Felix Hernandez: 7 Years/175 Million?
Pardon me for interrupting with an Non SF Giants/American League post, but the Mariners are straight stupid. This one might actually be dumber than the 8 year/184 million $ deal that Mauer scored. At least you could reasonably be able to count on Mauer playing first base or DH in the last 4 or 5 years of that deal…..
King Felix is a stud, there’s no denying it. He won a Cy Young in 2010 after winning only 13 games but had underlying CY numbers that killed it. It was the first time ever that voters literally tossed wins out of the equation. His CY was almost seen as an equal victory for the field of sabermetrics…..
He was fantastic last year too, tossing 232 innings and striking out 223. He threw a perfect game. He’s the definition of a *horse*.
But Seattle isn’t in a position of making a bunch of financial mistakes. They aren’t the Angels or the Dodgers, two teams who could care less about a contract performing as they can just re-load and fire away on another expensive FA player if the first one gets hurt or sucks.
Seattle is all-in with this mega deal. And they’re all in on a freaking pitcher. A 27 year old guy who just finished his 8th season with the team—1,620.1 innings are logged on to that right arm. And while his underlying numbers are still mostly holding themselves together at an elite level there is this little diddy to consider:
His average fastball for the last five years:
2007: 95.6 mph
2008: 94.6 mph
2009: 94.0 mph
2010: 94.1 mph
2011: 93.3 mph
2012: 92.1 mph….
Giants fans cringe at numbers like these as they’ve had to painfully watching Timmy’s descend into a similar black hole. Dodger fans get to watch Josh Beckett’s slowing fastball next year, too…….
King Felix is a stud, he may be big and strong enough to never get hurt. He may ultimately re-invent himself and become a knuckleballer or a pin-point soft tosser once the fastball hits Zito levels. But I’m being honest here, I don’t think I can name another pitcher on the Mariners roster right now except *Charlie Furbush* and that’s only because I think he has a funny name.
The Mariners just shot their entire (money) wad all over a guy who is literally their only current relevant pitcher. And we all know how teams do who sport nothing after their single good starting pitcher. As the years tick off and Hernandez’ fastball continues to dip along with his success, how stoked are they gonna be to be paying him 25 million dollars a year to pitch for their last place team?
I admit to being a sick ambulance chaser when it comes to these gynormous deals. Almost all of them fail (CC’s has held up) and I have total confidence in Brian Sabean that he will never sign another free agent pitcher to a dumb Zito/Rowand deal ever again. Sit back and watch the carnage unfold, Giants fans. Another team just bit the dust today……..
I’m thinking the M’s might want to consider moving those fences back next year, maybe even adding 70-80 feet. They’re gonna need ’em to keep their opposition under 10 runs each game in the coming years………
Next your going to tell me Charlie is known as Taco around the clubhouse.
Thanks to all you guys for the nice welcome back. The Felix deal is a lot like the Sabathia deal of 2009.
Willie: I was happy about Curley Culp and Otis Taylor is very deserving. Just ask Earsell Mackbee. Those Chief teams were so talented and entertaining. The bowling pin huddle – the mini-backs – all the shifting around – that’s what hooked me as a kid. I remember reading years later that the KC defense was giggling at Viking game films leading up to SB IV.
And they had one of the early soccer-style kickers in Jan Stenerud. I loved those teams as a kid. Growing up in Northeastern Oklahoma, the closest teams were the St. Louis (football) Cards, Cowgirls, and the Chiefs. I really dug the AFL back in the day, and since the Chiefs were one of the regional teams (on the tube) I always followed them. Great team…Dawson, Lanier, Buchanan, Garrett, and Hank Stram as coach. I remember the AFL title game that year…after losing to the Raiders in the final game of the season, they beat them to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.
Thumbs down on this deal. BOO HISS!
I understand and basically agree with what Craig is saying, but I’m having a hard time caring about what the Mariners do. Maybe he deserves twice as much just for being the only reason anybody in the world even knows that they have a team in Seattle, since Suzuki left…
The best thing I can think of about that contract, Timmy can mark off Seattle for a big payday, if that’s where he wanted to end up any time soon.
Well, I agree to a point but Timmy basically screwed himself out of that Giant deal last year.
If he completely bounces back, he prices himself out of 92% of the teams (including the Giants).
If he has another year like last year, he could sign with the Mariners🙂
You know, they could do what they did with him in the playoffs in 2013. It wouldn’t really fit the situation of bailing out a tired pitcher. But why not do a modified version of what Colorado is trying to do with their shitty staff/gay piggy back thing?
After 5 or 6 from Voggy or Zito, just bring Timmy in to dominate for 2 innings. It would cause us the added problem of losing a starter. But shit, pretty much anyone coulda filled in better than what TL did as a starter last year.
Give him another shot this Spring, absolutely, but if he falls back into the same shit as last year, don’t think for a second Bochy won’t dip back into his brilliant bag of tricks and turn Timmy back into a “super piggy back” pitcher
Unless Tim is actually hurt, I have a feeling he’s going to come back with Cy like numbers next year. I do agree that the way he was used in the POs was a stroke of genius and it seemed to spark Tim up as well. Hell, if he was used that way it would be possible to see a new Closer hybrid emerge, one that enters the game in the Sixth or Seventh inning and shuts the fucking door.
I don’t think he was ever hurt. I think his dominant fastball slowly left him and finally freaked him out last year. He’s a dominant athletic stud who probably not had to learn much about pitching because of it. He probably didn’t care too much either, he was too busy dominating.
But his cage was rattled last year and a big drop in velocity is not good for your future. His drop didn’t look like a hidden injury, it looked like a guy with a ton of innings on his arm who isn’t a 22 year old fireballer anymore.
We all age at different rates….
I would be very surprised if Timmy is not kicking himself in the ass for not taking the long-term deal when the Giants were presenting one. What…I believe the Giants were offering something like 5 at 100? So fucking glad that deal didn’t go down, and they instead threw that coin at Cainer.
John – I am leaning same way as you…I can definitely see Timmy coming back this year with Cy-type numbers. I just find it hard to believe with him being such a competitor, and having his dad to help fine-tune things, that he doesn’t come back with a vengeance. It will be interesting. I cannot wait for ST…hope my daughter and I get to see him throw while we are in Scottsdale.
Twin, I don’t give a single shit about what the Mariners do. Like I said, it’s me just ambulance chasing, I don’t have a problem in the world celebrating the dumbass decisions of other teams. It’s one less team we have to beat out for another world series…….
flavor – just caught up on the posts from the last thread, you had me at “flapalooza”.
we score, we win. we play at the stick, we go.
case closed.
A Flapalooza at the Stick with the Crazy Crab and your 2012 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants, ya just gotta love it! I might even fly out for that!
Yeah, I thought that was a great idea….said I would throw some coin at a block of seats. Someone get on the horn to Baer and tell him to make this shit happen for the Flappers!
I still have my “Tell it Goodbye” pin from the last Giant game at The Stick, and probably have the t-shirt buried away somewhere, too. Flapalooza at the Stick would for the true farewell of that old yard would truly kick ass!
Charlie Furbush – how much ribbing did this guy take growing up??? Walking to school another kids yells “Hey Charlie – how’s your momma’s Furbush holding up?”
Yeah, I could not believe it when I saw the announcement on this contract last night. It would be one thing if it was the Yankmees or Bums, but the Ms…yeah, good luck with this one Seattle.