The King
Dave · May 17, 2005 at 11:39 am · Filed Under Mariners
Coming off his most dominant start of the year, King Felix is on the hill now down in Albuquerque. The Isotopes, despite their loony nickname, have been whacking the ball all over the park this year, though I think I could hit .350 down there.
If you want to listen to the broadcast, tune in now.
Go Felix.
Edited to add: Felix took a liner off his foot in the second inning and left the game.
Comments
31 Responses to “The King”
I have to like the name because The Simpsons referenced them (the Springfield Isotopes had a secret plan to move the team to Albuquerque that Homer discovered).
I’m just tuning in, how is Felix doing?
Grr its not working for me. If anyone who is listening could post that would be great.
Well, that was fun for an inning or two…
Bummer.
Felix got hit in the foot by a grounder in the bottom of the second and was pulled. It doesn’t sound like big injury at all; I think they’re just being cautious.
in fact they are named after the Simpson’s episode…
msb ahh, thanks for the info. I assumed the team had to be older than the episode. Pretty funny that it was well known enough to win the poll. But then, Hungry Hungry Homer sticks with you.
How did Felix look before playing a little soccer?
Just turned the radio on, did Felix give up the 5 runs or did the bullpen (Buglovsky) give them up?
If there’s such a thing as major reconstructive foot surgery that’s probably what he’ll need. He is a highly touted M’s pitching prospect after all.
#10: If there’s such a thing as major reconstructive foot surgery that’s probably what he’ll need. He is a highly touted M’s pitching prospect after all.
First they’ll have him take the restof the year off to rehab. Then they’ll decide that surgery was needed after all. After rehab, he’ll still have problems. Then they’ll go back in and discover that they didn’t take care of all of it the first time.
Steve, but wait there’s more. He will finally regain some modicum of health – enough that the team brings him up to the big club. After a few impressive performances he will become depressingly erratic, with enough solid starts sprinkled amongst the poor outings to give fans and the team hope he will eventually regain the old magic. Sadly, that won’t happen, as his game will slowly deteriorate year by year until he has to be sent down to Tacoma to work on his mechanics. After providing more false hope while in Triple A he will return to the big club, only to return to his maddeningly unpredictable form. By the age of 27, we won’t be able to give him away.
Ahhh, the life cycle of a Mariner pitching prospect (the “lucky” ones that actually make it to the bigs, that is).
No, first they’ll call him up for a few starts and start his service time.
Nice posts there #11 and 12.
Wow, Heaverlo’s had two scoreless innings: A resurgence, or a Sele-like “getting away with mistakes” outing?
Curto said Felix was back in the dugout, no X-rays. I’m guessing Felix is OK.
I’m wondering about something else he said. Jose Lopez was batting and Curto said Lopez would be staying at 2B because Mike Morse was playing far better at SS than anyone had expected.
I haven’t seen the R’s yet, so I don’t know if Curto is just blowing smoke. What does it mean anyway? All I have read on this blog is what a butcher this guy is. Wouldn’t that be obvious at the AAA level?
Has anyone seen Morse play at Tacoma who might shed some light on this? Is it a case of not having anywhere else to play him? Are they showcasing him? What?
Matt, I think the team was actually named after the Simpson’s episode. This particular club has only been there a few years. The previous team was called the Dukes, I think.
Eventually we will trade him for a catcher prospect who will bat .182 for us, because of this Dan Wilson will make the majority of the starts at age 48.
Smart not to push it with Heaverlo. Getting 2 1/3 scoreless innings of work out of him is like getting 6 out of Sele. That ERA might get out of four digits yet.
Way to go, Jose.
I’ve seen a few Rainiers games in person, and while I like Mike Curto, I’ll have to respectfully disagree. Mike Morse looks a bit like a helmetless John Olerud out there at shortstop (yeah, I know, Olerud could field, just follow the visual). Absurdly tall, awfully slow to react, not a particularly strong arm. I would bet that Morse has less range than Bloomquist at SS, which if you saw last night’s M’s game might mean something to you. I’ve got no idea why the team is so high on him.
