One of my favorite things about MLB.TV is watching the home-park announcers.. Sometimes you get the guys for the White Sox - ugh. But sometimes, you get insights into how other teams feel about your guys.
For instance, they love Ackley. Carp they're not sold on, but Ackley is already a monster vet in their estimation, and can do no wrong at the plate. Listening to them talk about keeping it out of his pull-power wheelhouse, and then pause and say, "although it's not like he won't hit hard liners the other way" you can see them acknowledging that if he gets out it's more because he made a mistake than because you outsmarted or out-gunned him. Ackley is the hitter they (rightly) fear.
When it comes to Felix, though, they are a mix of bravado and trembling. When the game starts, it's "Santana has always pitched the Mariners well. Felix against the Angels? Not as much."
"We can take him! Yeah! Our guy can kill them and their guy only sometimes kills us!"
But as the first couple innings went by and Felix was destroying them with offspeed stuff, the tension started to rise. "The Angels have always hit his fastball well, but today he's not giving them much to hit..."
They were calling his "change-split" his best pitch, which it probably is. And once the errors let a run across the plate, they were already in back-pedal mode. "You can't give THAT guy (Felix) any help in this game. He only needs a run or two."
What happened to "we hit this guy well?"
What happened was they saw his use of his arsenal and were afraid. When there was a long fly out from Trumbo? "That's what good pitchers do, work outside to power hitters and make them hit it out to the biggest part of the park."
Felix has everyone's admiration. Our players, other teams, other announcers...
He's just a monster.
~G
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