Something I noticed as I scanned across Fangraphs player pages, as is anybody's fancy on a beautiful Saturday afternoon:
Stat | Felix 2009 | Felix 2010 |
ERA | 2.49 | 2.75 |
FIP | 3.09 | 3.04 |
xFIP | 3.42 | 3.37 |
K% | 22% | 23% |
BB/HBP% | 8.1% | 7.7% |
HR% | 1.5% | 1.6% |
GB% | 53% | 53% |
Contact% | 77% | 78% |
Velocity | ~same | |
Mix | ~same |
People talk about how pitchers are inconsistent, and for good reason - generally speaking, they are inconsistent, and difficult to predict. Even Felix has had his inconsistencies within this stretch. But overall, it's remarkable how similar his last two seasons have been, and at this point, we have nearly 400 innings of evidence that Felix has found his level. And what a level it is.
I don't have any problem with Ubaldo Jimenez, but I've taken some degree of delight in his recent performance decline, because he's just another young pitcher who's proven that he isn't Felix Hernandez. There's only one of him, and that guy is ours.