Kyle Hendricks: Somehow Greg Maddux

[Inlearningmode]

"It didn't hurt that Hendricks had a GPA better than 4.0 and probably had more in common with the average Ivy League student than he did with anyone else."

 

Respect.

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/40946/from-high-school-underdog-to-era-leader-rise-of-kyle-hendricks

[Omar]

yeah well

 

lets see him get a below average GPA

 

with a liberal arts degree

 

at a below average school

 

and still graduate.

 

C's still earn degrees.

[squally1313]

Kyle Hendricks is now the Cubs leading starter in fWAR, in 16 fewer innings than Arrieta (and 8 fewer innings than Lester). We may not have a super ace, but we've got 3 legitimate #1s, which I'm more than fine with.

[Derwood]

We joke that he's the next Maddux but.....guys....

[biittner77]

And back to back MOY but stupid Dusty will probably get it because "reasons."

honestly putting a plank of wood out there instead of Matt Williams is pretty much reason enough to award that plank of wood Manager of the Year

 

why not go with inanimate carbon rod?

 

I was thinking the coatrack with a hat on it that the Cubs used to replace Cliff Floyd.

[Careless]

So with 31 games left for the Dodgers and Kershaw at 121 IP, he would need to come back immediately and pitch 7 innings a start to qualify for the ERA title, right? So he's out of the running

[UMFan83]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/CarrieMuskat/status/770838438576730116[/tweet]

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I think he meant 1992

[sneakypower]

Kyle Hendricks: Unrepentant Ace

[Thrilho]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/kyle-hendricks-as-arrietas-opposite/

 

Great article. First half about how great he's been against lefties, second half about how he's cut the sinker from 50% to 25% in lieu of the 4 seamer. Pretty sweet AB of him toying with Polanco.

[Old Style]

Thread title should be changed to Kyle Hendricks: Somehow Great

[muntjack]

Yeah, I'm not sure it's a joke anymore. What #s would prime Maddux put up right now? Kyle is right there. Bonkers.

 

Even if this is the best season of his career, I just can't see him ever completely falling off.

 

Please pitch into your 50's, Kyle, and break all the records.

[David]

Yeah, I'm not sure it's a joke anymore. What #s would prime Maddux put up right now? Kyle is right there. Bonkers.

 

Even if this is the best season of his career, I just can't see him ever completely falling off.

Please pitch into your 50's, Kyle, and break all the records.

 

Prime Maddux put up ERAs in the low 2's in the steroid era and threw in the 90s.

 

And the part in bold is kind of a weird thing to say. It's baseball and he's a pitcher.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Thread title should be changed to Kyle Hendricks: Somehow Just Great

 

FTFY

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Kyle Hendricks: BAMF

[Clem Fandango]

Olney put up an article about Kyle. Insider only, but here's the inro:

 

Earlier this year, I bumped into a longtime MLB umpire on a flight, and while we stood at the baggage carousel, waiting for our suitcases, he mentioned one of the Chicago Cubs starters he had seen recently. This umpire tends to look at players the way a doctor might view the 50 patients from a given day -- by the details of their symptoms, rather than by their names -- and he had no clue about the identity of the pitcher, nor anything about his background.

 

But the umpire vividly remembered the pitcher's stuff: a fastball, he said, that moved unlike any other he could recall, dropping straight down rather than with a west-to-east slant, plus a filthy off-speed pitch and a changeup the pitcher actually seemed to manipulate into or away from hitters. And in that particular game, the umpire recalled, Cubs manager Joe Maddon had relieved the pitcher in the middle innings. The decision greatly surprised the umpire, he said, not because of any strategic overview, but because of the stuff he continued to see from the pitcher.

 

The umpire wasn't second-guessing Maddon, but rather he was presenting a completely antiseptic evaluation of what he saw as the formidable weapons of the pitcher.

 

The umpire was talking about Kyle Hendricks, who has emerged as a candidate for the NL Cy Young Award, in spite of the perception of him as a benign, soft-tossing right-hander.

[Banedon]

ESPN's Cy Young predictor now has 3 Cubs in the top 5, with Hendricks finally involved.

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/features/cyyoung

 

Meanwhile Cameron thinks the Cubs amazing defense hurts the case for any of their pitchers getting the award.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-nl-cy-young-and-quantity-versus-quality/

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Hendricks leads MLB in ERA by nearly half a run, the gap between him and 2nd in the NL is the same as the gap between 2nd and 9th.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2016/9/21/12994168/kyle-hendricks-cubs-cy-young-clutch-runners-on-base-strand-rate-changeup

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Basically, Hendricks uses his whole repertoire early. He tries to throw strikes and get ahead of guys, while keeping them off-balance. And when he gets in trouble, that's when the changeup comes out and he turns into god-mode Cy Hendricks.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I wonder if usage of the cut-change v. the change with fade is particularly different. From the heatmap sure looks like the bases empty change is the one with fade to induce swings and misses, while the men on heatmap looks like the cut change trying to induce soft contact.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

The guy who measures contact management at Fangraphs came out with an updated list.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/late-season-nl-contact-management-update/

 

Needless to say, Hendricks blows away the field. I'm not exactly sure how he calculates these scores, but Hendricks' ability to get weak contact on grounders and fly balls definitely helps.

 

Only five NL qualifiers have posted a higher high-fly or lower hard-grounder percentage, and only two a higher can-of-corn fly percentage.

 

He also has a stat called TRU ERA-, which takes into account his expected production on balls in play and adds back in walks and strikeouts. Hendricks ranks second, behind Scherzer in TRU ERA-.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Also, the top four guys on his adjusted contact score list -- Hendricks, Martinez, Roark, Arrieta -- are the four guys I identified as FIP-beaters (along with Tyler Chatwood, who apparently didn't have enough innings to qualify for his list) in my article about Hendricks.

 

[CubsWin]

Hendricks leads MLB in ERA by nearly half a run, the gap between him and 2nd in the NL is the same as the gap between 2nd and 9th.

Hendricks is scheduled to pitch next on Monday in Pittsburgh. With 6 or more innings without an earned run, his ERA will start with a 1.

[Derwood]

It would be awesome if Jyle ended with this 1.99 ERA, but he starts again Sunday right?