I’m worried about Liam Hendriks

April 25, 2022

I know it’s only been 7 fucking innings, but Liam Hendriks has looked like crap and I am now officially worried about it. No talking ole BeefLoaf off the ledge on this one. There is nothing worse than having a good team and shaky ass closer. And I am starting to think we got a shaky ass closer. It’s not just watching Byron Buxton smash like my man’s Kieran Lee on Sunday, it’s more than that.

Should YOU be worried too???

I think you should also be worried. Way back when the White Sox signed him, I noted in the blog linked HERE, that my main concern about Liam is that he was ridden harder than Seabiscuit. Below is a table of all of the relievers since 1978, that were 30 years or older that had a season where they compiled at least 70 innings, 110 strikeouts and 25 saves. Here’s the list.

Yep, that’s Jim Kern, who I’ve never heard of honestly, then Liam TWICE and finally Octavio Dotel. Most White Sox fans of a certain age know Dotel, he had a short stay here. He was decent, but that was well after the season noted below and also after he was bad / hurt for a few years recovering to mediocrity. Liam has some miles on that arm, especially later on in his career. It’s a rarity. Seems scary.

Now some smart person, much smarter than me and possibly almost as smart as Chorizy, will tell me that there is NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!!!

Fuck that. I even pulled the nerd stats just to be sure. Here they are…

NERD STATS

This is from Baseball Savant, people love these little charts. These are the charts that allow you to show your friends that the guy you really love is doing much better than his on-field production. You don’t need to really know anything other than the blue shit is bad and the red shit is good. The chart above has the blue shit showing that batters are not only hitting the daylights outta Liam, but they are also expected to hit the daylights outta him. That’s bad.

This chart also shows that 2022 is NOT a banner year for Liam (so far, just 7 innings, so we can pretend this isn’t happening). Again blue is pretty bad. If you want to investigate the other non-blue numbers, most ain’t great either. Most of yous will know ERA without a Rand McNally and you know it shouldn’t start with a 6.

The fastball is still fast, but extremely fucking hittable. Per Baseball Savant hitters are slugging .778 against it. Basically Major League hitters are prime Barry Bonds vs his 4 seam fastball. It’s okay because he can’t throw anything else for a strike at this point. I think I’m going to be sick. Maybe I’ll wake up and this will all stop happening. I hope so.

-BeefLoaf