Game 105, Mariners at Rangers
Felix vs Feldman, 5:05.
Happy Felix Day!
If Felix can shut down the Rangers tonight, it will be his most impressive performance since last year’s one hitter in Fenway. This Texas line-up is just unbelievably scary, especially at home. Their team OPS while playing in Texas is .880. Their worst hitters at home hit like our best hitters on the road. And, even better, their offense is heavily left-handed, with serious home run power from that side. Felix’s biggest problem is still getting left-handed hitters out.
It’s 100 degrees in Texas tonight, by the way. So he’s facing a monster offense full of the type of hitters that he does worst against in an environment where the ball will be flying off the bat.
The degree of difficulty for this start is off the scales. In Felix We Trust, but tonight, I have slightly tempered expectations.
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Texas has been ignored by the national media nearly all year (Hamilton’s showing at the home run derby not withstanding). They are scary good on offense, but, as usual, their pitching is terrible.
Trying to look on the bright side, Feldman doesn’t seem anything too special, with low K/9 and high BB/9, but then again, he gets to face a much less than “unbelievably scary” line-up.
OK, looking on the bright side didn’t work too well.
prediction: 5 innings, 115 pitches, 3 R, 2 HR, we lose 9-1.
Here’s hoping he can dominate. Oh, and to add to the pleasure they are running out a Vidro free lineup!
Anyone notice (say over at fangraphs) that going into tonight’s game, Felix is our current leader in both pitching and hitting WPA? Ah, the irony! Such a well-constructed lineup we have.
Felix’s one swing of the bat (the grand salami) was worth more in win probability to the club than all the plate appearances of any of our hitters, Vidro not withstanding!
tomorrow with Silva vs. Texas should be swell.
[shudder] Kelley is now video blogging
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooO
[deleted, excessive stupidity]
100 degrees??? Ichiro has something to say about that hot weather
haha.. i see how it is. How about this…
Felix is a very good #2 starter.. I hope he reaches his potential and become one of the best starters in the league one day.
Depending on how you define “ace”, and considering he’s in the top 15 in the Majors in both WPA/Li and FIP, he might already be one. And the best thing is everyone, along with you, agrees that he hasn’t reached his potential.
I agree with scottiedawg…….and he is our number one that is for sure…I will be very very mad if they bring Bedard back at make him the no. 1 starter again. That would be a slap in the face to Felix
For those of you not inclined to peruse Kelley’s attempt at web-based multimedia (per the comment above), here’s a brief summary:
1)The Mariners all suck.
2)Ichiro won’t speak English and that’s a major problem for the M’s.
3)It’s Bedard’s fault (because he is supposed to pitch injured) that Bavasi got fired.
And that is a wrapup of my FIRST and LAST ever trip to Senor Kelley’s happy place on the web.
King Felix is already one of the best pitchers in MLB.
If you’re disappointed that he isn’t THE best, at 22 years old, then that’s a problem with you, not with him.
I’m just sad that he is stuck on a team that will likely not win for a number of years .. and by the time the M’s may have a chance, they will have to start paying him a ton to keep him.
sigh… the front office makes it difficult .. but I still love this team. Sometimes I wonder why…
Agreed Jeff Nye……In Felix We Trust!
Hm, this is most unsettling. On much of the internet, I use the username “walkie”. In fact, it is my username here (though not my display name, obviously). Though I was born in ‘84, not ‘83, clearly I’m of about the right age to be confused with this mysterious Felix-bashing walkie83. So, let me take the time to clear things up:
Hello Internet,
My name is Eric Walkingshaw and I love Felix Hernandez, ace of the Mariners. I wear 34 on my softball team, went to almost every one of his home starts in ‘05 and ‘06 (before I moved), and risked a New York beat-down cheering wildly as he hit his grand slam at Shea Stadium off of Johan Santana. I don’t celebrate his birthday yet, but I may start next year.
Love,
Eric
IF, the M’s get the right GM and learn how to spend their money WISELY, it will not take that long to turn them around. And IF they get smart and lock Felix up with a good contract now, he will not be “overpaid” for years to come…
I do realize that those are some big if’s, but it could happen.
