Felix and rehab
Baker makes an interesting point on the Times blog:
All I’ll say about Hernandez is that he looks like a guy who could have used a rehab assignment before stepping back in to face major league hitters.
Here’s the interesting thing: I totally agree, and I totally understand why they didn’t.
I made the point during the first start, but Felix’s return, where he didn’t look fine, and really, as Baker notes, like someone who would have been better off with a rehab assignment or two, picking up innings working more easily even if that meant finding him a start in AA or wherever.
But! Felix’s short, tentative, ill return was better than any Jeff Weaver start this year. If you’d had the choice, ahead of time, between Weaver and that Felix start, you’d take Felix’s. The team, illusory or not, was competing for the division lead, and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference to Felix’s recovery if he worked there, with instructions to limit his use of breaking pitches, or did the same thing in the minors.
Similarly, today: in an ideal world, he gets a second start in the minors to get even better, work on his stuff, and it’s clear that while he’s better than he was the last time he took the mound, he’s still not quite all there.
But his start today was better, really, than anything we’ve received from any non-Washburn starter in the rotation this year. That’s a sad comment on how bad the 3-4-5 guys have been, but it also makes it entirely understandable why the team’s better off having a shaky Felix up and working out his issues here than they are with Weaver taking his turns and waiting.
Just another reason why Bavasi’s additions of HoRam, Weaver, and Batista look absolutely ludicrous right now. Sure, Felix looks okay right now. But imagine what COULD HAVE happened if it turned out that Felix had gotten back on the mound just a little bit too soon. I don’t believe we need to be reminded too much about what happened to Francisco “That’s A Fun Name To Say” Liriano last year.
Of course, Baker’s point wasn’t about Felix getting to the mound healthy but being ready to face big league hitters. But nonetheless, a rehab start/another week’s rest would’ve made it so that Felix never would’ve been on that pitch count this week against Anaheim and the Mariners would never had to have worried about his health.
But alas, Bavasi’s additions which have put the rotation in deep (fill in the blank here) made it so that we had to have Raw Felix rather than 100% Healthy Felix on the mound and also having to have the bullpen work a lot more than they should.
Boy oh boy, don’t you love Howard Lincoln’s “hot seat”?
I don’t believe we need to be reminded too much about what happened to Francisco “That’s A Fun Name To Say†Liriano last year.
For the millionth time, Completely. Different. Situation.
And thanks to this post, I have “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse stuck in my head. Which isn’t a bad thing, but now I have images of Bavasi singing:
They tried to sent him on rehab
I said no, no, no
Speaking of which, can we have another post about cool music sometime? I really have no way right now to be turned on to good new stuff.
But nonetheless, a rehab start/another week’s rest would’ve made it so that Felix never would’ve been on that pitch count this week against Anaheim and the Mariners would never had to have worried about his health.
What? There’s no way that that would have been true.
#5: Well, they would have been more secure about it.
The continuing embarassment of the Bavisi 3,4,& 5 starters is in sharp contrast to how Minnesota dealt with a somewhat similar situation. They were looking for a 5th starter, and a possible diamond in the rough when they signed Sidney Ponson for about a million.
When Ponson proved to be completely ineffective….they dumped his ass. Of course with Weaver there are seven million more reasons to keep him around, and seven million more reasons why Bavisi should be fired.
#4 Listen to KEXP during the day online. That’s the best way, in my opinion.
Dude, after what we’ve been through this season already, don’t write a post entitled “Felix and rehab”. Please! I nearly had kittens.
#9: I laugh when I hear that we’ve been through a lot this season when you consider that we are only a game under .500. Yet if you think about it, we really have been through a lot more than most teams have been through in the first 1.5 months of a season.
well, there is a beauty 24th anniversary special about Bob & Doug McKenzie on CBUT right now. ummm, a 2-4.
“Speaking of which, can we have another post about cool music sometime? I really have no way right now to be turned on to good new stuff.”
Join our last.fm group, http://www.last.fm/group/U.S.S.+Mariner to cyberstalk all our listening patterns.
….and by “all” I mean the 9 of us in the group.
Felix and Rehab? He hanging out with Weaver again?
Speaking of Weaver, where is he right now? Bullpen?
I thought he would have been DFA’d by now…. but alas now such luck.
…….sometimes you can’t polish a turd.
FWIW, you’re setting up a little bit of a false choice. It’s not between gimpy Felix & Weaver, it’s between gimpy Felix & whoever the M’s start (whether it be Weaver or other AAA cannon fodder).
I don’t necessarily disagree with the premise, but Weaver is going to elicit a different response than (insert AAA name here).
Urgh. Okay, then who? Sean White? One of the Tacoma guys getting shelled? It was going to be Weaver.
I only brought it up because ‘Weaver’ is kind of a loaded term at this point, in as much as we already know that he’s going to get shelled, right?
Hypothetical AAA starter (it doesn’t really matter who) offers the possibillity (low but at this point probably > than Weaver) that he’ll get lucky, fool a couple of teams & give the M’s a chance to win.
Have you seen the Tacoma rotation? They’ve looked pretty horrible all year, even when they’ve won. They’re not an upgrade.
how about O’Flaherty/Feierabend? We’re talking about 1 or 2 starts. I’d think you would expect at least a little upgrade over Weaver while giving Felix a chance to regain strength in a lower-stress environment.
I’m just saying that offering up Weaver to the fanbase again is equivalent to offering them a knee to the groin. If that was untenable then there was more than just 1 other option.