“Mr. Chaves, please have your uber-phenom change speeds and keep the hitters off balance.”

The no-hitters were fun to see, but that’s only seven games out of a thousand.

If you’re not impressed by seven no-hitters, how about twelve one-hitters and eighteen two-hitters?

he was a just-above-mediocre pitcher for most of his career

Nolan Ryan is one of those players that people love to underrate, because he’s perceived as overrated. He was a very good pitcher for a long time. His career ERA+ is 112. His walk rate was much lower in the second half of his career than in the first half. Even in his most walktastic years, he was excellent: from 1972 to 1974, for example, his ERA was under 3 each year and he won 19, 21 and 22 games for a bad team.

At his best, he was as devastating as a pitcher could be, but even on an average day he was hard to beat. He’s not one of the half dozen best starting pitchers ever, but I don’t see how he isn’t one of the twenty best. He was certainly much better than mediocre for “most of his career”.

But that’s longevity, not quality

You don’t get the longevity without quality.

I suppose if you had a pitcher with less talent having the same kind of command and pitch selection problems Felix is, you end up with…Jeff Weaver.

So another thing that’s been bugging me since last year is how Felix seems to be giving up an inordinately high number of hits per batted ball in play. As I understand, the average for BABIP is around .290 and a pitcher has little or no control over this–all he controls are strikeouts, GB/FB ratio, and walks.

So how come Felix is putting up GB/FB and K numbers other pitchers would kill to have, and a respectable BB rate, and yet he’s still getting shelled (84 H in 68.2 IP!)? By my calculations he’s sporting a .393 BABIP this season, and .315 last year. So what’s the answer here? Can Felix be the victim of simply bad luck? Or is the premise that a pitcher can’t control their BABIP not entirely true?

2) Age – He’s incredibly young and we hope that with age comes maturity and pitching knowledge

3) Stuff – He throws 2 plus pitches (fastball and curve), has the potential for three (if he ever gets his slider back or gets a good feel for the change up or starts throwing the sinker more often)

4) Did I mention he’s only 21 and deserves to be in the bigs at that age? Very few kids have the talent, presence & command to be legit #2 starters at that age.

And I’d hardly call his fastball meaty. He gets a lot of swing & misses on his fastball. It’s a good fastball. It’s got good movement and velocity. It’s just not his best pitch and he shouldn’t rely only on it in the early parts of the game.

Aren’t there plenty of crappy pitchers out there who throw meaty fastballs that they can’t command? What sets Felix apart from them? A nice curveball and change?