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Woo Felix Woo!
Dave · April 16, 2008 at 9:26 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Felix is ours and you can’t have him.
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To review:
“Bavasi made a stupid move” – OK
“Bavasi is a moron” – not OK and will get your post edited and/or deleted
C’mon, guys, you know better.
Auburn, take a look at Hardball Times stats on Felix from last year to this year. I think you will be surprised….
Jeff
I have no problem with that rule, and will abide – I am just curious as to the difference. Just started posting on here recently …
I’m not sure I’d agree that Felix is clearly better. The results have been there, mainly because he’s doing a really good job of stranding runners once they get on base, but that’s not really sustainable.
He’s still going to have a road bump or two. He hasn’t made The Leap yet. He’s still just awesome, and not the best pitcher ever. When he makes The Leap, you’ll know it.
I have no problem with that rule, and will abide – I am just curious as to the difference.
It’s an adaptation of a pretty widespread principle that’s well-established on the internet. Comment on the action (because that’s all you actually know anything about), not the actor (that’s a personal attack).
Mike beat me to it!
Dave, that is what I noticed when compared last year to this year. Add to that the lower HR rate and the higher IFF rate and really Felix isn’t doing anything better when it comes to things he has control over. Regression to the mean?
55 / 56
Fair enough – but I think the Bavasi list is too long! 🙂
I don’t know if he’s clearly better either. He started out last year extremely dominant against the A’s and B’sox; and then went down to injury. After the injury he had some issues that could very well have been from the injury, no?
The start this year was very similar to that, with the bonus of not having the injury.
Either way, I like what I see and very hopeful he’ll make “The Leapâ€. Starting (just starting) to realize what the Twins must have felt like when Santana was scheduled to start; and that is a great feeling.
Add to that the lower HR rate and the higher IFF rate
What’s the thinking on Infield Fly rate? Is a high IFF rate skill or luck?
What seems to me to be different in Felix this year is that he seems a lot more comfortable out there, and he has a pitching rhythm going that I think hasn’t been there before, at least for the long haul. I think you used to see it in spurts, but now he’s consistently rhythmically pitching throughout the game. He looks good!
It’s all experience for the King … the more he sees what works and what doesn’t the better he gets. His raw talent is off. the. charts.
I think only a few pitchers right now have the potential he does … maybe Fausto Carmona / Fransisco Liriano any others you can think of?
I’d rather have Felix over those 2 anyways …
This game was supposed to be televised up here, but the Jays game on before it ran way long and I actually missed almost the entire game because Felix was so fast.
Wait just one second here… personal attacks are out now?! I am so out of here.
I was in class last night and missed the whole damn game. Felix can make it up to me with his no-hitter next time.
My thinking is Felix ceiling is higher then anyone in baseball right now. Once he makes The Leap we are talking Pedro circa 97-02 dominance. Stupid Good.
Other young pitchers in the AL with high upside include Zack Greinke, Scott Kazmir, and Philip Hughes. I believe Felix has the highest upside of any of them.
What Felix is doing different this year? Significantly more efficient with pitches (3.49 pitchers per plate appearance so far this year versus 3.72 in 2007), plus a less pronounced tendency to generate ground balls (2.04 GB/FB ratio versus 2.77 in 2007). The result so far is an opponent’ OPS of .637 versus .750 in 2007. He’s faced a good cross section of the opposing offenses, too (LAA #1, Tex #5, Balt #10, Oak #13), so it’s not like he’s been facing patsies.
HamNasty…
Good comparison, in my opinion. To look at either of them as physical specimens, you wouldn’t necessarily guess that they have/had one in a billion, platinum-clad natural pitching talent, but that seems to be the case. Remember when we couldn’t beat Pedro? EVER? This is what I hope to see from Felix after The Leap…futility spanning YEARS from other AL teams (and the hated Padres) in their efforts to score more than a run in a single game against him. I’m giddy! I think it’s that too-rare ability to pitch a shutout even without their best stuff that sets guys like them apart. After The Leap, I think Felix will officially be in that territory for good.
good to know things are as they should be.
from Fox:
“King Felix goes all nine as M’s double up A’s”
SacBee
“A’s can’t stand up to ‘King Felix'”
Inside BayArea:
“A’s bow to King Felix”
That is scary … Pedro was as dominant pitcher as there has been in the Majors …
If Felix takes it to that level, we have to bring in real talent around him and sign him to 20 years 🙂
I think Hughes has more upside than Felix, if only because the injury bug is less of a risk for Hughes. Also, Hughes’ curve ball is disgusting, I think comparable to Zito during his three very good years. But Felix’s slider is
But comparing the two is like saying do you want the 911 Carrera or the 911 Turbo when you’re trading in your VW Jetta (Jarod Washburn) and you are keeping your Yugo in the garage, just in case everything else breaks (Cha Seung Baek). Dude, your getting a Porsche, it’ll be ok.
First of all I couldn’t disagree more…Felix is and will be regarded a better talent that Hughes … no offense to the 12-6 curveball … but look at Zito now.
Also I think you are missing out on the fact that Fausto Carmona and Liriano are really the only pitchers in Felix’s class right now.
Nice to see that chucklehead Olney on an espn podcast calling Bedard “the new Rich Harden.” I might throw up. Think Felix thoughts…think Felix thoughts…
From ESPN article last year:
FELIX HERNANDEZ:
We had to postpone that salute after Hernandez got hurt. But when the polling finally commenced, guess who got almost as many votes (12) as Santana? Yeah, it was The King, even though he’s sub-.500 lifetime (18-19), has made fewer career starts than Joaquin Benoit and turned 21 only four weeks ago.
