Just heard Pat Hughes’ call of Hottovy pulling Kyle today. Pat called Kyle “one of the most popular players the Cubs have ever had” and I didn’t disagree with it.

Is Kyle Hendricks in your Top 20 Cubs of all time? For me, he is. Not as popular for me as Jon Lester but more so than Jake Arrieta. I also see him as above Aramis Ramirez & Rick Sutcliffe and maybe almost the same caliber as, say, Mark Grace.

I realize this is super subjective and even dependent upon our own personal fan experiences. Still, I’m curious. Thoughts?

20 comments

  1. I’ve been a Cubs fan since the late ‘80s. Kyle is easily top 10 in that time for me. There may not be another pitcher I enjoyed watching more than him. There’s something about a guy throwing 87 in the era of everybody throwing 97, but still managing to make great hitters look absolutely silly. He will always be one of my favorites.

  3. Kerry Wood will be my favorite Cub, prob for the rest of my days.

    Rizzo, Bryant, Grace, Hendricks, Sandberg.

    Lester was a little frustrating in how he couldn’t hold runners on. Ramirez struck out a little too much. Sosa is an enigma. I loved his game. I recognize him as an all-time great Cub. Maddux left us, even though I think we did him dirty in his contract negotiations, but he is an all-time great and one of my favorites.

    Definitely Kyle belongs on any list of great Cubs.

  4. I’ll always remember him outdueling Clayton Kershaw in Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS. And starting pitcher for WS Game 7 as well. If you go with the modern era (2000-), he’s easy top 5 I’d say. I feel a bit young to be talking about all time but I’d say Top 20 is pretty safe

  6. my favs all time are kyle rizzo and morel. to me he is an all time cubs great, but i really don’t have much to compare to. grew up with the 2016 squad and it’s sad to see that pretty much all the cubs of my lifetime are mostly washed

  10. Random off-top-of-my-head list

    1. Banks

    2. Williams or Fergie

    3. Rizzo

    4 Fergie or maybe Williams

    5. Frank Chance

    6. Sosa

    7. Three Finger Brown

    8. Javy Baez (fight me he deserves to be this high)

    8. Santo

    9. Lester

    10. Hack Wilson

    11. Bryant

    12. Derrek Lee (he and Sosa my favorite players as a kid)

    13. Kerry Wood

    14. Dawson

    15. Hendricks

    16. Arrieta

    17. Ramirez

    18. Prior

    19. Zobrist

    20. Happ

    Edit: HM’s – Sutcliffe, Mark Grace, Zambrano, Chris Coghlan, Schwarbino, Andy Pafko, Gabby Hartnett, Fonsy Soriano, Willson Contreras… Dick Mountain

  11. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hendricks. I have a hard time putting him above Wood, Prior, Jenkins and Maddux. Definitely in the same class as Zambrano, Lester and Dempster.
    Rank them how you want but he’s one of my top 10 pitchers for sure

  16. I’m going to go as far as to say greatest of the last 25 years.

    I would love to give it to Sammy but with the scandal and the no ring, Kyle is the stronger story.

    Maybe I’m tied with Rizzo here but Kyle’s longevity on the team is notable. Also the storyline of being successful despite profiling as someone who wouldn’t be.

  18. Not very high up for me, tbh. He’s cool, I’m glad he had a moment, extra glad he helped us win a title obviously, but I’m not super sentimental tbh.

  20. He has become my favorite Cubs pitcher of my lifetime (‘94). Went to his 81-pitch Maddux game. Really hard to shake him as my fave after that 💙

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