Reed, Clement and LaHair in the lineup? How will the M’s ever win without their Proven Veterans?
I think you guys misunderstand what I say about Felix. I hardly bash him. I think he is a great pitcher. I just don’t think it is possible for him to be as good as people on this site make him out to be .. especially when he is yet to prove it. They make him out to be the VERY best in the entire world.. King Felix .. when he is more like Prince Felix at this stage of his career. Maybe one day he will be a Nolan Ryan caliber pitcher… but I have yet to see it.
However, this year he has improved greatly with the way he handles himself out on the mound.
Maybe I’m being too harsh .. cause .. well, I watch this team too. We have absolutely nothing to cheer about, besides him. He is really the only reason to watch. However, sadly, he is not the savior. He alone cannot do what the M’s need. If he gives up one run, we’ll lose 1-0. If he gives up 2 runs, we’ll lose 2-1. Sadly, this team sucks.
Then again .. at least it is entertaining to watch him.
WOO HOO! 3-0 M’s! Felix better hold it!
Raul, you’re embarrassing yourself out there…I know Riggs thinks your great, but you should go tell him you want to be the DH.
Well at least he’s making sure to establish the fastball, we all know how silly he looks when he mixes up his pitches from the get go.
I just don’t think it is possible for him to be as good as people on this site make him out to be .. especially when he is yet to prove it.
Read this sentence, figure out whats wrong with your logic, and get back to us.
Raul didn’t do anything wrong. Very few LFs would have got to that ball.. and if they did even fewer would be able to throw him out at 2B
Defense. Play it, guys.
I think Felix is as good as Nolan Ryan now. Maybe better. He doesn’t walk a million guys a game, for one thing.
I recently discovered that Facebook’s “Mariners Nation” application, which is even lower on the brainpower ladder for M’s fans than KJR, awards you status depending on how much you post. When you’re a “Rookie” you are awarded a jersey icon that reads “HERNNDEZ”. Wrong on so many levels.
How did they not turn a DP?
Raul is good at defense.
We must be watching a different game. Slow as he is, even Raul got over to it and it went almost directly under his glove. Any LF’er would have cut that ball off. Except Raul. And maybe Manny.
Then Yuni has a ball go off his glove. And LaHair botches a pickoff throw.
Mariner baseball at its finest.
I’m afraid to get back to you .. you’ll just delete it. Yes, the logic was off.. but you got the point. Sweet! Felix managed to keep the lead!
Psst… Nolan Ryan wasn’t that good.
Sloppy defense was the cause of at least one run.
Holy crap LaHair.
Yiiiikes.
Hair of the dog!!!!!
Whoo hoo! LaHair!
Well the King got off to a rough start but he seems to have settled in…
#1 for LaHair!
No, wait, I don’t want LaHair to do well, because he’ll develop a cult of stupids like Bloomquist and Bucky Jacobsen did.
I think the ump just thought he slayed a dragon.
That’s the King I know & love!
Some more trouble here for Felix in the 3rd
Where the hell was Lopez?
Our middle infield is awful.
Hitting the clubhouse spread with Silva and Vidro.
In Texas, it’s “Two armadillos f***ing in a sweaty cowboy boot.”
Was that the second blown DP?
Wow I forgot the game started at 5 so I came in cold and pulled up fangraphs, going “please be flat for Felix, please be flat” and I saw it was down but not at the bottom and I thought “Hmmm, 41%, that doesn’t look too bad” and then I did a double-take — wait, the Mariners have four runs and Texas has only two? Next you’re going to tell me Yuni got a walk.
Hope the good people of Texas saved that ball for the pride of Worcester, MA.
Huge SO!
That was a huge strikeout….and that was a nasty last pitch
No one look at the BAL-NYY Boxscore if you want to retain your sanity.
I love, love, love watching Felix in those high pressure situations. The dude sets his jaw and just goes to work.
way to work the pitcher to give Felix a rest, there.
so, having been radio-bound on the walk home, has Felix been that wild, or is there a strikezone involved?
