Kyle Hendricks

[2323]

Small sample size but Hendricks looks like he could be a guy in the middle of the rotation for years to come. Hope to see him finish the season strong.

So is he someone who was acquired by Thoyer? If not, expected him to be traded for another SS prospect.

 

[chibears55]

Nothing wrong with being happy to see a young player do well.

But comparisons to Maddux, who in my opinion was the best pitcher of his era and probably the best since Koufax, is just plain stupid.

I dont get the negative responses towards comparing a young player to a veteran/retired player....

Every young player wheather its their mental or physical approach to the game gets a comparison to a seasoned player at some point.. like baez with sheffield.

Nobody saying he a HOF type pitcher that gonna win 16+ every year and put up maddux type numbers.. just that he looks to have the same mental approach to pitching as maddux did.

It kinda irritates me when I read or hear people jump on or insult people right away for making a simple innocent comparison of players style of play...

 

[Captain Obvious]

He said he was the mental make up of Maddux. Not that he is Maddux.

 

[Parade_Rain]

I dont get the negative responses towards comparing a young player to a veteran/retired player....

Every young player wheather its their mental or physical approach to the game gets a comparison to a seasoned player at some point.. like baez with sheffield.

Nobody saying he a HOF type pitcher that gonna win 16+ every year and put up maddux type numbers.. just that he looks to have the same mental approach to pitching as maddux did.

It kinda irritates me when I read or hear people jump on or insult people right away for making a simple innocent comparison of players style of play...

Your post is the opposite of "just plain stupid".

 

[TL1961]

"He is from the same town as Wilt Chamberlin."

"Ha ha. That idiot just called him the next Wilt Chamberlin."

 

[JZsportsfan]

So is he someone who was acquired by Thoyer? If not, expected him to be traded for another SS prospect.

Yes

 

[CSF77]

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_08_01_chnmlb_lanmlb_1&mode=recap_away&c_id=chc

"We've seen him execute, mix his pitches, and knows what he needs to throw in particular counts," Renteria said. "He's pitching, and I think he's done it since the first day we saw him. ... Kyle set the tone in his ability to attack the hitters and attack the offense. He gave us an opportunity to go ahead and do what we did on the offensive side."

How did he prepare for the start? Hendricks, a Dartmouth graduate, studied video, talked about each hitter with catcher Welington Castillo, and did his homework. Give credit to Triple-A Iowa pitching coach Bruce Walton, who did his best to prepare the right-hander for the big leagues, telling Hendricks to eliminate the fans and the hype and the upper deck, and focus on making good pitches.

"He's really smart and he knows what he's doing, and he knows what to use and when to use it," Castillo said of Hendricks. "I think his stuff is not like [Adam] Wainwright or guys like that. What he does is get his pitches down in the zone and do his homework and I think it's working. Execute the pitches -- that's working for him."

I take it as he has the same approach that Maddux had when attacking the hitters. He did his homework. He is a thinking pitcher so in that regard he is "a-kin" not at the same level.

Who knows when Maddux started no one thought he could have done what he did with the talent he had. All I can say it is a "Good start"

 

[CSF77]

Oh I'll pencil him in the rotation next year. I feel pretty good with that one.

 

[theberserkfury]

Not saying that Hendricks has any real chance of being like Maddux, but people scouting Maddux when he was younger seemed to doubt whether he'd be what he ended up being...

"Next to Maddux's name in the list, it says that he is "not strong enough to be a starter." In the comments, it notes that he "ran out of gas" and didn't pitch well in the last third of the season."

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on...t-greg-maddux-not-strong-enough-to-be-starter

Hendricks apparently shares some traits with Maddux. We'll know how good he really was when his career's over.

 

[CSF77]

Ya crazy stuff. What made his good was his tailing fastball that started at a LH hitters hands and tailed over the plate last second. He really didn't have a strong breaking pitch. But he had pinpoint command of his fastball and it had late movement. Add in a change he was tough to beat when he was in his prime.

 

[beckdawg]

In all honesty, what made maddux special was his longevity. He pitched over 5k innings. Only 12 players have more innings pitched(Cy Young, Pud Galvin, Walter Johnson, Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Pete Alexander, Kid Nichols, and Tim Keefe). Interestingly, almost all of these players had a sub 2.5 bb/9 rate. Niekro at 3.01, Ryan at 4.67 and Carlton at 3.16 are the only three that weren't. And all of those players have 64.3 or higher career fWAR. Interestingly only Carlton and Ryan at 7.13 and 9.55 k/9 had above 7 k/9.

