Hendricks’ rise no surprise to one scout

CHICAGO — Not many teams take a chance on a pitcher who doesn’t light up the radar gun, but scout Jay Heafner remembers watching Kyle Hendricks pitch at Dartmouth College and liking what he saw. And Heafner isn’t that surprised that the Cubs right-hander is leading the Major Leagues in ERA.

“I think what he does is a little bit different, and as a scout, you try to find things that are different,” Heafner said. “To be somewhat of an anamoly and not throw quite as hard as everybody else, I’m sure some guys say he throws under the hitting limit or speed limit or whatever. I didn’t see it that way. I saw him being smarter than the hitters and adjusting to them. It’s pretty cool to watch.”

Heafner, 32, now in his eighth season as an amateur scout with the Rangers, was in charge of the Northeast region when Hendricks was pitching for Dartmouth, which isn’t exactly a hotbed of Major League talent. It would be a better story if Heafner was the only scout in the stands, but that wasn’t the case. Because Hendricks was drafted out of high school by the Angels, teams were keeping an eye on him. Hendricks couldn’t turn down the academics at Dartmouth, and he went there to pursue a degree in finance.

“I think all 30 teams up in the Northeast saw him at some point in time to varying degrees,” Heafner said. “It was just a matter of who liked him or not. It wasn’t like he was a hidden gem. With Dartmouth, they have a decent program, but they’re not going to [the College World Series in] Omaha every year.

“Kyle was the perfect combination of intelligence and he had a baseball aptitude, the aptitude to pitch, to use the type of stuff he has. It was kind of like the perfect storm in what you want in a pitcher.”

In Hendricks’ junior season, he compiled a 2.47 ERA in nine starts, striking out 70 over 62 innings. The Rangers did their homework, sending their regional crosschecker, the scouting director and the director of player personnel — which at the time was A.J. Preller, now the general manager for the Padres. It wasn’t a tough sell for Heafner.

“You could see the pitchability, his ability to get outs, even though he didn’t throw 95 mph,” Heafner said. “Especially in the amateur ranks, you rarely see a guy who not only throws the strikes that Kyle …

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