Yeah, Adam Jones had 5 RBI today.
Also, what the HELL is the deal with his picture on ESPN.com?
Uhhhhh?
Seven pitches. Seven. Jeebus. The M’s half of the inning was so fast that in the time that I refreshed FanGraphs, it went from showing Felix’s K to the M’s being done. I feel like Vizzini.
Inconceivable.
LOL at that pic of Adam Jones…….that is funny.
boy, the Yankees must need a shiny new pitcher, doncha think?
#36 Steve T said: “No, wait, I don’t want LaHair to do well, because he’ll develop a cult of stupids like Bloomquist and Bucky Jacobsen did.”
Wow — when did Bucky Jacobsen start getting lunped in with Willie Fucking Bloomquist?
Jacobsen was pretty darn good in the one season he played in, slugged .500, took his share of walks and was on a 35 home run pace for the Major League minimum. Maybe it would have lasted, maybe it wouldn’t have. But if he hadn’t gotten hurt he certainly could have been a little better version of exactly the cheap first base/DH alternative that Dave wants the M’s to trade for, one of Nelson Cruz or Brad Nelson (and I agree with Dave).
You’re lumping Bucky in with the jackass with the .323 career slugging percentage who recently went 361 days without hitting an extra base hit, who makes nearly three times the minimum salary and thinks he should be an everyday player?
There’s no problem with guys like Jacobsen as long as they can play and are useful to the team. Jacobsen was. Bloomquist isn’t… and no I wasn’t in the Cult of Stupids – it isn’t stupid to root for a player who slugs .500 for the minimum salary!
The 7 pitch 4th inning notwithstanding, it seems like the [Mariners] are taking more pitches recently. Does anyone know how I could check that stat? Pitches per at bat on a team level?
[LaHair] is currently hitting .316 with an OPS of .824…
even with the small sample size, [it's] encouraging. [It] could just as easily be .069/.069/.100…. ([I] don[']t really care if that doesn[']t work mathematically)
Strasburg ho!
ah, so nice to have Dave back on the radio.
There was a good piece by Larry Stone this morning on the ceremony, as well as a Shannon Drayer appreciation of working with Dave.
They were happy to find out that Burger King is open late.
“Tampa hasn’t been through wars.” — Blowers (Paraphrased)
jwgrandsalami, maybe it’s unfair to rag on Bucky, but I’m really ragging on his fans, who continued to insist that he was a star in the making, a good ol’ semi-local boy, but just wasn’t getting the chances, long after his brief shot in ‘04. Yes, it was a decent few weeks; but Bucky was never a prospect.
I think there’s STILL people out there who think he should still be our first baseman.
It’s that kind of thing that reminds me of Bloomquist, and if LaHair does the same thing — hits a ton in the next two months — we’ll be hearing the same about him.
LOL at the FSN showing the numbers of Adam Jones…..Why do they have to do that??
in 100 degree weather, it does not help to have your defense mess up behind you. And in front of you.
RAUUUUL with a bomb on a 3-0 count
Lopez looked pretty gassed after that double.
Pretty looking swing, Jeffie.
speaking of Niehaus, for Drayer’s pregame interview today, Miguel Batista (who should only pitch as eloquently as he can talk) asked her if he could speak about Dave.
I don’t think KOMO puts their audio up on the site, but it was a rumination on Dave, on they way he calls a game, on the role of the voices of the game, on how you can compare one player to another historically, but not announcers like Niehaus & Caray ….
In the show they did with Dave at Cooperstown, Dave was standing by a backstop watching what I assume was an amateur game on the little field there. After commenting on the field and its surroundings, he started to call the play, and then commented on how the umpire was doing a great job of calling strikes, with a little dig at some of the ML umps who are slow to call pitches.
Solid gold segment.
Sims is calling Ichiro’s hit total “professional hits” to imply the inclusion of his hits in Japan.
But minor leaguers are professionals. I assume they have minor league baseball in Japan. So I don’t think that is the right term to use.
