Kyle Kendrick’s Turnaround Reminiscent of Dave Stewart

For those of us who have followed Kyle Kendrick for his entire career, his turnaround over the last calendar year has been nothing short of remarkable.

Want proof? Take a look at these numbers from CSN Philly’s stat guru Corey Seidman…

Kyle Kendrick has made 17 starts since Aug. 14, 2012. Over that span, the only SP in baseball with a lower ERA in as many starts? Cliff Lee. — Corey Seidman (@CoreySeidman) May 8, 2013

I mean, if that isn’t just a great big pile of unbelievable, I don’t know what is.

The question is, has there ever been anything like this before?

His rookie year in 2007 aside, Kendrick was a league average pitcher for most of his career. There were some good moments, but there were also lots of very bad ones. Kendrick could not get out left-handed hitters, and his pitching lines took a beating because of it.

Yes, he managed to record a lot of wins during that time. And yes, the perception of him being really, really horrible was probably not the reality of the situation.

Still, the Kyle Kendrick we’ve seen over the last calendar year was nothing close to what he used to be. And that’s a very good thing.

In fact, the only recent turnaround like this that I can remember came from the great Dave Stewart.

Nov 18, 2011; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Dave Stewart still has that stare. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Much like Kendrick, Stewart did not start out as a full-time starter. In fact, he was a pretty good reliever early in his career, eventually turning into a pretty useful swing man.

He was a replacement-level-type player. Nothing more. Then, all of a sudden at age 30, just AFTER being traded by the Phillies to Oakland of course, Stew took off.

Like Kendrick, a change in his repertoire facilitated the reinvention. While Kendrick abandoned his cut fastball for the change-up, Stewart developed a devastating forkball that dove to the plate at the last moment.  Interestingly, his K-rate didn’t change a whole lot, nor did his walk rate, but his ERA came way down and Stewart turned into an innings-eating machine.

And although pitcher’s wins totals are not a true indicator of how good a pitcher’s performance truly is, it should be noted Stewart won more than 20 games four years on a row from 1987-1990.

It’s not an exact apples-to-apples comparison, but the reversal of fortunes, and the reinvention of the two pitchers, is kind of interesting. Both guys pitched numerous seasons perceived as one kind of pitcher. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they became much, much better pitchers.

Stewart was able to sustain his turnaround for over half a decade. We’ll see how long Kyle is able to sustain his.