It’s already been a very eventful month for the Cubs, so much so that it might be hard to believe that it’s still only April. Sitting at 14-5, and firmly in first place in the NL Central division, the Cubs will now see their division rivals from Milwaukee for the first time this season. The Brewers […]
Tag: Kyle Hendricks
How Good Could Kyle Hendricks Be?
About a year ago, my wife became pregnant with our second child, and decided she wanted to start drinking only decaf coffee. So we bought one of those fancy Keurig machines to replace our plain old coffee pot. By this point I had fine tuned that cheap, plasticky pot to brew the perfect cup of […]
Getting to Know Kyle Hendricks Through Google
Editor’s Note: Usually, we try to stick to hard-hitting analysis of baseball here on the site. Given the incredible tedium of Spring Training, though, we’ve decided to shift gears slightly to some hard-hitting analysis of Google search results. We hope you enjoy. Here’s Carlos Portocarrero … Kyle Hendricks is having a great spring. All those rumblings […]
A Quick Reminder: Kyle Hendricks is Good
After a tumultuous and exciting offseason, the Cubs are in many ways different than they were in October of last year. They have a new right fielder and a new second baseman, each of whom is a clear improvement over last year’s team. The Cubs also have newfound starting pitching depth that we here at […]
Competition in the Cubs’ Rotation? Maybe Not.
Now that we’re four games into spring training, it’s time for the worst and least-fruitful discussions to begin: the early looks at “position battles.” The Cubs’ main position battle is for the final two starter spots, which features incumbents Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel—who have the inside edge, to be honest—along with new Cub Adam Warren, […]
Embrace the Target: The Cubs’ Bullpen Options Are Good in 2016, Pt. II
Early last week, I reviewed the Cubs’ late inning bullpen options, or at least those options as they appear during the trial period that is known as Spring Training. With the amount of depth and flexibility the Cubs have on their bullpen roster, this is a neverending discussion with a large range of possible outcomes. And […]
Boom or Bust? Evaluating Individual Upside and Downside, Pt. II
Earlier this week, my colleague Isaac Bennett dug deep into the rabbit-hole of the widely ranging PECOTA projection numbers for Cubs hitters. Fortunately, I was able to partner with Isaac on this PECOTA rabbit-hole adventure, so today, and without further ado, I bring to you the “what ifs” and the “maybes” of the Cubs’ starting pitching staff. […]
High Performance Forces Theo’s Hand
After the end of the 2014 season, Theo Epstein made clear that the front office would seek to add impact pitching from outside the organization that offseason, while also acknowledging that two nine-figure commitments in one offseason were not going to happen. Epstein stayed true to his word, adding Jon Lester on a major contract but […]
Remembering the Ryan Dempster Trades that Never Were
July 31st, 2012 was an interesting day on Cubs Twitter. It was trade deadline day for the first time in Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer’s Cubs tenure and Ryan Dempster was an obvious trade target for multiple contenders. Dempster, 35 at the time, had an outstanding first half of the season, compiling 104 innings of […]
Cubs Player Profile: Kyle Hendricks
2015 Stats 32 G, 180.0 IP, 3.95 ERA, 3.87 DRA, 22.6 K%, 5.8 BB% Year in Review “If broadcasters are right about the keys to pitching success—get ahead of hitters, change speeds, avoid walks—Hendricks is destined to be a booth favorite. The Dartmouth product doesn’t have great stuff but he commands it well, varying his […]