Did the Phillies ruin Kyle Kendrick when they punk'd him this spring, as some have suggested? Kendrick's got a 6.14 ERA in 2 starts so far this season. Many didn't expect him to have another year like 2007 when he was 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA. For one thing, he only struck out 3.8/9 IP and he gave up 1.25 HR/G. He only walked 2/9 IP, but his stats certainly were aided by him stranding a ridiculous 78% of baserunners.
But Kendrick's start probably isn't as bad as it looks. The Phillies turned 71.9% of balls in play into outs last season, which I don't think is an unusually high figure. This year, the number is 65.7%, which is a little low. Walks have hurt Kendrick, but he's got a 57.6 groundball percentage, which is an improvement over last year. Unfortunately, his line drive figure is 6% higher, too, which might contributed to that low DER.
Kendrick should improve, I think.
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