You can make the argument that these types of pitchers have the ability to get through a start in fewer pitchers and thus are more prone to be healthy. Obviously there was more to Maddux than just being an inning eater but longevity with the ability to get players out made him what he was.

 

[TL1961]

Longevity isn't what did it.

He won 4 Cy Youngs by the midway point of his career. He made himself what he was long before longevity was a factor.

When I think of a pitcher who was "made" by longevity, I think of a guy like Don Sutton, who was never a pitcher a team feared, yet he made the HOF because he stuck around long enough to get 300 wins At no time was he a top pitcher, but he hit the magic number (which, i admit, is no small accomplishment). But he is hardly on a par with most pitchers in the hall.

 

[2323]

In all honesty, what made maddux special was his longevity. He pitched over 5k innings. Only 12 players have more innings pitched(Cy Young, Pud Galvin, Walter Johnson, Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Pete Alexander, Kid Nichols, and Tim Keefe). Interestingly, almost all of these players had a sub 2.5 bb/9 rate. Niekro at 3.01, Ryan at 4.67 and Carlton at 3.16 are the only three that weren't. And all of those players have 64.3 or higher career fWAR. Interestingly only Carlton and Ryan at 7.13 and 9.55 k/9 had above 7 k/9.

You can make the argument that these types of pitchers have the ability to get through a start in fewer pitchers and thus are more prone to be healthy. Obviously there was more to Maddux than just being an inning eater but longevity with the ability to get players out made him what he was.

If it's not here already, there's going to be conversations about whether or not a pitcher throws too hard.

 

[beckdawg]

Longevity isn't what did it.

He won 4 Cy Youngs by the midway point of his career. He made himself what he was long before longevity was a factor.

When I think of a pitcher who was "made" by longevity, I think of a guy like Don Sutton, who was never a pitcher a team feared, yet he made the HOF because he stuck around long enough to get 300 wins At no time was he a top pitcher, but he hit the magic number (which, i admit, is no small accomplishment). But he is hardly on a par with most pitchers in the hall.

My point was that Maddux never had a season over 8 k/9 and only had 2 seasons over 7 k/9. The fact that you could rely on him to go out and pitch 200-250 innings a season was what set him apart combined with his excellent control.

 

[beckdawg]

If it's not here already, there's going to be conversations about whether or not a pitcher throws too hard.

I wouldn't really say it's a matter of throwing too hard. Fans get excited by strike outs but frankly if you can get a guy out with a ground ball in 1-2 pitches vs 3-5 for a strike out then it's way more efficient to induce ground balls. And if you save 2-3 pitches per at bat you go that much longer into the game which saves your bullpen. In a lot of ways this is the jump Shark made this year. He went from 9 k/9 down to 8(was 6 to start the year IIRC).

 

[SilenceS]

Maddux stuff was tremendously better then Hendricks. People forget Maddux would hit 94 when he was in his prime. It was when he was old. He would stay around 88 MPH. Maddux movement and ability to outthink a hitter and a scouting report can not be matched. Maddux would remember guys who got a hit off him 5 years prior and remember the mistake he made. There will never be another Maddux. Smartest player to ever play the game.

 

[Parade_Rain]

I wouldn't really say it's a matter of throwing too hard....

2323 is correct. The conversation is already here. Velocity is king, yet there have to be hypotheses as to why all the injuries are occurring to pitchers. Overuse or trying to create more mph than one's body is capable of handling, etc.

 

[SilenceS]

2323 is correct. The conversation is already here. Velocity is king, yet there have to be hypotheses as to why all the injuries are occurring to pitchers. Overuse or trying to create more mph than one's body is capable of handling, etc.

Pitch count. Throwing to many pitches in a session is what Dr. James Andrews says is the biggest problem.

 

[chibears55]

Maddux stuff was tremendously better then Hendricks. People forget Maddux would hit 94 when he was in his prime. It was when he was old. He would stay around 88 MPH. Maddux movement and ability to outthink a hitter and a scouting report can not be matched. Maddux would remember guys who got a hit off him 5 years prior and remember the mistake he made. There will never be another Maddux. Smartest player to ever play the game.

The comparison to maddux wasnt about what they throw or how they threw it, it was about how he mentally prepared for games and thought process on each pitch like maddux did....

The mental part of the game not the actual physical part was compared....

 

[Parade_Rain]

Pitch count. Throwing to many pitches in a session is what Dr. James Andrews says is the biggest problem.

He isn't the only one involved in the discussion.