Updated May 20, 2009 - 8:54 pm

Oh Felix

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From a much needed two days off in a row, the first days off in the month of May in Seattle for me! This is the tough part of the job...

So I was at the game last night but spent most of it wrangling my 2 year-old nephew so I couldn't pay too much attention. I did see enough however to be alarmed.

Hello, Felix, are you in there? Where was the guy who told me five days ago that he was a pitcher and not a thrower? Sixteen fastballs to start out, nine to Abreu? At some point of that at bat, oh I don't know, let's be generous here, maybe pitch number four, do you start thinking about throwing a breaking ball?

In listening to Wak post game in the car on the way home I was surprised to hear him call Felix out. That is something we haven't heard often. Calculated no doubt because that is a tricky thing for a manager to do. The timing makes sense, much like that of the recent comments about Betancourt. The first month and a half he has gotten to know his club, gain their trust and really, give them every benefit of the doubt. I have no doubt from everything I have heard, Wak is a great communicator with these guys. Up until very recently, it has been hard to get him to say anything anywhere close to negative about individuals. Well it now looks like guys are running out of rope. They have had enough time to get it, they have been protected by their manager at times and now it is time they as Wak said last night "show up."

Felix I read, was somewhat taken aback by the comments. I know there have been talks with him in recent weeks about stepping up so this was not a blindside by Wak. Felix said he thought he pitched well last night and that Anaheim has great baserunners, they are going to steal bases.

I know this is something the coaches did not want to hear. They do not want their ace tipping his cap to anyone.

Felix could cruise on talent for a long time, teasing us with games like the game in Texas, or Opening Day or the game in Boston two years ago. It's not enough. His stuff is too good to settle for just occasional brilliance.

Two things have disturbed me of late. First, I am not seeing or hearing what I used to from the other side about the prospect of facing Felix. It's not, "We have to win tonight because Felix is pitching tomorrow." Sure he can be lights out on some nights but the lack of consistency plus the fact that he really doesn't throw inside very much I think has taken away an intimidation factor he once had.

The second thing that has disturbed me of late is that Felix flat out does not appear to be as engaged on the field as he has in the past. This may partly be that he is trying to corral his emotions out there. The problem is, if he is doing this, he not doing it consistently. Last night when he finally got out of the first inning he tossed the ball in the air near first base then emphatically stabbed at it to catch it. This raised some eyebrows. He did something similar after a similar inning in Minnesota.

It comes down to maturity according pitching coach Rick Adair.

"The stuff is there but the maturity level last night was obviously with the running game, what causes that? You go through the process and it is knowledge and understanding and being willing to commit to that and Felix has done a good job this year, is there more in there? Yeah there is."

And they will work on it. If you were wondering about the 16 straight fastballs he threw to start the game, I asked Johjima about why he wanted to do that and he told me to go ask the pitcher. He tried to get him to throw the breaking ball but Felix was insisting on the fastball. Adair said that will be addressed.

So some work to be done with Felix. As for the rest of the team...I will have a new post early in the game, lots of catching up to do, and how about that lineup! Beltre hitting second. Finally!

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• Chris from Bothell wrote...

  What are the chances of benching Felix?

  Perhaps when RRS is healthy, if Felix has another couple starts like this, skip him.

  May 20, 2009 6:34 pm

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• MrGenre wrote...

  Maturity factor

  It's tough to expect maturity of an ace who never actually had to win his spot in the rotation. He's continually been given a spot because of a lack of talent elsewhere in the five, not because he worked his way up to it.

  That's not going to be an easy thing to teach this late in the game...

  May 20, 2009 6:48 pm

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• North of the Border wrote...

  Benching Felix

  While there maybe a temptation to bench Felix, it is not an option even when RRS returns. The only way Felix is going to get through this type of behaviour is to work with the pitching coach and have a sit down with Wak. Until he gets his game back to where it was when he first arrived, teams are not going to be afraid of him. Wak needs to get him back to that frame of mind.

  May 20, 2009 6:55 pm

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• hiskeyd wrote...

  You are exactly right (as usual ;-)

  Felix was successful in Texas because (we thought) he realized that lefties hit his fastball VERY well and consistently. Lefties on the other hand can't hit his changeup worth anything or so the stats show (see ussmariner for a detailed analysis of this fact).

  I really thought Felix had turned a corner here and was actually going to start taking that "pitching" approach every time out. This is essential given that it appears the rest of the league has basically figured out his great stuff in terms of knowing enough of what he's going to be throwing (70-80% fastballs) and thus getting to ignore everything else he throws.

  He still gets righties out pretty well with this approach, but lefties are killing him and with a lineup like the Angels with so many switch hitters to go with their lefties it's a recipe for having a short outing and giving up a lot of runs as happened.

  To see Felix go out there and pitch (and know he pitched and didn't throw and apparently why he was successful) and then the next outing go back out there and decide he should just "throw" again is very discouraging. He's still young, but he's had enough experience at this point where he should be smarter than that. And from everything I've heard he is a smart guy. So this is a head scratcher. If it's just a case where he doesn't trust his breaking pitches anymore for some reason, then it will just be a matter of printing off stat sheets showing him that when he throws mostly fastballs, lefties tattoo him and righties can hit him a little. When he mixes his pitches, particularly that changeup to lefties, nobody hits him really at all. Perhaps that would restore his trust in those pitches if that's the problem.

  May 20, 2009 7:50 pm

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