As noted earlier, the Mariners have opted to shut Felix down, rather than allow him to make an appearance in the season finale on Sunday. As such, his final workload total reads: 34 starts, 3,731 pitches, and 249.2 innings. It's the fifth-highest innings total in franchise history, and the highest since Randy Johnson in 1993. Felix also finishes with the eighth-highest strikeout total, behind four editions of Randy and three editions of Mark Langston.
The reason for doing this is pretty apparent. With most things the Mariners do, there are at least two or three different levels of thinking, most of them hidden. Here, it's out there in the open, shooting off flares. The team doesn't want to tax Felix's arm any more than it already has. Not with so little left to gain. The risk in making one more additional appearance is small - just about as small as was the risk in making the most recent start in Texas - but "small" isn't the same thing as "negligible," and the upside simply isn't there.
What could the upside possibly be? Felix isn't going to strengthen his Cy Young case with five innings against Oakland on the last day of the year. His stock is as high as it's ever going to get. I'm sure Felix would love to at least get one more out so he can reach 250 innings instead of sitting on this obnoxious statistical tease, but again, that's pretty irrelevant, as it's just part of our fascination with round numbers.
The risk is low, but the upside is lower, so the Mariners are erring towards being cautious. Which I'm absolutely fine with. All I ask is that Daren Brown and the team finds some way to get him out there on the field for one final standing ovation. I don't know if that means he hands out the lineup card, or makes a pitching change, or just comes out for a postgame curtain call, but Felix deserves the applause, and the fans deserve to applaud.
0 recs | 46 comments
I'd be down with him coming in to get the last three outs of the season
BRKLN M'S - September 30, 2010
Absolutely...
could you imagine him getting a save?! Take that Cy Young voters!
basebliman - September 30, 2010
I think it would be fun for the fans!
BRKLN M'S - September 30, 2010
Which is exactly the way one should run a baseball team
pdb - September 30, 2010
He would throw 10 times harder than he has ever thrown before and thus defeat the purpose behind benching him,
Robert - September 30, 2010
He'd be throwing a 950+MPH fastball?
nemo1 - September 30, 2010
It's going to be ridiculous. Just you wait and see.
Kirk - September 30, 2010
Curtain call? I'll watch it on TV then.
I’ll turn on halftime of the Seahawk game, and maybe catch the hat tip then. I’m not going to buy a ticket to watch someone tip his cap.
For as meaningless as this game apparently is, it has become the only game with any meaning this season. The fans deserve a Felix sendoff. Instead, we handed to Texas.
Mr.Phelps - September 30, 2010
Felix says fuck the Seahawks.
perfectstrat - September 30, 2010
God I wish
Robert - September 30, 2010
Any chance he gets penciled in as DH?
ThomasG - September 30, 2010
Please.
Oh god, please.
SeattExPat - September 30, 2010
If by "chance" you mean "in the same universe in which a unicorn delivers me a bag containing $1,000,000" then yes
pdb - September 30, 2010
It's those kinds of odds that keep me playing the lottery!
ThomasG - October 1, 2010
Yeah
I’m not as excited about going to the game as I was earlier today
d0nkey - September 30, 2010
What?
You don’t want to be there for Griffey’s last game?
Matthew - September 30, 2010
I was not aware that Griffey would be there
d0nkey - September 30, 2010
Har har har
sanford_and_son - September 30, 2010
This feels like a punch to the nuts.
Thats what this comment feels like.
SeattExPat - September 30, 2010
Too bad he couldn't have racked up a few more strikeouts though
Finishing leading the ML in ERA, strikeouts, and innings pitched would have been cool. Two out of three is still awesome though. Hopefully a miracle will happen and Weaver won’t get more than 3 SO in his next start…
TIFO - September 30, 2010
Send him out with the line-up.
Let him manage, like Jr used to.
msb - September 30, 2010
One more start...
and he’d probably win the strikeout crown (not important, but something that matters to some people). As is, he’ll probably lose it to Weaver.
slamcactus - September 30, 2010
Well this is unfortunate.
