5/25 - Mets (Carrasco) vs Cubs (Hendricks): 6:40pm, Marquee

[Brock Beauchamp]

Hendricks is back! What do you expect from him tonight?

I'm pretty wary of what he can offer at this point in his career but the Cubs can certainly use more arms in the rotation.

[mul21]

I'd be happy with 5 IP and 2 ER and seeing solid location and the velocity hold up to what it's been in his MiL starts.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I expect Cyle.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

My glass half full take on Hendricks is that I think the rest from his injury and the focus on increasing his velocity combined with him looking sharp in AAA means he can be pretty good.  I think he'll probably have a couple games where he gets burned by the long ball or imperfect command(so something a bit worse than his pre-pandemic levels in total), but the aforementioned rest and not pitching in games til May should help hedge against it.

 

The glass half empty take is that even with some improved velocity, he's old enough that he's not going to have the elite sharpness of command he needs for every single hitter at the MLB level, and when he doesn't have that he's batting practice so he'll have a handful of blow up starts and a handful more that are really frustrating 5 IP, 3-4 R where one bad inning or a couple bad hitters kills him.  That guy doesn't deserve the rotation spot over Wesneski(or Brown later in the year), but I'm not sure he'll be bad enough to give the org the conviction to cut him.  If he doesn't have it, getting rocked repeatedly could be a small mercy in that regard.

[PackLandVA]

I hope he pitches well enough over the next two months to have some trade value netting a decent low prospect or player.

[Derwood]

Gives up at least three dingers

[Tryptamine]

I have very low expectations for Kyle. I know the Mets have vastly underperformed expectations offensively, but there's so much talent that I just don't think it can last forever and a soft tosser like Kyle could spark them.

[UMFan83]

No idea what to expect from Kyle but won't put too much emphasis on his first MLB start in 10 months.  Just happy to see him on the mound for the Cubs.

[CubinNY]

If the wind is neutral I’m hoping for 5 innings and 4 runs. 
 

if the wind is blowing in 5 innings and 2 runs.

if the wind is blowing out, I hope they have someone warming in the BP next to him before the start of the game. 

 

[muntjack]

5.2 IP 0 runs 

[Irrelevant Dude]

5 hours ago, PackLandVA said:

I hope he pitches well enough over the next two months to have some trade value netting a decent low prospect or player.

I can't go there. Not for the last man standing from the World Series team and the guy who outdueled Kershaw to clinch the NLCS.  I know he's not that pitcher anymore, but if he's good enough to return anything of value, he's probably also good enough to factor into the Cubs rotation for the rest of the year. 

[UMFan83]

16 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I can't go there. Not for the last man standing from the World Series team and the guy who outdueled Kershaw to clinch the NLCS.  I know he's not that pitcher anymore, but if he's good enough to return anything of value, he's probably also good enough to factor into the Cubs rotation for the rest of the year. 

Yeah unless he is terrible, I believe he has a club option for $16 mil next year which I would easily take for some stability.  Seems like he's well liked and respected in the clubhouse too...if we sell this offseason I'd prefer it to be a sell off that doesn't hurt the 2024 team....if we're going into next year not prepared to contend that's a huge issue.

[PackLandVA]

45 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I can't go there. Not for the last man standing from the World Series team and the guy who outdueled Kershaw to clinch the NLCS.  I know he's not that pitcher anymore, but if he's good enough to return anything of value, he's probably also good enough to factor into the Cubs rotation for the rest of the year. 

 

25 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Yeah unless he is terrible, I believe he has a club option for $16 mil next year which I would easily take for some stability.  Seems like he's well liked and respected in the clubhouse too...if we sell this offseason I'd prefer it to be a sell off that doesn't hurt the 2024 team....if we're going into next year not prepared to contend that's a huge issue.

 

Totally get the sentiment here.  But Kyle almost certainly won't be around this team in a few years regardless.  I certainly wouldn't give him away. But if the Cubs are not really in contention. and they can get a decent return that has greater possibilities of helping the team in the future, then make the move.

But here's hoping for a good/decent return to the mound tonight.

[PackLandVA]

CHC Batters	AVG	HR	RBI	SB
1Hoerner2B	.295	3	24	12
2SwansonSS	.265	4	20	4
3HappLF	.288	4	19	4
4Suzuki, SRF	.285	6	19	1
5TauchmanCF	.364	0	1	1
6MorelDH	.358	9	15	1
7Mervis1B	.222	2	7	0
8Wisdom3B	.220	12	23	2
9GomesC	.292	6	19	1

[jersey cubs fan]

I know I'm generally more of a pessimist than some, but come on guys, Hendricks is hanging by a thread. It would be nice to get 10 not terrible starts out of him this year. Then let him go. 

[champaignchris]

5 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

I know I'm generally more of a pessimist than some, but come on guys, Hendricks is hanging by a thread. It would be nice to get 10 not terrible starts out of him this year. Then let him go. 

Exactly. Hendricks is one of my five favorite Cubs ever, but anything more than about 75 innings and a 4.50 ERA this season is gravy. 

[UMFan83]

Good bye Nick Madrigal.  Would have been more fitting if he was sent down for Heuer but this works.

 

Edit:  Still getting used to navigating this side, I guess its being discussed elsewhere

 

 

Edited May 25 by UMFan83

[Transmogrified Tiger]

35 minutes ago, jersey cubs fan said:

I know I'm generally more of a pessimist than some, but come on guys, Hendricks is hanging by a thread. It would be nice to get 10 not terrible starts out of him this year. Then let him go. 

Yeah you absolutely cannot pick up Hendricks' option, even if he's very good he's still dancing a razor's edge to be good.  There's no stability or floor you're locking in, and it's the same AAV that guys like Eovaldi and Senga (and Taillon) got.

[Rex Buckingham]

hate when they don't call a strike when the catcher has to reach for it... it's still in the zone, call it

[Transmogrified Tiger]

that was such a lazy approach by McNeil I thought I was watching myself playing slow pitch for a second

[CubinNY]

This zone is very friendly to Kyle.

[Tryptamine]

Getting absolutely babip'd to death

[UMFan83]

Ugh 2 extremely soft bloop hits and then a grounder through the right side lead to a run. Kyle is pitching really well this inning too imo just terrible luck

 

edit and then another grounder through the right side for 2 more runs. Yikes   That one was hit harder but still perfectly placed

Edited May 26 by UMFan83

[Tryptamine]

3 run inning and I don't think 1 ball has hit 90mph

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, Tryptamine said:

3 run inning and I don't think 1 ball has hit 90mph

Just looked it up, worse than I thought. Nothing crushed but one was 93 mph and another 90. 
 

xBA were .930, .610, .340, .580