Small Change Coming for Hendricks? Dreaming on Old Keegan Thompson, Streaks

On Apr 12, 2024

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Okay, Cubs stuff now.

At The Athletic, Sahadev Sharma dug into Kyle Hendricks’ slow start, coming to some of the same conclusions I did yesterday (there’s reason for concern, but also reason for optimism … and also the Cubs really don’t have any other options at the moment). But the one thing I forgot to look at was the difference in his first, second, and third time through the order. Even if you would’ve guessed Hendricks was getting smoked on his third time through the order, I doubt you’d have guessed a 2.722 OPS. Which … you almost have to laugh. The sample is tiny, but that’s just not tenable.

If I had to guess what’s going on there, it’s the total abandonment of his curveball. From his debut through the 2022 season, Hendricks threw his curveball 9.1% of the time. Last year, his usage dropped to 3.5%. This season, it’s down to 2.9%, and he threw just two of them last game. Maybe he just doesn’t have a feel for it right now. Maybe it’s an overall change in philosophy (he obviously succeeded last season with dramatically reduced deployment). Or maybe he just hasn’t gotten a chance to use it as much yet because he’s getting bounced early and falling behind hitters more often. But Hendricks tends to find success the third time through the order because he starts using the curveball more later in games. Perhaps that’ll be an area of focus going forward.

One thing that might change, per Jordan Bastian at Cubs.com, a little more give-and-take with his catchers. Starting last season, Hendricks has been calling his own game via PitchCom. And obviously, for a veteran and extremely intelligent and prepared pitcher like Hendricks, that’s fine. But everyone seems to agree it might be time to start soliciting some more feedback from his catchers during games: That’s already been in the…

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