Kyle "BP Fastball" Hendricks

[sfgdood]

I mean...what in HELL is it about this guy that baffles us EVERY time? It's absolutely pathetic

[klaiggeb]

Last night he was pinpoint perfect; as he usually is against us.

Then again, coming off of, what did the say on the pregame show last night, 4 or 5 bad outtings, you had to figure he'd get back on track, and we just happened to be the team against which he did it.

Personally, I can't understand how the guy wins, but last night, I tipped my cap to him.

If he's going to paint like that, I don't care if he throws 55 mph, no one is going to beat him.


But all that said, we, again, didn't hit smart against him.


From my seat it looked as though everyone was trying to yank him, instead of trying to let the ball get deeper and go the other way.

not only that, but when he throws a pitch that, OUT OF HIS hand is clearly not a strike, change up or fastball, you can't be so aggressive that you swing at pitches 4 or 5 baseballs out of the zone.

[rog]

not only that, but when he throws a pitch that, OUT OF HIS hand is clearly not a strike


Rog -- You know from hitting yourself, Boly, that occasionally even good hitters are fooled. And against major league pitchers, they can be fooled a lot more.

Joe Panik is likely the Giant most unlikely to go outside the zone, and yet he have done so once out of every four times in his career. If taking a ball three out of four is the BEST we can expect, guys are simply going to swing at pitches outside the strike zone -- sometimes WELL out of the strike zone.




Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/4655/kyle-bp-fastball-hendricks#ixzz5KsHVNpDN

[klaiggeb]

No question what you say is true.

But over and over and over again in the same game?

That's just not making the adjustment or plain NOT seeing the ball out of his hand.

[rog]

Yes. Over and over and over again in the same game. That it happened so often probably indicates the pitches were very hard to pick up. Sometimes the pitcher should get some of the credit. It sounds as if you have more experience with playing the game than any of us, but I wonder if you're not injecting into this major league situation the pitching you saw when you played. I have a feeling that while you played at a fairly high level of the game, you didn't face pitching that was anywhwere close to that faced by major league hitters now.

That Hendricks has a career ERA that is less than a tenth of a run higher than Madison Bumgarner and that is lower than Johnny Cueto's (and, yes, lower even than Jeff Samardzija!), the Giants aren't the only team that don't see him well.

As I've mentioned before, I've seen Hendricks compared to Greg Maddux as far as hitting spots and cleverly keeping batters from hitting the ball hard.

Try this from the article "Kyle Hendricks through the eyes of Greg Maddux":


Where are Hendricks and Maddux most similar?

“It’s mostly the [sinking] fastball,” Maddux said. “He has the ability to throw a two-seam fastball to both sides of the plate. Most pitchers are four-seam to one side and two-seam to the other. If you can throw your two-seamer to both sides of the plate, that’s an advantage to the pitcher.”

“Marco Estrada has one of the best changeups, but you see him sneak fastballs by guys all the time,” Maddux said of the Blue Jays pitcher. “Hendricks is no different. He has the ability to recognize when a hitter is sitting on a certain pitch and throw something else.”

But at the end of the day, the sinking pitch most reminds Maddux of himself when he watches the Cubs' emerging star.

“He relies on the low fastball that sinks pretty good,” Maddux said. “Very good at trying to keep the ball in front of the outfield with that pitch. That’s what it’s about -- locating your fastball, changing speeds and keeping the ball in the ballpark.

“He’s fun to watch.”