The final #s look bad, but he just ran out of gas in the 6th. Up untiil the 5th, he looked great. No walks, scattered some singles, gave up 1 run, that was it. Then in the sixth, he was out of gas and the Dodgers strung singles together and he didn't have any gas in the tank for his high 90s fastball anymore.
The three things that most impressed me. (1) No walks. (2) he's a pitcher not a thrower, he seemed to save his best stuff for the big hiiters or when somebody was on, and was looking for cheap outs from his defense for the weaker hitters. That was costing him a single or two, but it didn't hurt him really till the 6th. (3) Changed speed reall well.... From 97 to low 80s. Until the 6th when his fastball slowed.
My concern... He ran out of gas suddenly in the 6th, around the 100th pitch. Maybe jis young age has something to do with this. But that seemed to be his only problem. Makes me think he need to work on his leg strength, because it's the legs more than the arm that give out on a starting pitcher.
But for the first 5 innings, you'd never believe he was only 20.
The Mariners have him on a strict pitch count, around 100 pitches or so, perhaps they have now inadvertantly trained his body to run out of steam by 100 pitches -- in effect limiting his arm strength in an attempt to protect him from injury?
The interesting thing was, nobody really tagged him even when he got tired, it was all singles hit off well located pitches. No ball ever made it past a Mariner's outfielder. The Dodgers did a good job of filling the lineup with slap hitter types, sitting some of the free swingers. When Nomar and Kent were up, or somebody was on base, his stuff was MUCH MORE nasty. It was when he lost his high 90s fastball that they started to slap singles in succession.
Lose the velocity on the fastball and the offspeed stuff doesn't look so good...that's shocking. I know that the M's are trying to keep the reins on him, but why keep him out there if he's not effective? That's always a tough call...when is the pitcher out of gas? You need honesty from your pitcher and a good pitching coach that can pick up on the nuances of a tired pitcher.
M's have some decent guys in the pen, if you recognize he's tired, why keep him out there after 90 pitches? If he's done, he's done...regardless of arbitrary pitch counts. I've seen it argued that 110-130 pitches isn't bad if the pitcher is not tired, why doesn't it work the other way?
Regardless...Definitely encouraged by the Ks and lack of BBs, even if he gave up a few runs. Only worry is that he's never thrown more than 175 ip and he might be tiring early...
Felix's was scheduled to bat 4th in the top of the 7th, so they wanted Felix to finish the ending so they could pinch hit for him. The coaches didn't want to waste a good reliever for one out when they were probably going to pinch hit for him anyway. It was clear he was out of gas but all they needed was one damn out. NL Teams tend to have better bench players and a few more good relievers so they can afford to take a pitcher out in this situation and use a reliever for just one out and then pinch hit for him, but AL teams usually spend most of their $ on the starters and go cheap on the bench players and have fewer good bullpen pitchers.
Felix has got to be the most unlucky pitcher this year. A few of the hits could have been taken care of by some decent infielders and the other hits were just pure luck. He could have easily won this game if it had gone the other way. However he got ahead of the hitters and they were just chopping away at anything and got lucky. A well pitched game I thought. Hes still a stud in my book.
I'm not at all disappointed in how he played yesterday (it helps that I had Lowe too so I got a CG out of him) but I think people are overlooking one thing....he was batting. I don't know how many people have noticed but going up to bat and taking whiffs at a ball can tire you out. For a guy who isn't used to it, I think it may have had an effect on him. A couple of bad swings when you're not used to swinging a bat and you could really waste some energy.
In the 6th, even though he was out of gas, he was still hitting his spots, the Dodgers just got lucky and had a series of seeing eye singles. Nobody was raking him. They just stuck the bat out there and found holes. Just one of those hits in range of his infielders and he'd have gotten out of the 6th giving up 1 run.
Cool review. I over-valued him this year and drafted him a little higher than I should have, but all I see is a box score and it's good to read that there seemed to be more positive than negative here.
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by johnsamo » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:26 am 
