Chicago Cubs: Is Kyle Hendricks underrated?

Kyle Hendricks struck out 12 batters in a Chicago Cubs’ win on Sunday night and his performance has improved every year he’s been in the Majors. Is he underrated?

On Sunday night, the Chicago Cubs won their 47th game of the season, and starter Kyle Hendricks played a big role in that victory. Hendricks threw six innings of one run ball and struck out 12 Pittsburgh Pirates en route to a 10-5 win. It seems as if the Cubs can do no wrong this season and Hendricks is becoming a big reason of why they’re rolling in the National League Central division.

The righty has a 2.94 ERA in 13 starts and he’s inducing more ground balls this season—54 percent—than in 2015 (51.3) and 2014 (47.8). His pitching arsenal includes a four seam fastball, sinker, slider and a curveball, and while his average fastball velocity isn’t exactly blowing down any doors—it’s currently around 88 mph—it’s the sinker that he relies on the most. The sinker also averages around 88 mph in velocity and he throws it to both right handed and left handed batters.

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According to Brooks Baseball, Hendricks has thrown 645 sinkers, 273 change ups, 208 four seamers and 78 curveballs thus far in 2016. Batters are hitting .279 off the sinker, .141 off the changeup, .098 off the four seamer and .300 off the curveball. Even more interesting than those numbers are his strikeouts. He has 28 off his sinker and 34 off the more infrequent, but gaining change up. In fact, even with the bloated totals of his sinker, he’s been using it less and less.

During Sunday night’s game against Pittsburgh, Hendricks relied on his change a lot. Seven of his 12 strike outs were on the change while four were on the sinker. Andrew McCutchen struck out three times against Hendricks and he was victimized by three different pitches—a sinker in the second inning, a change up in the third inning, and a four seamer in the fifth inning. Hendricks did a nice job of mixing his pitches, but when he faced off against fellow starter Jameson Taillon in the third inning, he threw four sinkers and came away with a strikeout.

At the start of the season, Hendricks threw his change up 17 percent of the time, in May it jumped up to 22 percent and so far in June it’s up to 28 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, Hendricks threw his sinker an astonishing high 66 percent in April but now in June, it’s hovering around 45 percent.

Hendricks has walked only 19 batters and struck out 73 so far this season and on Sunday night, he didn’t walk a single Pirates’ batter. He has also been consistent in how long he lasts in each start—he has only failed to make it into the sixth inning twice this season and has a couple of starts in which he lasted well into the eighth and ninth inning—he threw a complete game against the Phillies on May 28. In 2015, Hendricks threw 20 2/3 in the first month of the season, and 32 innings a piece in both May and June. This season, he’s following a similar pattern. He pitched 23 innings in April, 32 1/3 in May and has thrown 24 1/3 so far in June.

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If the somewhat overlooked Hendricks keeps up that kind of consistency, and if his increasingly potent change up continues to fool batters, the already dangerous 2016 Cubs will be distancing themselves even further from the rest of the teams in the National League Central division.

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