Diamondbacks RHP Ian Kennedy Poised for Breakout Year

In his final 7 starts, Ian Kennedy dominated opposing batters holding them to a .170 AVG while going 2-1 with an ERA of 1.67

Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Ubaldo Jimenez, Clayton Kershaw.  These four names are the names of some of the best starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.  What do they all have in common?  They are all in the NL West Division, a division known in recent memory as arguably the most pitcher friendly divisions in baseball.  If you go back a few years, you'll find names like Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Randy Johnson, Jake Peavy, and Curt Schilling just to name a few.  Another name possibly about to join that group-Ian Kennedy, of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Just three years removed from having what was thought to be a murders row of a rotation with Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Randy Johnson, Micah Owings, and Doug Davis, the team is now rebuilding once again with Dan Hudson, Barry Enright, Armando Galarraga, Kennedy, as well as veteran Joe Saunders, who was acquired in a trade that sent Dan Haren to Anaheim last summer.  The young rotation is one that has much upside, and is most likely a year or two away from being a rotation that can challenge rotations such as San Francisco, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia as the best rotation in the league, but they have a solid chance of showing just how good they can be this year.  And it could all very easily start with a breakout year from Kennedy.

Kennedy, after coming up through the Yankees system following a standout career at USC, struggled in his time in New York, going just 1-4 with a 6.03 ERA in 14 appearances (12 starts) in pinstripes between 2007-2009.  During the 2009-2010 offseason, the D'Backs acquired Kennedy in a 3-team trade that between Arizona, Detroit, and the Yankees, the same trade that sent Curtis Granderson to the Bronx.

The Diamondbacks knew what they were getting in Kennedy, a righty with 5 different pitches who had excellent command of his pitches, just never saw the good stuff he had translate to success at the big league level.  In 2010, however, his stuff would translate into a solid year in his first full season in the bigs.

The 2010 season was a very good one for Kennedy, despite going just 9-10 (keep in mind the D'Backs went 65-97), he posted a solid 3.80 ERA to go along with a 1.2 WHIP and 168 strikeouts.  After the All-Star Break, Kennedy went 5-3 with a 3.38 ERA and a 1.173 WHIP and in his final 7 starts went 2-1 with a 1.67 ERA, a .906 WHIP and help opposing hitters to a .170 average.

In 2011, I see Ian Kennedy building off his stellar finish last year, where it could be argued he was one of the best pitchers in the game from September 1 to the end of the season, possibly something in the range of a 3.10 ERA and 190 strikeouts, a pick I feel is still a bit conservative.  The Arizona Diamondbacks still may be a couple years ago, but Ian Kennedy's time is now.