Kyle Kendrick's place in Phillies history

It seems strange that our long odyssey with Kyle Kendrick could now be over.

As was written about beautifully last night by Liz Roscher in her recap of what was probably Kyle's last game in a Phillies uniform, we all have lots of feelings about Kendrick. Some of them are good feelings. Many are ambivalent. Some are bad.

But no matter how much "good" Kyle we saw, how much "mediocre" Kyle we saw, and how much "bad" Kyle we saw, one thing is for certain.

We saw a LOT of Kyle.

Only 30 pitchers in franchise history pitched more than Kendrick's 1138.2 innings in a Phils uniform. Just 21 Phillies pitchers have won more games than Kyle's 74, and only 14 Phillies have ever started more games than his 186.

YAY COUNTING STATS!

In fact, amazingly, Kendrick led the Phillies in wins this year, the only Phils starter with 10. Of course, it's criminal that Cole Hamels, who was probably among the 10 best pitchers in baseball this season, could end up winning only 9 (he's slated to pitch the season finale, so he could still reach double digits).

Starting in his rookie season of 2007, Kendrick won at least 10 games in every season except for 2009 (3) and 2011 (8), when he was used mostly as a reliever. Much of that was due to the run support he received, 5.23 runs scored per nine innings, over the course of his career.

This is where I make the obligatory "pitcher's wins is a meaningless statistic" argument. I'm contractually obligated to do it.

And, it should be noted his career ERA of 4.42 is 57th among the 68 qualified pitchers in team history. Among those with better career ERAs as Phils include Kevin Gross, Shane Rawley, Vicente Padilla, Don Carman, Bruce Ruffin, Randy Wolf and Brett Myers.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Fangraphs says Kendrick was worth 4.6 wins above replacement during his career. Since 1901, that ranks 97th in Phils history. Some of the players ahead of him include Jerry Koosman, Cory Lidle, Marty Bystrom, Joe Blanton, Robert Person, Jon Lieber, Charles Hudson, Shane Rawley, Kevin Millwood, Danny Jackson and Vicente Padilla.

Here are some other fun stats to show Kyle's time with the Phils was, if nothing else, relentless.

Kendrick liked to give up the longball while he was here, serving up 143 as a member of the Phillies, eighth-most in franchise history. He faced 4921 batters in his Phils career, 26th-most in team history, gave up the 19th-most hits in team history (1234), and the 15th-most runs (561).

Of course, many of these counting stats are due to longevity. Some of the best pitchers in Phils history are among those who gave up the most runs and hits. It comes with the territory of being out there every fifth day for most of the last eight years.

So, Kendrick's time in Philadelphia has come to an end. He was here for a long time, probably a lot longer than many people realize.

Of course, it's possible the Phillies could still re-sign Kendrick to a free agent contract. The team is in need of starting pitching next season, however, there are other mid-range options general manager Ruben Amaro might rather consider. It just feels like the right time for everyone to move on.

And if last night was Kendrick's last start in the Phils uniform, he left on a good note.

We got to see "good" Kyle Kendrick one last time.