By Josh:
Sunday afternoon the King, Felix Hernandez, went out and demonstrated why he is regarded as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. He has a major league leading 6 wins (tied with Bartolo Colon), tied for fourth in strike outs, and has a dominating 1.85 ERA.
Along with his outstanding stats for this season he also accomplished some great career stats this year. Sunday, he reached 2,000 strikeouts and is the fourth youngest in MLB history to reach this milestone.
He has a career 131 wins, 2nd highest in Mariner history. Let’s be honest the fact that Felix has 131 wins with a Mariners franchise that has been pretty horrible the last decade is impressive. Had he been on a team with a solid offense over that decade he could easily be around 150 wins at this point in his career if not higher.
Oh and let’s not forget that Felix is all of 29 years old. He is a rare talent that you don’t often get to see.
Want to know what is most amazing to me and what truly makes me awestruck about Felix? He has lost almost 3 mph on his pitches in the decade he has been in the majors and yet he is more dominating now than ever before.
He has truly demonstrated just how smart he is as a pitcher and just how effective a pitcher can be if they use their head on the mound and don’t just try and blow it by every batter. There was another pitcher that I loved to watch when I was growing up who used his head on the mound better than anyone else and that pitcher was Greg Maddux.
Now I’m not going to sit and argue that Felix is the best pitcher in baseball, I think Kershaw still holds that title. However, I wouldn’t argue against anyone who felt Felix is the best because once again what he has been able to accomplish is nothing shy of amazing.
Even when the Mariners were a bad team, opposing teams approached games against Felix just like they would a playoff game. If you’ve ever been to Safeco Field during King’s Court then you will understand why every start for Felix feels like a playoff game. Nothing in baseball compares to that.
As a baseball fan I’ve been blessed to watch Felix pitch more than just a few times and I know that one day I will tell young fans about the Legendary King Felix.