Dear Kyle Kendrick
You may be the antithesis of a ‘developing’ pitcher. For years, I have heard many an analyst say that you will one day emerge as a elite starting pitcher in the major leagues. Players have gotten your back, reporters, teammates, everyone defends you. This has probably been going on for six years.
Not only have you not been improving, you’ve been getting worse. It’s remarkable that with how different our team looks compared to our 2008 World Series winning lineup, you have somehow managed to remain on the roster and retain Charlie Manuel’s stubborn faith that you will be a decent pitcher.
Last night we desperately held onto the lead in the 7th inning in hopes of not being swept by the Mets. You came in and absolutely destroyed any hopes we had of taking a game in the series. I’m sure Cliff Lee was absolutely stoked handing the ball over to you in the game when it was still possible for him to be given the win.
Nothing could be a testament more to Manuel’s blind faith than letting you go back out for the 8th inning after giving up 3 runs in the 7th. He promptly came out and gave up another run. In his last 15 innings, he has given up 16 runs. That’s like a 1000.00 ERA or some shit. Actually, his ERA is currently 7.32.
How long is it going to take for the Phillies organization to understand that this guy is not panning out as hoped? For the duration of his career? At least he has a super hot wife to go home to….
The only consolation I have is watching this old video of Kendrick being pranked by Brett Myers. He legitimately looked sad in this.