Felix’s home debut in the press and web
Jon Paul Morosi, in the PI, with his recap.
It should tell you a little something about the general state of affairs at Safeco that the most anticipated baseball event all season begat scores of empty seats in the right and left field corners.
There’s also a USSM mention in there, which is cool.
Corey Brock, in the News-Tribune, has “King for a day”
It’s not enough that 19-year-old Seattle rookie pitcher Felix Hernandez can throw his fastball 98 mph, although that alone makes him pretty special.
It’s everything else that Hernandez did Tuesday – from the wicked change-ups he threw to his off-the-table curveball to his refined poise at such a young age – that makes him unique.
Finnigan, in the Seattle Times: “Hernandez pitches gem in home debut” is paired with Larry Stone, reporting from the visiting clubhouse.
“Poise? I don’t think we’re talking about poise here,” Gardenhire said. “I think we’re talking about a 97 mile an hour fastball with a curveball from hell. I think you can overlook the poise part. Let’s just say great stuff.”
My pal (and yours, if you’ve met him) Jonah Keri wrote up yesterday’s game as his Game of the Week column on Baseball Prospectus. And it’s free! Free! So check that out.
Seth Stohs has a detailed breakdown of what Hernandez threw and when (no permalink? Man, that link’s going to age badly)
And for your picture needs, Adriot linked cool game pics in comments yesterday. (Please note that’s not USSM-space… don’t sweat the bandwith). I’m sure that having been so generous with his efforts, these pics will now be copied all across the internet to be used as desktops, and the basis for fan web pages. Sorry, dude.
Comments
65 Responses to “Felix’s home debut in the press and web”
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no idea what happened to that last comment…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v737/DawgPacPBH/kf.jpg
38, History… I think it would make a nice link on the sidebar.
#46: Yeah, it seems they might do well to sprinkle a little sugar along the way to prepare for the deal to come.
Studies done by teams haven’t shown that there’s any benefit to this: paying your players the minimum doesn’t make them any more or less difficult to deal with compared to someone who gets (say) 50, 100k over the minimum, even as that increases each of the years.
Now, of course, generalities don’t always apply, blah blah blah, but Felix got a huge chunk to sign and he can look forward to a truly massive free agent payday if he stays healthy. $10-100k a year isn’t going to make or break things.
I’m not surprised that teams have studied the issue, but how does one measure and define “more or less difficult to deal with” for the purposes of such a study? The issue seems too fuzzy for a study to show anything definitive either way.
Felix is already quite wealthy in the context of the society he comes from, very true. What I had in mind was not going over the minimum, which I agree is unlikely to make a difference, but focusing on incentive bonuses. I seem to remember Griffey once making a point of letting people know that he wasn’t getting the bonuses his fellow All-Stars were getting. If nothing else, it takes away a weapon in the negotiation-by-media game.
“Ultima Ratio Regumâ€Â
Brilliant.
As far as the shirts go, there’s gotta be a way to work in a graphic of a cannon shooting out a baseball. The Ms would corner the French history buff fanbase immediately.
There’a photo dump from last night’s game here
http://lefty10.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album02
I haven’t yet had time to go into the editing software with the photos so they’re quality is a little spotty at this point. I’ll try to clean them up especially when viewed at max size.
Cleveland got a lot of credit some years ago for signing their young players to long term contracts before they got real expensive.
Of course they didn’t get a championship out of it, but maybe that was the manager’s fault. Who was their manager back then, anyway?
And this from BILLY-BALL:
THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER
Baseball has a new star on its horizon and his name is Felix Hernandez. Hernandez won his first home start for the Mariners last night defeating the Twins, 1-0. “He was all that, everything he was billed to be,” Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said, “… and then some.”
“On the first pitch, I called a two-seamer [sinker] and it just exploded on me and I dropped it,” catcher Wiki Gonzalez said. “I peeked at the radar reading and it said 97. I thought, ‘Wow, a two-seamer that hard.’ The next pitch, I dropped that, too.â€Â
In Hernandez’ 8 innings he gave up just 5 hits, struck out 6 and walked none. Of his 94 pitches, 69 were for strikes. His record is now 1-1 with an ERA of 0.69.
That quote John D. posted makes me wonder: Is there any pitcher who throws a sinker as hard as Felix?
Wiki explaining how the King’s pitches break down so hard is cool. Wiki dropping those balls as a catcher… not so cool.
Of course they didn’t get a championship out of it, but maybe that was the manager’s fault. Who was their manager back then, anyway?
Dude, they got two of them, 1995 and 1997.
#62 –
I think #58 may have meant the World Series, not the AL championship. At least that’s how I read it.
In direct proportion to our newfound happiness… has anyone noticed what is passing for a rotation in Yankeeland? Aaron Small pitched today, and actually appears to have pitched well. Not exactly the kind of guy one expects to hear about taking the bump for the pinstripes. Tomorrow they are throwing out Scott Proctor. No wonder they tried to work a deal for Jamie.
“Costanza! Who the hell is Scott Proctor? Where is Big George’s Calzone”
I think #58 may have meant the World Series, not the AL championship. At least that’s how I read it.
Gotta be specific.