Tuesdays With Mitch: Kyle Kendrick has rebounded nicely

Welcome to the 10th Purple Row edition (and 115th overall) of Tuesdays With Mitch, where we lean into pitches without regret. Let's get into it...

The Rockies' 2015 season began on April 6th in Milwaukee with a dominating, 10-0 win over the Brewers. It was an all-around good day for the Rockies, but was a great day for their starting pitcher. Kyle Kendrick, forced into Opening Day duties because of injuries, pitched like an ace. Seven innings, no runs, six strikeouts, no walks. Most Rockies fans realized that this performance would not be the norm from Kendrick, but it did provide plenty of hope that he could bring stability to a rotation that desperately needed it.

Then Kendrick made his next five starts. They went something like this:

1. Nightmare (5 IP, 8 ER)
2. Dumpster fire (4.2 IP, 6 ER)
3. Decent! (7 IP, 4 ER)
4. Atrocity (4.1 IP, 8 ER)
5. Please make it stop (5 IP, 6 ER)

Yeah. Yeah, that's 32 runs in 26 innings in five starts. He was awful.

So naturally, the columns, the blogs, the talk shows, the tweets, the comment sections, the illiterate Facebooking, they all turned Kendrick into a pinata. He was Jeremy Guthrie 2.0. He was proof that Jeff Bridich has no idea what he's doing. He was the worst free agent signing in the history of baseball. The Rockies' best pitcher is the worst pitcher ever. (Lots of fans mistook Kendrick as the Rockies' ace because he started Opening Day). #MonfortsMustSell. This franchise is a joke!

And again, it was kind of hard to argue with a lot of that sentiment. He was really bad in that stretch of five starts.

But in his eight starts since then, Kendrick has turned a bit of a corner. I'm not campaigning for a Kendrick All Star berth or anything here. I'm just saying a lot of the Kendrick Dooms Day scenarios now seem overblown. These numbers suggest we can feel fairly confident in Kendrick delivering a solid start when he takes the mound against the Diamondbacks tonight.

So since May 12th, Kendrick has a 4.18 ERA in eight starts. Nothing too exciting, but adjusting for the fact that five of those starts came at Coors Field means that that ERA is probably pretty close to league average. Most encouraging, though, has been the innings Kendrick has given the Rockies of late. The "innings-eater" term became a punchline with Kendrick when he sucked, but he's gone 6 1/3 innings or more in six of his last eight starts. He's finally striking out more than he's walking and has a very solid 1.27 WHIP in those eight starts. The home runs remain a concern, but... well yeah, so the home runs remain a concern.

But really, when you look at this stretch of starts for Kendrick you see four great starts, two pretty good starts, and two bad starts. I think those numbers are about what you're looking for from a decent third or fourth starter on a team with the Rockies' current roster construction.

(Obviously, things with the Rockies' rotation haven't gone according to plan for a variety of reasons so it's hard to pencil Kendrick, or any other starter, into a certain spot in the rotation. My ideal rotation based on what would could have been and what could still be would look something like this: Jorge De La Rosa, Chad Bettis, Jordan Lyles, Kyle Kendrick, Eddie Butler. Also, Lyles' injury isn't getting nearly enough run as a reason the Rockies are teetering on the brink of irrelevance.)

Anyway, Kyle Kendrick hasn't been awful for a while and that's a positive development. Make your Kendrick jokes if you must, but tone down the OH GOD KENDRICK IS PITCHING hate for the time being. The Rockies' pitching staff still isn't very good, but competitive, non-gas-can performances from Kendrick have given the Rockies a shot to win every fifth day.

And that's really what the Rockies were hoping for when they signed him this offseason.

Now we proceed to the weekly departments...