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Mojician sez,

mojician: Totally satisfying win today. Near perfect game, three runs, 10 hits, series win. Season lead. This was the sort of Cleveland trashing we've been hoping for all these years. Kudos to Rick for calling it and more Kudos to Felix for doing it.

For me, the satisfying part is that it was no accident.  

The degree of difficulty was high, the result was completely just (10 hits to 1), the Indians were never better, and there was an aesthetic impression.

....

The thought occurred, as Felix "handed the ball to the closer" (big smile), that in the top half of the inning the Indians were playing the AL All-Stars.  Rodney being a quite worthy choice for the ASG.

And then the thought occurred, the 3 runs in the bottom half were also because of AL All-Stars:  Cano's two-run jack decided a game under high tension, and the 3rd run was due to Kyle Seager singling Cano from first to third.  (Seager has achieved considerably more than usual ASG standards.)

Literally speaking, Cano and Seager are 22% of the top half of the inning, but the game impact was higher.  So the Indians were facing 72% to 85% the AL All-Stars.  The point being:  that Seattle team today could have, and probably would have, beaten the 1927 Yankees.  The Mariners overpowered the Indians like the Seahawks overpowering Carolina.

Satisfying?  Yeah.

.........

Dr. D was always far less enthused about Felix than you guys.  Probably it was Randy Johnson hangover.  For me the Big Unit was much more fun to watch.  Which ... you could argue that Unit was the most amazing pitcher who ever lived, so ...

But in 2014, Felix has won me over.  I'm finally getting emotionally invested in him.

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Felix' Improvement

It's a strange sight, to watch a player like Michael Jordan or Randy Johnson or Tom Brady take ownership of a sport and then --- > get better.  From the pinnacle, WHY would you get better?   Felix' 2014 is the diametric opposite of a salary drive season, neh?

It's one thing to have a good season, statistically.  It's another thing to actually get better.  The 2014 Felix has achieved this.  (You're not forgetting that his 2014 stats are ruined by his 4-game flu, right?)

Bob Costas had a great line:  Michael Jordan is what you get when you combine "a supreme talent" with "an overachiever."

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For one thing, his command is even more hair-fine.  Supposing he's behind in a count, he can paint a fastball at will, like Jered Weaver in his prime.  Except at (effectively) 93-95 MPH rather than 89 MPH.  He does it at will.  Felix' command may be superior now to Iwakuma's.  Or Jamie Moyer's.

Wery, very seldom you see any pitcher throw the overhand curve so consistently to break sharply, down exactly to the knees.  (Mussina, Lackey in their primes.)  But the curve is an afterthought for Felix, like saying LeBron's low-post game is one of the best in the league but he doesn't bother.

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For another thing, you have that odd contrast between Felix' MMA look and his Maddux-, Moyer-like intelligence.  As Krueger pointed out Sunday, Felix sensed the Indians "wanted" his changeup and so Felix locked them up with 93 MPH called strike threes.  Like we sez, Felix is a strange sight.  You just don't see a long series of taken fastballs for strikes.

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What usually happens, is that a Roger Clemens or Tom Seaver or Taijuan or K-Pax comes up and uses massive "stuff" to dominate.  A guy like K-Pax, he uses physical superiority to blow away enemies.  

Then, by the time he's 30, he has lost the edge on his stuff, and he's no longer physically dominant.  But he is a virtuoso of his craft.  That was the way when Clemens went to Toronto and won two Cy Youngs.  It was the way with David Price, to a lesser extent.  Paxton's ideal career arc would take a similar shape to Price's. 

Felix has achieved an odd intersection of the two things:  mental peak and physical peak.

How long do you think Felix will retain the bite to his physical performance, while his mental performance continues to improve?  Do you imagine that in the year 2019, his changeup will still do an Allen Wrench and his fastball will still be 90-93 MPH?

Felix' career trajectory took off like Clemens' and Seaver's, but the arc is apparently not going to flatten at the time theirs did.  In 2013-14, the Felix rocket dropped off a stage booster and fired again, to blast off towards outer space.

Enjoy,

Dr D