M's a WINNING BALLCLUB! M's a WINNING BALLCLUB!
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Ah! So Felix had merely been sick. As in, he had the flu for three weeks. That would:
- Explain the way the sweat has been trickling off his chin like Patrick Ewing's, and why he was squinting like he'd Waked and Baked to the game
- Be aptly characterized as a "Best Case Scenario"
- Have nothing whatever to do with his shoulder, arm, his kick saves, or his mechanics ...
- ... and turn out as one more edition of Tomorrow's News Today, babe
- Put "PAID" to the suggestion that Hisashi Iwakuma is better than he is
- Leave Astros hitters described as "pleasantly Mr. Bean-y"
- Set up an extended series of "rigged" Mariner games every 5th day
- #8warhashtag
- Contain an interesting silver lining
It's funny: when Felix felt lousy, he didn't have his changeup. Now that he was finally back tonight, his yakker looked like it was a lot sharper.
Pedro has an interview up on Fangraphs. He says tersely, "when I had all three of my pitches working, it was a shutout." You realize the overhand curve is the only pitch he has that is slower than his other pitches; they can cheat on everything else.
Granted, when they cheat and it's a changeup, they're swinging as the ball hits the plate...
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Get the Yoo-Hoo Going
Looking around the sportswriters and the access blogs ... the Mariners' front office thinks they can make a run this year.
The clubhouse is yukking it up (which shows a looming authentic confidence).
The problems against LHP's have been fixed: Cano is good, Mike Zunino is dangerous vs LHP's, and all the M's lefty kids (Saunders, Smoak, Ackley) are hanging tough now. That is a much less TRANSIENT consideration than Brad Miller's or Abraham Almonte's batting averages.
Mojo's "epic rotation" could be imminent. The M's have perhaps the best 1-2 aces in the game ... they have a dream #4-5 starter (Elias) who strikes out 8 per game and who battles hard on bad days ... and we got the two Pinedas in dry dock.
As a matter of principle, I've always backed James Paxton as a more valuable commodity than Taijuan Walker. But will cheerfully admit Walker, and his gigantic hands, and his easy velo, and his learning curve, is going to outpitch him IF he ever gets on the mound for any length of time.
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Looks like only three powerful teams in the AL this year, those being Anaheim, Detroit and Oakland. The M's are -0.5 out of the Wild Card; think what an 8-of-10 streak would do for that?