BCB After Dark: Will the Cubs ever have another Kyle Hendricks?

The late night coffee shop wonders if Kyle Hendricks is a vestige of a bygone age of pitchers

Welcome late night/early morning Cubs fans and friends to the indie coffee shop Josh lends us for the latter part of the week. There’s coffee and lattes if that’s your jam, there’s wine and spirits if you’re more of an alcohol aficionado. If you want to get truly wild, we’ve got some killer espresso martinis on special for the por qué no los dos crowd.

One guy who’s probably never needed a cup of coffee to get going, or a beer after a start to chill out, is the always level, always exceptional Kyle Hendricks. The pitcher who is so even-keeled we’ve made many a meme about it signed with the Angels on a one-year deal earlier this week. While most of us knew his time with the Cubs was done this season (more on that in a second) it’s still the end of an era on the North Side of Chicago and it’s definitely worth posting this one more time:

For ten seasons at the corner of Clark and Addison the Professor held class. It was an advanced seminar on location and command, occasionally with a side of Maddux. Hendricks hit 10 years of service time in MLB last season, which is a pretty rare feat in MLB these days. Let alone being one of the few 10/5 guys (guys with 10 years of service time and five consecutive years on the same team). It has me wondering if we’ll ever see a career like that in Cubs pinstripes again, but before we reflect on that too much, there’s only one musical interlude that could possibly accompany this post…

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Sweet Emotion was the breakout hit for Aerosmith in 1975. That guitar riff is classic and immediately recognizable whether you’re a classic rock fan or not. At the risk of going a little risqué here and putting the “After Dark” in BCB After Dark, below you can watch the original video:

That’s some classic MTV video content and takes me right back to watching videos in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. In fact, when the MTV top 500 videos ever special aired in 1997, Sweet Emotion landed solidly in the top half at 187.

It also takes me back to the movie Dazed and Confused about the last day of school in 1976 where Aerosmith literally sets the tone:

The song itself was actually inspired by feuding within the band over what else? A woman, of course:

Frontman Steven Tyler wrote the track about how frustrated he felt with the situation in the band at the time. Famously, the band were doing a lot of drugs, and this led to boiling tensions, particularly between ‘The Toxic Twins’, Tyler and Perry. The finished product became a statement of independence, defiance, and an unwavering dedication to self-fulfilment in the face of adversity from others.

On numerous occasions, Tyler has claimed that the first lines, “Talk about things that nobody cares / wearing out things that nobody wears,” were written about Perry’s first wife, Elyssa, as at the time, there was an incredible amount of tension between the two, exacerbated by drug use. One night, things came to a head between Tyler and Elyssa when the frontman went to Perry’s hotel room on a desperate hunt for drugs, but he was sent away by the couple, who refused to share their score.

The 70’s were a wild time, y’all.

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Back here in 2024, Sweet Emotion brings just one thing to mind: Kyle Hendricks walking to the mound fully embracing his persona and good humor:

The stoic Cubs starter made an entire career on 85-91 mile per hour sinkers and an absolutely wicked change up, with the occasional curve ball. The lack of emotions while he did it inspired the Pitching Ninja, Rob Friedman, to create an entire series around Savage Kyle Hendricks — this was the most BCB safe version I could find, but just google it, it’s all great:

By fWAR among qualified Cubs starters Kyle Hendricks is 17th all-time with 25.4 fWAR — ahead of fan favorites like Kerry Wood and Rick Sutcliffe. More importantly, he was on the mound for two of the most important postseason starts in Cubs history, including Game 7 of the World Series. However, just as important, and maybe even more impressive was the absolute masterclass Hendricks threw in Game 6 of the 2016 National League Championship Series against the Dodgers where Hendricks threw 7 ¹⁄₃ innings giving up just two hits, striking out six and walking none:

But the thing about Kyle Hendricks that I want to talk about tonight isn’t the big games, or the results. It’s that I’m really not sure that we’ll ever see his like in MLB again. Command isn’t scouted for the same way that velocity, spin and stuff are. And while people like Eno Sarris are working on adjusting their models to better capture things like handedness advantages and change ups, which might better capture some pitchers who don’t currently pop on stuff metrics. How does a skinny command specialist get to the big leagues? Well, in the case of Kyle Hendricks, it’s pretty interesting. Let’s take a look at some old scouting reports courtesy of our friends at Minor League Ball, first up 2012:

Hendricks was drafted in the eighth round last year, out of Dartmouth. He looked good in the bullpen at short-season Spokane, then got the call to Double-A when Frisco needed someone to start the last game of the season. He acquitted himself fairly well in that outing. Hendricks runs his fastball up to 94 MPH, mixing in a slider, curve, and changeup. He throws strikes and has a sense on how to pitch, and looks like a sleeper prospect to me. The main criticism is that his fastball lacks movement, but his other pitches help make up for that. Grade C but keep an eye on him.

Then 2013:

The Texas Rangers drafted Hendricks in the eighth round in 2011, out of Dartmouth. He was having an excellent season for High-A Myrtle Beach, and then was traded to the Cubs in the Ryan Dempster deal. Were the Rangers selling high, or do the Cubs have something special here? Hendricks threw up to 94 MPH when used in the bullpen in 2011, but as a starter he’s more in the 88-92 range. His command is excellent and he has a full assortment of secondary pitches, using a curveball, traditional slider, cutter, and changeup. None of his pitches are plus offerings, but hell, he’s got five of them, and he throws strikes. That’s enough to make short work of A-ball. We need to see him at higher levels, but Hendricks could end up being a useful four/five starter. He could also return to the bullpen, where his diverse arsenal and superior command could give hitters fits in short doses. Grade C+.

Then 2014:

An eighth round pick out of Dartmouth by the Texas Rangers in 2011, Hendricks was traded to the Cubs in the 2012 Ryan Dempster deal. As you can see, he has been extremely effective in the minors and finished ’13 with a strong run of pitching for Triple-A Iowa, positioning himself for a major league trial some time in 2014. Despite his statistical success, he doesn’t show up on top prospect lists due to a nonfast fastball: he works at 87-92 MPH. His command is obviously strong, and he mixes the fastball with a cutter/slider, curveball, and changeup. He’s quite deceptive, changes speeds well, and keeps the ball down, generating grounders. While he’s more of a fourth/fifth starter type than a future ace, I like his feel for pitching enough to go with a Grade B-.

Key words bolded above.

Except, he was an ace. What else do you call this run of pitching across the Cubs best seasons in recent years?

So that leads me to the question of the night — will the Cubs, or honestly, MLB, ever see the likes of Kyle Hendricks for a decade on the same team again? A guy who went to driveline looking to throw 88 MPH late in his career? Or was this epic walk off the mound to Sweet Emotion last September the last great run of the command specialist?