King Felix finally earning the title.

[johnsamo]

Been getting a little better lately, but tonight he outdueled Liriano.... 7 innings, 5 ks, 2 runs.... 60 strikes to 40 balls.... The thing I'm noticing is, the bad games, he was getting more Ks, so I'm guessing he's learning the benefits of letting your defense help you get outs. If you try to K everybody, you lose out on those easy 1 and 2 pitch outs, which are really helpful if you want to go deep in the game even with a pitch count.

[TheYanks04]

Even Milton can't stink every outing. The Twins are hardly the 27 Yankees lineup I might add also.

[Mr Irrelevant]

Not anywhere close to getting excited just yet.

[pangbones]

I'm certainly encouraged!! He's won 3 out of his last 4 games, (although thats only because he had double digit run support in 2 of those games). He seems to be improving. He worked out of a couple jams.
There might be something to what Johnsamo said about going for the K's. And he had 14 groundballs to only 1 flyball.

Here is an interesting article on Felix I came across a few days ago. It is very encouraging.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/artic ... ing-felix/

[mamorris]

I'd say it's more a case of balls finally bouncing his way more than anything else. I doubt pitching for contact is a viable long-term strategy; that's just some random variation for you.

[johnsamo]

Pitching for contact works great when you hit your locations. It's a game of percentages. If you throw strikes that aren't in the hitter's sweet spots or pitches he doesn't hit well, they usually make poor contact. More often than not, poor contact is an out, and at worse, it's usually a bloop single, not an extra base hhit.

[johnsamo]

Great article... I it has been puzzling to me his stats. Most inconsistant pitchers are consistant in that when they have a bad game, they walk a lot of guys and usually don't K many, but Felix's K and walk ratios have been fantastic in every game.... His worst game for walks was a grand total of 3 over 6 innings. It just didn't make any sense, but this guy's explanation seems the only plausible way to explain so many bad games from him.

It makes me think the Mariners need a different pitching coach. It shouldn't take a diligent pitching coach this long to recognize this problem.