Game 7, Angels at Mariners
King Felix vs. Chris Stratton, 7:10pm
I don’t know how many more times I’ll get to say it, so to all of you, a very happy Felix day. The M’s rotation has settled in as probably the lowest-velo group in the game, just as they did last year. When Marco Gonzales was acquired, there was a lot of talk about his improved velocity, but that’s all gone now. Mike Leake’s throwing softer, too. Wade LeBlanc never really threw hard to begin with. It hasn’t hurt them per se, Leake is pretty much always Leake, and Marco broke out last year despite that troubling drop.
Felix, though, simply couldn’t adapt to life at 90-91. It’s too bad, because the great high point of his career came AFTER a huge drop in velo, when he slid from 97 to 94-ish. The further drop reduced his margin for error and sapped the effectiveness of his change (though it’s really his FB that’s been tattooed the past few years). The M’s have tried working with him on pitch mix, on different fastballs, and maybe developing a cutter. That’s been…not terribly successful, and as much as I love him, Felix probably shares a modicum of blame there. But the bigger thing that I’m not sure has been tried is just reversing the velo drop. That would’ve sounded like alchemy a few years ago, but it is very much a commmonplace practice now. Brandon McCarthy reversed his regular old age-related velo declines and gained several MPH later in his career. Charlie Morton, too. This isn’t crazy, and it’s possible it’d be more in line with how Felix wants to compete, and to be fair, maybe they’ve tried. But on a staff where velo drops are common and the team seems to put less value on pure miles-per-hour than others, I’m not sure it’s going to happen. Prove me wrong, M’s!
Chris Stratton has been a member of the Angels for roughly 10 days, having come over from the Giants late in spring training after losing his rotation spot. He was traded for a fairly fungible middle-inning reliever, which says a lot about how back-end starters with MLB experience are valued right now. Stratton throws 91 or so with a straight four-seamer, but he’s attracted some attention due to a freakishly high spin-rate curve ball, his best pitch. It’s generally been effective, or at least MORE effective than his other offerings, but that was a low bar in 2018. He wasn’t bad in 2017, so it’s a great pick-up by Anaheim who saw SF with a roster crunch and offered to help them out by sending a pitcher who had MiLB options remaining. A young-ish no-name reliever with options swapped for a #5 starter… that about sums up 2019 baseball, right?
1: Smith, CF
2: Haniger, RF
3: Santana, LF
4: Bruce, 1B
5: Encarnacion, DH
6: Narvaez, C
7: Beckham, SS
8: Healy, 3B
9: Gordon, 2B
SP: El Cartelua
Never heard of this California Angels pitcher Stratton.
Felix needs to be an opener. He simply cannot be trusted to go more than once through any lineup.
How often does a team make 4 errors and win? Best pitched game of the season 1ER with #5 starter.
7 games in
85% thrilled
This team is reminiscent of the mid-90s Kingdome teams…..no pitching and just bludgeon the other team to death. Lots of 11-9 games in our future if this keeps up!
Beckham’s .333/.500/.667 slash line lowered his season averages…..