It is now time to fall in love with the King, Felix Hernandez

Recommendation: Earlier reports said Hernandez was in the best shape of his career, but losing 20 pounds makes that a bit more believable. He's at 226, four pounds below the Mariners' goal, after an offseason in which he changed his diet, eating more vegetables, and a daily exercise program.

Will Carroll: Peavy by far, on both counts.

I think Hernandez was so hyped last season that his performance is perceived as worse than it actually was. He was basically a league-average starter with pretty good peripherals (24 Stuff score, far above average). After some early-season issues with hit rate and home-run rate, both of those figures came down to expected ranges, and with them, his ERA. I see no reason why the projections from a season ago can’t be Hernandez’s baseline for '07. He’s the only pitcher other than Johan Santana I can see deserving the AL Cy Young Award.

oh man as if the local bloggers didn't have big enough heads already:

An excited-sounding Felix Hernandez credited some unusual scouting help for his return to dominance.

Hernandez was back to his old self Saturday, two-hitting the Oakland Athletics over eight innings of a 4-0 Mariners win that has pushed the division rivals to the brink of falling out of contention. In the clubhouse afterward, explaining the possible reasons for a revived mound form not seen since April, the 21-year-old threw out a tribute to a Web site run by Mariners fans.

On June 27, the "U.S.S. Mariner" site had published an open letter to Seattle pitching coach Rafael Chaves, imploring him to get Hernandez to throw fewer fastballs early on. Chaves was handed a printout of the Internet posting, which contained detailed analysis of Hernandez's pitch sequences, by someone in the stands and later showed it to the pitcher.

link to article pls.

weird how they switch over to AP for old game reports. well, this one has a mention of it:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mariners/2007/07/hernandez_keys_40_win.html

and the original post

http://ussmariner.com/2007/06/27/an-open-letter-to-rafael-chaves/

Bryan (Hyattsville): Thoughts on King Felix for this year?

Joe Sheehan: Love him. He's probably going to take a step forward in his command this season, lop off 20 walks or so. Throw in some regression in BABIP, and you've got a Cy Young contender.

I was kinda O_o that Yovani Gallardo (6 weeks older than King Felix) has a higher VORP projection for 2008.

Both have Jeremy Bonderman as #1 comparables.

THE KING!

WOW

His grand salami off Santana was the first homer ever by a Mariner pitcher.

OW

That sucks.

WITH HIS SECOND-INNING GRAND SLAM, SEATTLE'S FELIX HERNANDEZ BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN LEAGUE PITCHER TO HIT A GRAND SLAM SINCE CLEVELAND'S STEVE DUNNING ON MAY 11, 1971.

SEATTLE'S FELIX HERNANDEZ LEFT THE GAME IN THE FIFTH INNING DUE TO A LOWER LEFT LEG INJURY.

what an apocalyptically strange double twist that was.

http://www.bensakoguchi.com/pics/oc-sakoguchi-87-sadaharu-oh-henry-aaron-hank-baseball.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d08gfZpnDA4

hi dere

someone tipped me off about this and jsut said "are you still at work? tune in to sea-tb now"

caught the last inning

best birthday ever

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

god damn i love this man

Bryan Armen Graham‏@BryanAGraham

Two perfect games in the same ballpark in the same season for the first time in the 143-year history of Major League Baseball.

"I've been working so hard to throw one and there it is -- for you guys."

Dave Sims' scorecard, a thing of beauty:

http://twitter.com/TheDaveSimsShow/status/235908401199206400/photo/1/large

Off-the-wall theory from Posnanski about the proliferation of perfect games: that the "proliferation of sports and sports highlights on television" incentivizes/inspires people to do things like throw perfect games.

http://joeposnanski.blogspot.ca/2012/08/following-hornby.html#more

(Skip to part III.)

Felix vs. other young workhorses (2000 IP by age 28):

http://www.highheatstats.com/2014/06/king-felix-long-may-he-reign/#more-21847

Sutton/Blyleven/Roberts at the best-case end of the spectrum, the likes of Joe Coleman and Larry Dierker at the other.

He'll be pitching for a record next time: 14th consecutive start of 7+ innings and two or fewer runs. (Just tied Seaver.) Felix/Sale/Kershaw/Wainwright had a pretty decent weekend: 31 IP, 18 H, 6 BB, 32 K, 1 ER, 0.29 ERA.

He seems well on his way. 4.0 IP and no runs (and no hits, and no walks and jesus christ)