THE REVIEWS: One assistant GM spoke for the universe when he said: “Hopefully, his elbow trouble is no big deal, because he is the best young pitcher in a long time.” … “Definitely the most electric combination in the game of stuff and ability to pitch.” … “Best pure stuff in the game, and it’s not really close. You pay and hope that’s the night he throws the perfect game.” … And one more thing, said an AL GM: “He seems like the great hope of that entire [Mariners] franchise.”
Let me clarify before everyone claims Felix as Pedro Martinez. Felix will need to come into 100% of his full potential for that to happen. A lot has to go right for him to be that dominate. The three factors I see are health, a defense, experience.
I know a lot of things have to break right…he has to be as physically and emotionally sound as Pedro was during that whole period, and may have to contract the services of a luck-bringing Dominican dwarf just to make sure. But the comparison is still apt…if/when he makes The Leap, I really believe he’s in that super rarified air.
Only caught the 4 outs of Felix’s work last night, but I did see one thing that I’d been looking for from him, at least in the ninth. He was throwing his curve (I think its his curve, anyway) for strikes in the bottom half of the zone. I’ve always been frustrated that he doesn’t throw it more, especially to lead off hitters and the finish off hitters. The break is so sharp, but it comes in at fastball-speed for a lot of pitchers. I see more swing-and-miss with that pitch than any other, plus more flat out freezes. If he can continue to locate that pitch, and feel confident with it, I would not be surprised to see some rising K totals.
Call me biased if you want to, but I can’t think of a single pitcher in the game right now that I’d rather have on my team than King Felix.
FUNNY- FROM WIKI
Hernández has been given the nickname King Felix, a title that matches the moniker of NBA phenom LeBron James. The U.S.S. Mariner weblog invented the nickname in July 2003, when he was just starting out in the minor leagues.[5] Former Mariner Joel Piñeiro said that after Hernández arrived in the major leagues, his teammates sometimes teased him about the nickname by calling him “Queen Felix”.[6] Meanwhile, team CEO Howard Lincoln instructed the club’s broadcasters to avoid the nickname, to reduce the pressure it might put on Hernández.[7]
Who do you think wrote that Wiki entry?
@35
peavy, young, maddux/wolf
That coming from a guy who’s watched a lot of Haren and (well, less) Harden.
I knew the M’s have a 5 game winning streak against the A’s (going back to last season) but I didn’t realize that the current streak of 6 wins in a row in Oakland is the most ever.
We’re also credited on Wikipedia as coming up with “Princess Willie”.
No mention of ponies yet, though.
Hard to tell…a Michael Snow has the majority of the edits, but that doesn’t prove he wrote that part, and I don’t see any recognizable USSM usernames among the contribs. Oh well, I dig seeing it in there nevertheless.
The difference with Pedro and Felix, is that Felix has the physical size to last, where Pedro was too small to be throwing that hard, and I was always waiting for his arm to fall off.
I know Zito doesn’t seem like the typical steroid guy, but isn’t it interesting that his velocity has fallen off so much the last couple of years and the A’s and Giants both swear he’s completely healthy?
Either way, the fact that USSM is credited with coming up with the nickname King Felix is probably one of the most EPIC things I have heard in a while.
Good work!
No, the most epic thing regarding USSM is that Dave’s pitching analysis got handed to Felix and had some effect. In, you know, real life. In comparison to that, Wikipedia is very small potatoes indeed.
Hard to tell…a Michael Snow has the majority of the edits, but that doesn’t prove he wrote that part, and I don’t see any recognizable USSM usernames among the contribs.
If you know how to read Wikipedia “diffs” you can see that I did add the nickname to the article. The bulk of the text is my writing, certainly. My favorite contribution, though, is not actually visible there – it’s this: Type “King Felix” into Wikipedia’s search box, click “Go” and it takes you straight to the article. (Fortunately, there are no historical kings named Felix or it would have to be disambiguated.)
Wow, Mike, very impressive! I’m not a wiki-wonk so I didn’t want to speculate further, but it was clear you put a lot of work into it. Thanks for the tip about the King Felix pipe…how cool! Keep up the good work!
“at age 14 in a tournament near Maracaibo, Venezuela. Fuenmayor recommended Hernández to fellow scouts Pedro Avila and Emilio Carrasquel, who were impressed with the youngster who could already throw 94 mph.”
really??? is that even possible??
That’s what they said, at least. (There’s a footnote at the end of the paragraph that gives you the source for the information.) As with any radar gun in baseball, who knows? I’ve noticed that the readings they put up on the Safeco scoreboard can be a couple MPH higher than what shows up on mlb.com’s Gameday.
When I was a rookie “Domer” for the team, I sometimes ran the speedpitch machine. Yeah…not accurate. Wouldn’t be surprised if the Safeco ones aren’t calibrated either.
See, that’s why everyone thinks Ibanez is fast: they point the pitching radar at him and he’s doing 4-5mph when he’s just standing in the outfield.
(Or maybe Moyer left his metric radar behind. Would be a nice rehab gift for Bedard. Oh la la).
I’m waiting for Felix’s apotheosis, which will occur in the course of a 54-pitch perfect game, featuring zero strikeouts, just 27 miserable ground ball dribblers to third base off of that crazy curveball. Whap whap whap. I think he could do it.
See, that’s why everyone thinks Ibanez is fast: they point the pitching radar at him and he’s doing 4-5mph when he’s just standing in the outfield.
(Or maybe Moyer left his metric radar behind. Would be a nice rehab gift for Bedard. Oh la la).
Actually, I think it’s the radar gun the State Patrol uses on I-90 out by North Bend.