Kyle Hendricks Named National League Co-Player Of The Week

I couldn’t be happier for Kyle Hendricks, who is now being considered, by some, at least, as a legitimate Cy Young candidate this year.

Now, Hendricks has some hardware to take home, as he was named co-National League Player of the Week for last week, along with Ichiro Suzuki, who registered his 3,000th career hit Sunday.

Hendricks threw a complete-game shutout against Ichiro’s Marlins August 1 at Wrigley Field, allowing seven hits and three walks and throwing a career-high 123 pitches. He then followed that up with a 7.1-inning, three-hit outing against the Athletics Sunday in Oakland, where the only hit that left the infield was Marcus Semien’s home run that ended Kyle’s outing at 100 pitches. All told he posted an 0.55 ERA for the week, and now has a 2.17 ERA that’s second only to Clayton Kershaw in the N.L. In a couple of weeks, Kershaw will fall off the qualified-leaders list, and Kyle could wind up as the N.L. ERA leader if he keeps it up.

All this while barely touching 90 on ballpark speed-pitch meters. As we have often said here, "All he does is get guys out."

Kyle is the fourth Cub to win Player of the Week honors this year. Jake Arrieta got it the week he threw his no-hitter; Ben Zobrist had a .360, 15-RBI week in early May; and Jon Lester had an 0.00 ERA in 15 innings in one week in early June.

Congrats to Kyle on this honor. Keep up the great work!