Hendriks Earns Win #1

It was a long time coming, but it finally happened. Last night, Liam Hendriks, the 23 year old Twins pitcher hailing from Australia, earned his first Major League win in his 18^th try.

Hendriks’ numbers this year have been disappointing to say the least. He currently holds a 1-7 record with a 5.88 ERA and has been promoted and demoted three times this season due to inconsistent pitching at the big league level.

This is a case where numbers don’t tell the whole story, however. Hendriks has a great strike to ball ratio and has 43 k’s and only 23 walks in 72.0 innings worth of work. When Hendriks is attacking the strikezone, he’s difficult to hit. He’s proven this at the minor league level all season. In 16 games with AAA Rochester, Hendriks posted a 9-3 record with a paltry 2.20 ERA. He struck out 82 batters and only walked 28 in 106.1 innings worth of work. The problem for Hendriks was channeling that ability to his Major League starts.

In a start last month against the Mariners it looked like he had finally figured everything out. Hendriks aggressively hit the strikezone and shut down the Mariners’ offense. Hendriks went all 9 innings allowing only 3 hits and walked only 3 batters while stiking out 6. Unfortunately, one of the hits Hendriks allowed was a solo home run over the left field wall. Twice as unfortunate, Hendriks was squaring off against Felix Hernandez who held the Twins to zero runs and earned the win.

Hendriks has suffered from the ‘bad inning syndrome’ a few times this season as well. In a September 1^st start against Kansas City, Hendriks was staked to an early 8-1 lead. Despite the big lead, Hendriks’ command issues forced him to be pulled after only 3.2 innings worth of work (he gave up 10 hits – but only 3 earned runs – but Ron Gardenhire decided to pull him rather than work out of the jam).

The big moments have seemed to get to Hendriks this season. When the defense falters behind him or when Hendriks is facing a “must out” situation, he tends to implode and let the situation unravel.

This is likely due to simple inexperience. He is just 23 years old, and is facing his first real season of Major League batters. Hendriks has the raw ability – you can see it when he pitches that he has the talent to be a very good starter for the Twins next season and beyond.

I fully believe that Hendriks will figure out how to manage the big situations and eventually move into the #2 or #3 role in the Twins starting rotation.

The best evidence that this sort of turn around is possible is Scott Diamond. In 2011, Diamond posted a weak 1-5 record with a 5.01 ERA. He looked very similar to Hendriks in that big situations seemed to mushroom out of control while he was on the mound.

In 2012, Diamond has been the Twins' ace – running out to a solid 10-5 record with 2.95. (Diamond’s numbers have since come down, but that can likely be attributed to arm fatigue. Diamond has thrown more innings this season than he ever has in his career).

Hopefully this first win helps Hendriks get over the mental hurdles he's been battling all season. He's shown that if he works at an efficient pace and throws strikes, attacks the zone and trusts his stuff, he can win a ball game. If Hendriks can routinely channel the groove he found last night in Cleveland, he will be just fine at the big league level.

So, congratulations to Liam Hendriks for finally getting over the bump and earning Major League victory #1. Here’s to a few more wins in 2012 and a great, ‘Diamond like’ 2013.