Felix Hernandez Shut Down For Remainder
by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 30, 2010 5:02 PM PDT
in Seattle Mariners Regular News
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PrintAs noted earlier, the Mariners have opted to shut Felix down, rather than allow him to make an appearance in the season finale on Sunday. As such, his final workload total reads: 34 starts, 3,731 pitches, and 249.2 innings. It's the fifth-highest innings total in franchise history, and the highest since Randy Johnson in 1993. Felix also finishes with the eighth-highest strikeout total, behind four editions of Randy and three editions of Mark Langston.
The reason for doing this is pretty apparent. With most things the Mariners do, there are at least two or three different levels of thinking, most of them hidden. Here, it's out there in the open, shooting off flares. The team doesn't want to tax Felix's arm any more than it already has. Not with so little left to gain. The risk in making one more additional appearance is small - just about as small as was the risk in making the most recent start in Texas - but "small" isn't the same thing as "negligible," and the upside simply isn't there.
What could the upside possibly be? Felix isn't going to strengthen his Cy Young case with five innings against Oakland on the last day of the year. His stock is as high as it's ever going to get. I'm sure Felix would love to at least get one more out so he can reach 250 innings instead of sitting on this obnoxious statistical tease, but again, that's pretty irrelevant, as it's just part of our fascination with round numbers.
The risk is low, but the upside is lower, so the Mariners are erring towards being cautious. Which I'm absolutely fine with. All I ask is that Daren Brown and the team finds some way to get him out there on the field for one final standing ovation. I don't know if that means he hands out the lineup card, or makes a pitching change, or just comes out for a postgame curtain call, but Felix deserves the applause, and the fans deserve to applaud.
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Absolutely...
could you imagine him getting a save?! Take that Cy Young voters!
Curtain call? I'll watch it on TV then.
I’ll turn on halftime of the Seahawk game, and maybe catch the hat tip then. I’m not going to buy a ticket to watch someone tip his cap.
For as meaningless as this game apparently is, it has become the only game with any meaning this season. The fans deserve a Felix sendoff. Instead, we handed to Texas.
Felix says fuck the Seahawks.
M's fan in PA, soon to be LA
by perfectstrat on Sep 30, 2010 6:07 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah
I’m not as excited about going to the game as I was earlier today
What?
You don’t want to be there for Griffey’s last game?
by Matthew on Sep 30, 2010 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Har har har
Milton Bradley apologist
by sanford_and_son on Sep 30, 2010 5:48 PM PDT up reply actions
This feels like a punch to the nuts.
Thats what this comment feels like.
Too bad he couldn't have racked up a few more strikeouts though
Finishing leading the ML in ERA, strikeouts, and innings pitched would have been cool. Two out of three is still awesome though. Hopefully a miracle will happen and Weaver won’t get more than 3 SO in his next start…
One more start...
and he’d probably win the strikeout crown (not important, but something that matters to some people). As is, he’ll probably lose it to Weaver.
Well this is unfortunate.
Now my 8 year old cousin’s first baseball game will be pitched by not Felix. That’s sad.
Morgan Ensberg for Manager 2011!
AL Scout on Rendon: "I would peg him as a poor man's Jose Lopez."
I just wish there was a reason to go to the final game of the season.
Felix pitching is the only thing I could think of. Not that I disagree with the decision or anything
Bullshit.
I call bullshit. I do.
So the upside of Felix pitching is small, and the downside small, but a little larger. Suddenly this game is meaningless, where his previous starts weren’t. How many games ago, and how many games past elimination, was it still worth it to have him pitch, when all of the sudden, no, just kidding, these games don’t matter after all.
Either the games matter, or they do not. Either there is still joy and purpose in tuning in the the Mariners at the end of a shitty year, or the owners should stop distributing bobbleheads and selling tickets. I refuse to have it both ways. Felix starting a game matters because it is damn awesome to watch Felix start a game, not matter the standings. I don’t care—baseball is entertaining and it matters, or they should stock the team with Tacoma’s roster and stop encouraging us to go after the all star break. But please. This is bullshit. Why do we watch a bunch of losers if not to enjoy the winners among them. To say all of the sudden this game doesn’t matter, when it is no different than the six months before it, is to say that none of them mattered.
Well, fuck you, Mariners. They mattered to me. And they sure as fuck mattered to Felix.
by SeattExPat on Sep 30, 2010 6:31 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I agree.
I’m not super mad or anything, but I second the bullshit call. “Saving his arm” would have meant shutting him down as soon as the team is eliminated from the playoff hunt. Mailing it in so late in the season doesn’t make any sense. If it’s not worth the risk Sunday, it wasn’t worth the risk against the Rangers, nor was it worth the risk the start before that. The probability of arm injury is the same every start, right?
I was going to try to go to the game Sunday. Now I’m not. Why bother?
by Jon S. on Sep 30, 2010 7:25 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
The probability isn't the same every start
And no, they were obviously not going to shut him down in August. He was pitching for a Cy Young.
What if he blows his elbow out in a meaningless start?
by pdb on Sep 30, 2010 10:04 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Who cares. At least the last game of the year was entertaining. Felix can just pitch through the pain.
Hard work never killed nobody, but I won't take my chances.
He could have done that in any of his starts this year.
Morgan Ensberg for Manager 2011!
AL Scout on Rendon: "I would peg him as a poor man's Jose Lopez."
Yes, he could have
but if he did it in the 162nd game of a meaningless season in which he was participating only to pad his stats for an award, it would be so much worse than if he did it in his second start in April.
But not that different if he did in the 157th game of the season. Or the 152nd game of the season.
So where is the line? The farther back you go, the more absurd it would be to sit him. But these games haven’t mattered for months. I think Felix wanted to pitch, and fans wanted him to pitch. What is difference between now and two months ago?
Perspective maybe?
A star player getting seriously injured in game 162 of a lost season just looks worse than if it happens in game 110.
They mattered as far as the Cy Young goes
and they matter because sitting your ace in August is likely to lead to bad PR. Sitting him for the last game is only upsetting people who can’t see that there’s more than black and white in the world.
It bums me out that a Mariners fan wrote this and someone Rec'd it.
Milton Bradley apologist
by sanford_and_son on Oct 1, 2010 5:52 PM PDT up reply actions
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