Game 105, Mariners at Rangers
Felix vs Feldman, 5:05.
Happy Felix Day!
If Felix can shut down the Rangers tonight, it will be his most impressive performance since last year’s one hitter in Fenway. This Texas line-up is just unbelievably scary, especially at home. Their team OPS while playing in Texas is .880. Their worst hitters at home hit like our best hitters on the road. And, even better, their offense is heavily left-handed, with serious home run power from that side. Felix’s biggest problem is still getting left-handed hitters out.
It’s 100 degrees in Texas tonight, by the way. So he’s facing a monster offense full of the type of hitters that he does worst against in an environment where the ball will be flying off the bat.
The degree of difficulty for this start is off the scales. In Felix We Trust, but tonight, I have slightly tempered expectations.
Comments
102 Responses to “Game 105, Mariners at Rangers”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
#62 wrote: jwgrandsalami, maybe it’s unfair to rag on Bucky, but I’m really ragging on his fans, who continued to insist that he was a star in the making, a good ol’ semi-local boy, but just wasn’t getting the chances, long after his brief shot in ‘04. Yes, it was a decent few weeks; but Bucky was never a prospect.
I hear what you’re saying, Steve, but it really doesn’t matter that Bucky wasn’t a prospect. If he’d stayed healthy he could have been useful for 2-3 years as a 25 HR, 80 RBI guy playing DH or 1B and making close to the minimum. This is a team that doesn’t know how to develop hitting prospects — the last position player they drafted that became a starter was Jose Cruz, Jr. — 11 years ago — and they traded him after two months in the bigs. Before that it was A-Rod… Not only does having a cheap productive player like that in the lineup allow you to spend $$$ on your other needs, it also keeps a stupid organization like the Mariners from paying a guaranteed $4 million to a “proven veteran” like Carl Everett…
And why does it matter if he was a “prospect” or not? Occasionally a guy like Cecil Fielder comes along, who washes out with one team (Toronto), goes to Japan for a year and comes back and has a very productive seven year stretch from 1990 – 1996 (averaging 37 HRs a year). These type of guys who can hit the ball out of the yard are popular for a good reason, unlike Willie Bloomquist. I’m just saying there’s a difference between the idiots that love Willie and the fans that Bucky had…
wonder if the Rangers will notice if Ichiro! hits no. 3000 tomorrow