That’s it! Who will invent a metric to measure announcing?
The Washburn saga is taking a surreal turn that probably warrants an update concerning the performance of the interim FO (bumbling or Yankee bullying?). Will we be treated to further analysis?
are you referring to Olney’s latest note?
well, sorry, Felix.
Ya.
From Olney’s piece:
Wouldn’t it be just like the M’s this season to intentionally take a worse deal for Washburn out of nothing more than spite? Hurting next year’s team to do so.
Now that just sounds wrong.
how would that hurt next year’s team?
Lopey is so cute when he tries to dive.
how would that hurt next year’s team?
If they didn’t get a useful prospect back, they’d have less money to spend on a free agent.
I’m assuming they’d count any dollars paid on Wasburn’s 2009 salary against next year’s payroll, limiting what they would otherwise spend, but I could be wrong here. I don’t know how they’d account for those dollars, and they may count them all against this year’s budget.
Nicely done, Kenji-kun!
Joh with his best defensive play of the year. Hot damn.
Outstanding play by AB & Joh!!!
AR nice SO!
Pinch Runner Willie Bloomquist.
I guess I’m not really expecting to get a useful prospect back; at least not one who will be useful any time soon. IIRC they don’t apply money from one year to the next…
Nice bunt Yuni.
I just tuned in…looks like a real pitchers’ duel…
That’s right, Willie, get on that pony!
happy little ponies. bet the Padres don’t have happy little ponies.
Darn that selfish Ichiro! Getting the sac fly instead of his 3,000th hit! He should be more like Silva and help out his teammates by eating all their leftovers.
Dude, this “board” (tee hee!) is becoming like Anti-Fatties Not-So-Anonymous.
I turned on the game just in time to see that throw down to 3rd. Schweet!
Ibanez would have had that.
Raul would have got that (if he was standing there when Bradley hit it).
Well we have so many fatties on this team that if we want to be equally cruel to them all it takes up a lot of time.
yum, leftovers.
did I mention that I emailed KIRO’s program director to suggest that he should hire Shannon Drayer as part of his new Mariners team? It seemed the thing to do after they announced the station change.
Not that I’ve heard back from him, mind you, but if any one else is interested, it’s Rod Arquette at rarquette@710kiro.com
Morrow has not been sharp tonight. Keep fingers crossed.
99 mph heaters will nicely compensate for a lack of control.
We win!
Although I have to shake my head when I hear Dave Sims say something like “…and great defense tonight…” Well, I guess he’s right: we only committed one error tonight. We’re getting better!
short term memory– that last DP wiped the rest from his mind
#62 wrote: jwgrandsalami, maybe it’s unfair to rag on Bucky, but I’m really ragging on his fans, who continued to insist that he was a star in the making, a good ol’ semi-local boy, but just wasn’t getting the chances, long after his brief shot in ‘04. Yes, it was a decent few weeks; but Bucky was never a prospect.
I hear what you’re saying, Steve, but it really doesn’t matter that Bucky wasn’t a prospect. If he’d stayed healthy he could have been useful for 2-3 years as a 25 HR, 80 RBI guy playing DH or 1B and making close to the minimum. This is a team that doesn’t know how to develop hitting prospects — the last position player they drafted that became a starter was Jose Cruz, Jr. — 11 years ago — and they traded him after two months in the bigs. Before that it was A-Rod… Not only does having a cheap productive player like that in the lineup allow you to spend $$$ on your other needs, it also keeps a stupid organization like the Mariners from paying a guaranteed $4 million to a “proven veteran” like Carl Everett…
And why does it matter if he was a “prospect” or not? Occasionally a guy like Cecil Fielder comes along, who washes out with one team (Toronto), goes to Japan for a year and comes back and has a very productive seven year stretch from 1990 – 1996 (averaging 37 HRs a year). These type of guys who can hit the ball out of the yard are popular for a good reason, unlike Willie Bloomquist. I’m just saying there’s a difference between the idiots that love Willie and the fans that Bucky had…
wonder if the Rangers will notice if Ichiro! hits no. 3000 tomorrow