Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks a model of consistency

Quick, which Chicago Cubs starter has the second-best ERA on the team? That’s right, it’s soft tossing Kyle Hendricks. There’s not much press for him, but Hendrick’s is exceeding what’s expected from a No. 5 starter.

Since his rookie season, I’ve had faith that the Chicago Cubs‘ Kyle Hendricks would fashion himself into a quality starter. His “stuff” often drew comparisons to another Cubs pitcher, Greg Maddux. That might have been a little premature, and to be honest, unfair to Hendricks. But with each passing start, the calm and collected Ivy-leaguer keeps doing his job, and with the starters recent struggles, that’s worth its weight in gold.

For much of the year, the Cubs starting rotation has littered the leaderboards in several categories, including ERA. After a few rough outings by several of the starters, suddenly Hendricks finds himself behind only Jake Arrieta of the starters.

With a 7-6 record, people don’t seem to pay much attention to the work Hendricks is doing. But when you start digging into the numbers that matter to people, you’ll find–surprisingly, in my opinion–he’s been as good as the rest, or at least the most consistent.

While Jon Lester, Jason Hammel and even Arrieta have been “lit up” in recent starts, Hendricks worst outings to this point were two 5 1/3, four run performances. His eight quality starts in 16 total starts could be even better, but Joe Maddon seems to pull the plug on him sooner than later. In the eight times he’s failed to go six innings, he’s allowed three or more runs just three times.

He’s tied for the lowest WHIP of the starters with John Lackey at 1.04, and he’s allowed the fewest home runs of the starters (8) behind only Arrieta (5). And Hendricks leads the staff in another category–worst run support. He’s getting just 3.81 runs per game–the next closest being Hammel at 4.88 per game.

As the trade deadline nears, there will be plenty of talk about the Cubs pitching staff and if they should acquire another starter. Hammel has struggled, but I’m not ready to cast him out just yet. I mean, Arrieta hasn’t been the same either–and yes, I know about Hammel’s second-half history.

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But Hendricks was impressive in his last few starts at the end of 2015, and he’s doing the same this year with very little fanfare. If you don’t have the tight slider or 100 mph fastball you don’t make the news as much. But if he keeps throwing that changeup like he has this season, he’s not going to be sneaking up on too many teams after the break.