Felix Hernandez

Felix Hernandez went from becoming the first American League pitcher in 37 years to hit a grand slam to spraining his ankle covering home three innings later. The Seattle Mariners righty, not figured into the 5-2 winning decision, nailed his opposite-field grand salami off New York Mets ace Johan Santana with two out in the second inning to give Seattle a 4-0 lead. The last AL pitcher to do this was Cleveland's Steve Dunning in 1971, and no Mariners pitcher had ever hit one. "My approach? Just swing. I closed my eyes," said Hernandez, who hadn't hit a bomb since Little League. In the ... Read Full Story

Felix Hernandez threw his first complete game in over a year Wednesday, leading the Seattle Mariners to a 4-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics . The 22-year-old righty, who continued to prove he has what it takes to be the ace of the staff with Erik Bedard broken, struck out eight and allowed eight hits in the game, which took only 2 hours and 9 minutes. Sending down 16 of 18 at one point, he needed 115 pitches to finish, improving to 2-0 and lowering his ERA from 1.66 to 1.52. Behind Hernandez, Jose Vidro hit a two-run double off A's starter Joe Blanton ... Read Full Story

  Photo Source: [Flickr] As detailed by Jeff, the Mariners' starting rotation is a complete disastor . Despite the current state of this year's rotation, I believe a solid five man rotation can be put together next year in order for the team to contend (barring that the offense is improved of course). Current Rotation 1. Erik Bedard 2. Felix Hernandez 3. Miguel Batista 4. Carlos Silva 5. Jerrod Washburn Along with those five, R.A Dickey and Ryan Rowland-Smith have also stepped in and started nine games combined. 2009? 1. Felix Hernandez- Whoever the next manager is, they would be an idiot not to ... Read Full Story

Do the Mariners need to rebuild so much that one solution would be trading King Felix? In a recent post on the Big Lead , the author had a couple ideas to help the Mariners out in the long run. One of them was trading Felix Hernandez. Here's what he had to say: "This is probably the most controversial point, so it deserves a little explanation. The trade of Felix Hernandez is incumbent on two things: one, that he’s only under team control for another three years after this one; two, according to Will Carroll at Baseball Prospectus , Hernandez has some of the ... Read Full Story

...Great article from the NY Times regarding the battle for the 5th spot. A stark contrast of styles was on display when the main challengers for the No. 5 spot in the Mets’ starting rotation opposed each other Tuesday, a day off for the team. The veteran Hernández, who relies on changing speeds and location, faced the 24-year-old Mike Pelfrey, who thrives on velocity. Pelfrey’s fastball stayed in the 90s as he went six-plus innings and threw 90 pitches. He gave up a run in the second inning and a two-run homer to catcher Brian Schneider in the fifth, but Pelfrey indicated Schneider’s hit ... Read Full Story