[Wilson8]

Interesting story and stats on Ian Kennedy - http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/still...w-ian-kennedy/

A few slices from the story...

First off, Kennedy’s greatest strength is his above-average strikeout rate. He posted a 24.4% K rate last season, fractionally below his career-high 2014 mark.

Kennedy is a clear fly-ball pitcher, posting a fly-ball rate percentile rank of 85 in 2015. This is not a new development, as his fly-ball percentile rank has been 76 or higher in five of his six qualifying seasons. On the plus side, a fly-ball tendency usually carries with it some free outs in the form of pop ups. For the sixth straight season, he had a higher-than-average pop-up rate, with a 60 percentile rank.

What Kennedy has done since first sticking in a big league rotation in 2010 is stay healthy; he’s taken the ball every fifth day without fail. What he hasn’t done is accumulate significant value above replacement level outside of that 2011 campaign; he racked up 4.8 WAR in 2011, but only 9.3 WAR total in the other five seasons combined.

Enter the Kansas City Royals, who play in one of the most spacious parks around, and deploy the best set of fly-catchers out there. Lorenzo Cain is as good as they get, Alex Gordon is unexpectedly back, and Jarrod Dyson is likely to log more time than ever in 2016. Kennedy’s pulled fly-ball percentage was actually in the bottom third of ERA qualifiers last season, so it stands to reason that he’ll be able to pitch to the large part of the park more often than most going forward. Imagine the effect on Kennedy’s tension level when he allows a well-struck fly ball or line drive, and realizes that Matt Kemp isn’t there to play it into a triple.