. Stewart was torrid at the plate through the rest of 2003 and finished fourth in MVP voting, earning himself an extension with the Twins. Stewart would also return to Toronto in 2008, forming some sort of platoon with Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench (Shanbravin Stewilkermench is a future post, guaranteed).

As for Kielty and the A’s? He enjoyed a fan following in the Bay Area, growing out his red mane and earning the nickname Bobby Mac, in reference to Ronald McDonald. On the field however, he was unable to return to the production levels of his rookie season. By his fourth year in Oakland, Kielty found himself out of regular playing time and he was eventually traded to Boston. Kielty's final major league at bat was a pinch-hit home run for the Red Sox in the clinching game of the 2007 World Series. A great way for a fun baseball player to go out on and today, Bobby Kielty, you are remembered as a Jay.

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[paulnotskenes]

Bobby had a Jeremy Lin effect on Toronto. I had team mates on my U13 ball team changing their stances to look like bobby kielty after the torrid first week of his jays career

[Brock Beauchamp]

6 minutes ago, paulnotskenes said:

Bobby had a Jeremy Lin effect on Toronto. I had team mates on my U13 ball team changing their stances to look like bobby kielty after the torrid first week of his jays career

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