.

This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale.

.........

Dr. D is sleep-deprived enough that he almost favored you with Algernon posts.  Count yourselves fortunate, and ignore the drunken monkey text fu.

For those who have missed out on the Yug-i-Oh trading card game -- such as, um, me -- each card is printed with stock attribute stats.  You get a title, a level, an ATK number, a DEF number, a monster type, etc.

There is one standard aspect of each card that carries no meaning within a game:  the "Flavor Text."  On Felix Hernandez' Yug-i-Oh card, the "powerful engine of destruction" text is modified with "Hall of Fame" rather than "Legendary."  His stats, as such, are interchangeable with Blue Eyes White Dragon.

We don't have a lot of substance to offer on Felix.  You might have heard that he's good.  Would you settle for flavor text?

.........

Felix was up only 2-0 when the A's got their flimsy little "rally" going in the 6th.  

Seth Smith singled to lead off.  At my age, few things in life can still make me feel sick to my stomach, but this is one of them:  late, skinny Mariners lead, and the enemy gets the LEADOFF runner on base.  Leadoff, y'know what I'm saying?  How many bad things can happen in the next four minutes?  I don't mean the question figuratively.  I mean it literally.  However many there are, they flash before my eyes, flick-flick-flick.

Second hitter, forget who, lines into one of the two or three solid outs the A's had all night.  Count them up.  Throughout the evening, the A's would bop into a routine out.  And then they would putter into a commonplace, humdrum out.  The out after that would be unremarkable.  Following would be a garden-variety out.  Some of the outs were run-of-the-mill; others were prosaic; a few were unexceptional.  

This particular out was squared up.  Felix threw 109 pitches and I believe that 3 were squared up.

Next hitter, 1 on, 1 out, Coco Crisp went to 3-0.  I'm sitting there thinking, wow, any Mariner pitcher in history other than Felix or Randy Johnson, and we are 'dogs from this spot right here.

Felix 3-0 behind, one on, a sudden calm settled.  It occurred that Felix could throw any of five different pitches right down the middle, and Crisp would do zero with any of them.

Felix threw three pitches right down the middle and struck Crisp out.

Maybe SABRMatt wants to check Felix' trends on 3-1 and 3-0.  It says here that Felix is about to become one of yer all-time great 3-1 pitchers.  

The sum of the parts on Felix' game should create a very effective 2-0 and 3-1 pitcher.  What advantage does the hitter really have on him there?  Other pitchers suffer because the batters can eliminate certain options on 2-0 and 3-1.  Felix doesn't.

Felix' game is not quite like that of any other pitcher I've seen.  Some of the Cubans have been closest.  He's got such a weird approach to pitching that there should be some aspect of it that is uniquely favorable to him.  Would it be his ability to come back from hitters' counts?

Just noodlin'.  Like we sez.  Flavor text, man.

..................

F/x had Felix for 62 change ups.  HEH!  No, he didn't really..  More later.

.............

You get the disquieting idea, sneaking up on you as when you juuuust begin to suspect that the guy behind you is following, that Felix is improving.

Why?  Because he seems to gain a more and more hair-fine sense of danger.  As human beings have a demonstrable ability to sense when others are staring at them (google:  Rupert Sheldrake), Felix is developing an almost supernatural sense for the velocity and location -- on any given pitch -- at which a batter can square him up.

Other pitchers gain experience, too, but other pitchers are on glide paths down, in terms of their physical skills.  Felix is suffering from ZERO functional* deterioration in physical skills.

SSI has long considered that Felix has spent his career underperforming.  Perhaps he is now ready to cease and desist.  A series of 170, 180 ERA+ seasons may be imminent.

His ERA stands at 0 currently.  Batters, your move.

BABVA,

Dr D

*It turns out that his drop in velocity is not relevant.