Imrem: Chicago Cubs' crafty Hendricks renders hitters powerless

Kyle Hendricks isn't the type of pitcher that baseball fans flock to the ballpark to watch.

Too bad for them because the Chicago Cubs right-hander nearly pitched a no-hitter at St. Louis on Monday night and is baseball's ERA leader.

Sports fans love power: violent hits in football, slam dunks in basketball, 350-yard drives in golf.

Chicks dig the longball in baseball, right? Yes, they do, and everybody loves the fastball.

Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman might prompt fans to stay until the very end of close games now like they would if, say, Kris Bryant were scheduled for one more shot at a mammoth home run.

A close game provides the potential that Chapman will throw a pitch that registers 105 mph on the radar gun.

But you know what? Baseball fans in Wrigley Field or elsewhere should start mapping out the schedule and buy tickets for games Kyle Hendricks might start.

One certainly will be during the Cubs' first playoff series, wherever manager Joe Maddon pencils in Hendricks' name.

This crafty righty is every bit as intriguing to watch as power pitchers like Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson were and the rest of the Cubs' rotation is.

Scouting reports must reflect what fans and media members have been saying: Hendricks is like Greg Maddux was in his prime.

There's no comparison yet in accomplishments and maybe not in ability either, but there is in the style that confounds batters.

Three decades ago, Tom Seaver talked pitching in the home clubhouse of the old Comiskey Park.

Seaver, a victory away from No. 300, was asked how he was still retiring major-league batters with a fastball several clicks behind what it had been.

The answer was "movement and location." Hitters will hit a 100-mph pitch if it's straight and/or in the wrong spot, but be baffled by a Hendricks 85-miler if it's moving toward where he wants it.

Seaver was close to the end of his career; Hendricks is closer to the beginning of his.

But the principle is the same: Hendricks' pitches move and he locates them where and how he wants to, in and out, up and down, faster and slower.

Hendricks looks effortless doing it. Instead of taking a machete to the mound with him, he takes a scalpel.

It's beautiful to watch unless you're an opposing batter.

"He made not many mistakes in the middle of the plate," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted Cardinals manager Mike Matheny as saying after Hendricks' latest gem.

Jhonny Peralta, a 14-year veteran, added that Hendricks is a "smart pitcher."

But the most telling remark came from Cardinals pitcher Mike Leake.

The seven-year veteran said of the Cubs' third-year pitcher, "He's a guy myself and others can learn from."

Smart? Well, Hendricks did play his college ball in the Ivy League and earn an economics degree from Dartmouth.

But countless intelligent pitchers lost a lot of major-league games and countless ignorant pitchers won a lot of major-league games.

Hendricks, an eighth-round draft choice by Texas in 2011, just happens to maximize his fat IQ and slender body.

Kyle Hendricks has become so fascinating that it might be as much fun to watch him overpower a finance final as to watch him finesse a big-league lineup.

mimrem@dailyherald.com