Now my 8 year old cousin’s first baseball game will be pitched by not Felix. That’s sad.
joof - September 30, 2010
Oh, the number of losses my nephews got for birthday treats...
msb - September 30, 2010
A vast majority of Mariners games have been pitched by not Felix
he should get used to it.
pdb - September 30, 2010
I just wish there was a reason to go to the final game of the season.
Felix pitching is the only thing I could think of. Not that I disagree with the decision or anything
d0nkey - September 30, 2010
Rent a kid if you don't own one.
They give away boatloads of great crap to kids on final Sunday.
wazzu93 - September 30, 2010
I say we have him close out the game
From the first batter onwards.
Eyeball Kid - September 30, 2010
So who is getting the start instead of Felix?
nemo1 - September 30, 2010
I think Felix should get to pick.
msb - September 30, 2010
I think they should fire Brown a day early and make Felix the manager.
Robert - September 30, 2010
Huzzah!
SeattExPat - September 30, 2010
Copycat.
msb - September 30, 2010
Bullshit.
I call bullshit. I do.
So the upside of Felix pitching is small, and the downside small, but a little larger. Suddenly this game is meaningless, where his previous starts weren’t. How many games ago, and how many games past elimination, was it still worth it to have him pitch, when all of the sudden, no, just kidding, these games don’t matter after all.
Either the games matter, or they do not. Either there is still joy and purpose in tuning in the the Mariners at the end of a shitty year, or the owners should stop distributing bobbleheads and selling tickets. I refuse to have it both ways. Felix starting a game matters because it is damn awesome to watch Felix start a game, not matter the standings. I don’t care—baseball is entertaining and it matters, or they should stock the team with Tacoma’s roster and stop encouraging us to go after the all star break. But please. This is bullshit. Why do we watch a bunch of losers if not to enjoy the winners among them. To say all of the sudden this game doesn’t matter, when it is no different than the six months before it, is to say that none of them mattered.
Well, fuck you, Mariners. They mattered to me. And they sure as fuck mattered to Felix.
SeattExPat - September 30, 2010
I agree.
I’m not super mad or anything, but I second the bullshit call. “Saving his arm” would have meant shutting him down as soon as the team is eliminated from the playoff hunt. Mailing it in so late in the season doesn’t make any sense. If it’s not worth the risk Sunday, it wasn’t worth the risk against the Rangers, nor was it worth the risk the start before that. The probability of arm injury is the same every start, right?
I was going to try to go to the game Sunday. Now I’m not. Why bother?
Jon S. - September 30, 2010 via mobile
The probability isn't the same every start
And no, they were obviously not going to shut him down in August. He was pitching for a Cy Young.
Matthew - September 30, 2010
What if he blows his elbow out in a meaningless start?
pdb - September 30, 2010
Who cares. At least the last game of the year was entertaining. Felix can just pitch through the pain.
JAH - September 30, 2010
Thanks Rob Dibble
pdb - October 1, 2010
He could have done that in any of his starts this year.
joof - September 30, 2010
Yes, he could have
but if he did it in the 162nd game of a meaningless season in which he was participating only to pad his stats for an award, it would be so much worse than if he did it in his second start in April.
pdb - October 1, 2010
But not that different if he did in the 157th game of the season. Or the 152nd game of the season.
So where is the line? The farther back you go, the more absurd it would be to sit him. But these games haven’t mattered for months. I think Felix wanted to pitch, and fans wanted him to pitch. What is difference between now and two months ago?
SeattExPat - October 1, 2010
Perspective maybe?
A star player getting seriously injured in game 162 of a lost season just looks worse than if it happens in game 110.
Sec 108 - October 1, 2010
They mattered as far as the Cy Young goes
and they matter because sitting your ace in August is likely to lead to bad PR. Sitting him for the last game is only upsetting people who can’t see that there’s more than black and white in the world.
Matthew - October 1, 2010
It bums me out that a Mariners fan wrote this and someone Rec'd it.
sanford_and_son - October 1, 2010
Hell fuckin' yeah.
I’ll be there Sunday and I want to say thank you.
truemsfan - September 30, 2010
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