Frustrated? Yes
After yesterday’s meltdown on the mound, a lot of people expressed frustration with Felix, and rightfully so. He got mad that he didn’t get a pitch that he hadn’t been getting the entire game, and at best, he might get 30% of the time. In that instance, he was asking for the umpire to help him out, rather than just doing the job himself, and when he didn’t get that help, he caved, throwing a pair of bad pitches that essentially ended the game.
It was frustrating to watch. It’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t happen – not in a playoff race, not with our best pitcher on the mound.
But, reading through some people’s reactions, with comparisons to Freddy Garcia and predictions of a guy who will never live up to his hype, I realized that there’s still a need for some understanding of what Felix’s immaturity actually means for his development. So, the following is a list of performances by the 10 best pitchers in baseball today, as determined by me, during their age 21 seasons:
Johan Santana, Minnesota – 86 IP, 6.49 ERA 102 H, 54 BB, 64 K, 11 HR
Brandon Webb, U. Of Kentucky – 112 IP, 4.58 ERA, 123 H, 41 BB, 123 K, 14 HR
Roy Halladay, Syracuse (AAA) – 116 IP, 3.79 ERA, 107 H, 53 BB, 71 K, 11 HR
Jake Peavy, San Diego – 98 IP, 4.52 ERA, 106 H, 33 BB, 90 K, 11 HR
Ben Sheets, Stockton (A+) – 28 IP, 3.58 ERA, 23 HH, 14 BB, 28 K, 1 HR
Erik Bedard, Delmarva (A-) – 111 IP, 3.57 ERA, 98 H, 35 BB, 131 K, 2 HR
CC Sabathia, Cleveland – 180 IP, 4.39 ERA, 149 H, 95 BB, 171 K, 19 HR
Josh Beckett, Portland (AA) – 74 IP, 1.82 ERA, 50 H, 19 BB, 102 K, 8 HR
John Lackey, Lake Elsinore (A+) – 101 IP, 3.40 ERA, 94 H, 42 BB, 74 K, 9 HR
John Smoltz, Atlanta – 64 IP, 5.48 ERA, 74 H, 33 BB, 37 K, 10 HR
Now, I ask you, 24 hours after getting frustrated with Felix again, which of those players showed major league poise and composure at age 21? Only Santana, Peavy, Sabathia, and Smoltz were in the majors, and none of them were matching Felix’s success – Santana and Smoltz were downright terrible. Brandon Webb was struggling to get college hitters out, Roy Halladay was posting pedestrian numbers in Triple-A, and Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard, and John Lackey were all still in various stages of A-ball. Only Josh Beckett was having anything close to a great year, and he was doing it across three levels of the minor leagues. He did make four impressive end of the season starts… and then watched his ERA balloon up to 4.02 in the majors during his age 22 season.
Felix is ahead of every single one of these guys. All of them. At age 23, where Felix will be in two years, Roy Halladay posted the worst ERA in major league history for any pitcher who was allowed to throw more than 50 innings in a season – 10.67. He was so horrible that the Blue Jays sent him back to A-ball, had him start all over, and forced him to earn his way back to the major leagues. You think Felix is never going to get it because of his start yesterday – what on earth would you have thought of Roy Halladay in 2000?
Is Felix pitching as well as we all want him to? No, obviously not. Is he pitching as well as he’s capable of? No. Is it frustrating to watch? Of course.
But keep in mind that you’d have been frustrated watching any of the ten best pitchers in baseball at age 21, too. After a mass exodus from the Felix bandwagon yesterday, there’s plenty of leg room now. I suggest getting back on board and enjoying the ride, because Felix is still going to be a great, great pitcher – we may have assumed that he’d get there faster than he has, but that’s our fault, not his.
146 Thanks for the explanation, but it would have been better hearing it from Dave. Although I don’t ever recall Dave using that as an excuse, but I’m sure if he did, he probably had LOGICAL argument to back it up. I however have heard other people in here using that as excuse on more than one occasion. I’ll go back to conforming now Dave, every now and then I get out of line.
To those of you completely overreacting: do you guys freak out this much when one of your stocks or mutual funds has an off day?
For them, it’s more like “COME ON!!! The e-mail SWORE that SGN was going to hit $5 by the end of the week! It was SURE to rocket! That’s why I bought 10,000 shares at only 90 cents apiece!”
Although I don’t ever recall Dave using that as an excuse, but I’m sure if he did, he probably had LOGICAL argument to back it up.
I believe it initially came up with this game, where the Angels had three of the weirdest infield singles you’ll ever see.
Dayve is saying what I’ve been saying: the M’s aren’t doing Felix any favors by forcing him to learn at this level. He’d be much better off out of the spotlight in the minors. (I note most of the pitchers on the list in the original post were in the minors at this age.) The other issue, that I’m not seeing addressed, is his poor mechanics. It would be truly horrible if Felix blows out his shoulder at a young age and never gets to have a career at all. That’s the other reason I think he should be in the minors; he could work with the coaches on improving his mechanics (and his pitch selection, and emotion management).
Actually, I think the exact opposite. He’s not going to learn any technique or strategy if he always has the option of rarin’ back and blowing them away with sheer talent. And that means he’s going to be learning it in the majors, because he CAN’T learn it in the minors, spotlight or no.
Like it or not, Felix is a major league pitcher. His days as a prospect are long gone.
I’m not sure how this is even an issue at this point.
Wait… people really want to send Felix to the minors? For reals?
Dayve is saying what I’ve been saying: the M’s aren’t doing Felix any favors by forcing him to learn at this level. He’d be much better off out of the spotlight in the minors.
For the millionth time, no. Honestly. It’s like telling a child prodigy that he has to stay in school until he’s 18 before you’ll let him go near a college campus. Eventually, he’ll run out of things to do in high school.
The other issue, that I’m not seeing addressed, is his poor mechanics. It would be truly horrible if Felix blows out his shoulder at a young age and never gets to have a career at all.
You mean like Tim Lincecum’s poor mechanics, with all those hitches? And yet, no one will suggest that he’s a disaster waiting to happen.
You just don’t know with pitching mechanics. Some kids with perfect mechanics at 18 end up with frayed labrums at 21. Some kids with gawd-awful mechanics end up with major league pensions.
Leaving Felix in the minors to “fix his mechanics” is silly when they can be fixed at the major league level, and if he blows out his arm in Tacoma you still don’t have him in Seattle. Leaving Felix in the minors because “he has more to learn” is dumb because the minors has nothing left to teach him that can’t be taught at the major league level.
And one more thing: You send him to Tacoma until September, you’re effectively conceding the season. Without Felix, you’re hoping that Baek can come back better than before or that Feierabend can suddenly become a consistent major league pitcher.
Sending Felix to languish in Tacoma is far, far dumber than leaving Adam Jones to languish down there.
Just stop the meme.
Re 148:
To those of you completely overreacting: do you guys freak out this much when one of your stocks or mutual funds has an off day?
Define… off… day… because… maybe… yes… just… possibly… maybe…
All pitchers, min 400 batters faced, through age 21, since 1957, sorted by OPS+:
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/3V29
Felix is 54th out of 182 pitchers
However, I prefer this list (since 1901), sorted by K/BB ratio:
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/hMTD
Felix is 8th behind: Clemens, Sutton, Prior, Gooden, Blyleven, Saberhagen, Vida Blue.