Maybe the Morse you describe is as Curto said — exceeding expectations.
And Morse doesn’t hit enough to be a DH. He could go on a .390 hot streak somewhere and fool some team into giving him a month to see what he can do, but I would guess that’s about the extent of his future promise. He’s injury insurance with a modest upside at being a decent hitter for a short time, based on everything I’ve read.
The Rainiers can’t win in that park: 0-8 now after a 5-2 loss tonight.
I guess I’m still the only one drinking the Morse kool-aid, but he’s a much better defender than the ‘allergic to leather’ rep he’s got. Okay, he’s never going to get mistaken for Wilson Valdez, or probably even Ramon Santiago, but I’d say he’s got the range of Lopez. His arm strength is moderate, but, from what I’ve seen, fairly accurate. He makes plays up the middle quite well, though he struggles a bit going to his right.
Certainly, the expectations affect the way Curto (and I) see him. I was expecting him to trip over himself at least twice a game; I thought he’d have 25 errors by now. But I still say he looks about the same, if not a bit better, than Lopez did last year (I know, I know – that’s not saying much. Scouts think both of them suck at SS).
I was at the Tacoma-Albuquerque game today. It did not look serious at all. Felix wasn’t even really limping. He didn’t hit the ground in pain or anything like that. Very bummed that he came out since this will be the time Tacoma comes here this year.
Also, I saw 2 games and Morse looked pretty bad at SS. He made a really stupid error in each game. Today he dropped a cutoff throw that allowed a runner to go from 2nd to 3rd.
Lopez hit 2 HRs today. He’s running well, seems to be fielding well too. How they can keep him at 2B and keep running Valdez and Bloomquist out at SS I do not know.
And yes, the team was named after the Simpsons episode and it was formerly the Dukes. The name change has played a big role in making the team popular throughout the state.
He may look like a helmletless Olerud but I’m not concerned about what he LOOKS like — I’d like to know what he actually does.
Too many times a guy gets overlooked because he looks awkward or not like our image of what a player should be. Remember when A-Rod came up they said he was too big to play short. Same thing about Ripken who didn’t LOOK like a SS.
Of course that’s why the Yankees moved A-Rod off of short — because Jeter LOOKS more like a SS even though A-Rod is by far the better SS.
I’m not saying Morse will be a major league SS — I have no idea, I’ve never seen him play. But I don’t really care what he looks like out there.
The Dukes actually moved to Portland. The Isotopes were called the Cannons before they moved to Albuquerque.
You should remember the Cannons – they were the Mariners’ AAA affiliate when they were in Calgary.
I saw Morse for one game this year and he looked alright but few balls were actually hit to him. I trust Curto to speak truth (as opposed to Rizz and kin). I think Morse will likely be traded instead of becoming a regular Mariner.
Supposedly Lopez was playing better SS this spring than Hargrove expected.
Santiago has actually never impressed me at short. Much like Giomar Guevara he seems like a no-hit, no-glove shortstop.
For what its worth, I think I’m mostly the reason Morse got his lousy defensive reputation around here, and that judgment was based on his play two years ago. It’s certainly possible that he’s improved and is no longer the catastrophic disaster he was in 2003. I don’t think the physical tools are there for him to be anything better than mediocre at the position, but if Curto says he’s showing good footwork and is playing a passable shortstop, that’s good news.
But either way, I don’t think his bat’s good enough to carry a so-so glove, so odds are he’s not ever going to be a useful part in Seattle.
Speaking of ARod, he doesn’t look like much of a third baseman–yet.
I have seen Morse about about 4 times this year, and he looked just fine to me. I have only seen him make one difficult play though, but he has done just fine on the routine plays. I did not notice slow reaction time, and his arm looked good one that one difficult double play.