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Felix the king of K's

Where will Felix end 2016 on the All-Time strikeout list?

By David Skiba
This was likely a strikeout.
This was likely a strikeout.
Rob Carr/Getty Images

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow. Tomorrow. There will be mitts popped and shin-guards strapped on and curveballs tossed, all in the Arizona sun. It won't quite be baseball, in the nine-innings, winner-take-all sense, but it will certainly feel like it. Remember, this time last season, and what the awesome MLB #This campaign brought us?

I hadn't watched that since maybe last April and it gave me chills this morning.

Anyway, pitchers and catchers reporting tomorrow got me wondering where our King currently sits on the all-time strikeout list and where we could anticipate him ending the 2016 season on said list. To date, Felix Hernandez, The Blessed and Brave, has amassed 2,142 strikeouts, averaging 218 per season, and putting him firmly at 61st place on the All-Time list of hurlers. He sits just ahead of Roy "Doc" Halladay, but not for long.

So where should we expect Felix to jump to by the end of the season? Well, to make things simple let's assume he throws his average amount of strikeouts in 2016 (218 was the number I referenced above). So with 218 K's in 2016, Felix will theoretically end the campaign with 2,360 strikeouts.

Now, anticipating where he falls exactly on the list becomes a little difficult, as Bartolo Colon currently sits above the King at 2,237 K's heading in to 2016. We have to figure in a full year of Bartolo raging against the passing of time. As well, I recently, according to PUE (Potential Unforeseen Events) charts developed in my personal laboratory, claimed Colon would win the 2016 NL Cy Young Award. Let's say Bartolo has enough left in the tank to get at least 150 K's this year and stay above of Felix.

With that figured in, Felix looks to sit 46th on the All-Time list by year's end, just two K's behind Charlie Hugh's 2,362 K's. Felix will have jumped Tim Wakefield, Vida Blue, Tommy John, Lefty Grove, Rube Waddell, Earl Wynn, and others to get there. If the King returns to his lofty strikeout throne of the 248 he put up in 2014, he'd finish the year at 2,390 K's, or six short of Sandy Koufax's career mark.

However, the numbers aren't what we are all really waiting to count. What we really cant wait for is this:

One more day.

goms

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