For the first month or so of the season, I felt like I had tabs open on Brooks Baseball for each of the Cubs’ starters just about every day. Deciphering the velocity dips, sifting through the useful data, searching for explanations for general ineffectiveness: it was the obsession of someone who desperately wants something to […]
Tag: Kyle Hendricks
The Rotation’s Biggest Sequencing Changes
It’s no secret that the Cubs rotation has been different in 2017. Many would be quick to suggest that “different” is a nicer way of saying “bad”. While it’s certainly true that the results for the rotation have not been as good as in 2016, that does not in itself mean anything, nor does it […]
Where Should Cubs’ Starting Pitching Concerns Be Focused?
The Chicago Cubs are not in a good place right now. They’re under .500, and there isn’t an area of the game in which anyone can declare that they’re actually excelling at this point. Despite some solid individual offensive and defensive performance, they haven’t put things together as a group in either respect. Same goes […]
What’s Eating Kyle Hendricks?
Something is definitely off with last year’s Cy Young candidate. Through his first three starts of the 2017 season, Kyle Hendricks has struggled with the very things that made him excellent just last year. Whether or not this is a harbinger of what the forthcoming months will look like from him is too early to […]
Kyle Hendricks is the Perfect Fifth Starter
I remember it like it was yesterday. The quiet stoicism obvious to anyone watching the game. No pumping fists or screams into a glove after each inning. No argument with the manager when was pulled. Just a slow walk off the mound as Kyle Hendricks was done for the night. He had only pitched seven […]
The PECOTA Gap Between the Cubs and Dodgers
On April 10th, the Cubs will play their first real game at Wrigley since the World Series, and they’ll do so against the Dodgers. The rematch of the NLCS should be a well-played series between two evenly-matched teams. This offseason, many comparisons of the two teams have been made, and the consensus seems to be […]
Kyle Hendricks Doesn’t Have to Regress
Kyle Hendricks was never supposed to be this good. But, after making a few adjustments and in a few years, Hendricks went from a back of the rotation starter to a legitimate Cy Young candidate. Mike Petriello even included him on his Top 10 starting pitchers for 2017—omitting Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta. In some […]
Do the Cubs Have Any Viable Extension Candidates?
On Monday, news broke that the Royals had signed Danny Duffy, 28, to a five-year extension worth $65 million dollars. Coming off by far the best year of his career (Duffy put up 3.8 WARP and a cFIP of 91), the Royals locked him up to what seems to be a fairly team-friendly deal. Duffy—who […]
Player Profile: Kyle Hendricks
Position: Starting pitcher 2016 Stats: 190 IP, 22.8 K%, 5.9 BB%, 2.13 ERA, 3.34 DRA, 4.4 WARP To say that Kyle Hendricks’ 2016 season piqued the interest of baseball in the same way that Jake Arrieta’s 2015 season did feels irrational at first blush. But it truly isn’t. Just two years ago, Hendricks looked to be every bit […]
Second City October: Pitchers Who Rake and Bullpens That Rock
This piece, written by BP Wrigleyville’s Nate Greabe, forms part of our in-house coverage of the Cubs in the playoffs, “Second City October.” Additional Game Two and NLDS coverage can be found here and here. Early on, this game felt familiar. All the same things that made the Cubs good all year worked in first few innings. The […]