Felix signs a NRI with the Braves

[D-train]

Fact is, Edgar is the only great this team has to its credit.

Depends on your criteria. Edgar limped into the Hall and Griffey steamrolled in first ballot wearing a Mariners jersey. I think there are 5:

1. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Edgar Martinez
4. Ichiro Suzuki
5. Randy Johnson

Omar will get in around 2023 but sadly only a few years as an M.

[DanielVogelbach]

Fact is, Edgar is the only great this team has to its credit.

Depends on your criteria. Edgar limped into the Hall and Griffey steamrolled in first ballot wearing a Mariners jersey. I think there are 5:

1. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Edgar Martinez
4. Ichiro Suzuki
5. Randy Johnson

Omar will get in around 2023 but sadly only a few years as an M.

I almost put him on the list. I remember him making slick plays at the Kingdome.

[bpj]

He's either too stupid or stubborn to alter his approach,

This is just flat out not true. He altered his approach a ton. He tried to become a finesse pitcher. It just didn't work because he doesn't have the control it requires to be successful as a junk baller.

Disagree.

[bpj]

I think Felix was comfortable to take the money and run while playing for a low key, low pressure, perennial loser like the Mariners.
In his prime he had good control, but lost his touch once he started to "overthrow" in order to compensate for being worn out / all used up.

There it is.

He should have backed off the fastball at least three years earlier than he did. It was obvious to everyone but Felix.

[bpj]

Fact is, Edgar is the only great this team has to its credit.

Depends on your criteria. Edgar limped into the Hall and Griffey steamrolled in first ballot wearing a Mariners jersey. I think there are 5:

1. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Edgar Martinez
4. Ichiro Suzuki
5. Randy Johnson

Griffey = Red, whether he likes it or not
Felix - Doubtful, imo
Ichiro - Will make it. Not a fan personally, but you're right
Randy - Diamondback

[DanielVogelbach]

Fact is, Edgar is the only great this team has to its credit.

Depends on your criteria. Edgar limped into the Hall and Griffey steamrolled in first ballot wearing a Mariners jersey. I think there are 5:

1. Ken Griffey Jr.
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Edgar Martinez
4. Ichiro Suzuki
5. Randy Johnson

Griffey = Red, whether he likes it or not
Felix - Doubtful, imo
Ichiro - Will make it. Not a fan personally, but you're right
Randy - Diamondback

Griffey's heyday was with the Ms.
http://www.pastapadre.com/wordpress/wp- ... covers.jpg

I'm not talking about the HOF really. I'm talking about which players were superstars in a Mariners uniform. In the entire history of the Ms organization, there's been exactly one player IMO who brought more electricity to the park than Felix, and that was #24.

[Donn Beach]

I think Felix was comfortable to take the money and run while playing for a low key, low pressure, perennial loser like the Mariners.
In his prime he had good control, but lost his touch once he started to "overthrow" in order to compensate for being worn out / all used up.

There it is.

He should have backed off the fastball at least three years earlier than he did. It was obvious to everyone but Felix.

he did, for years he was winning with what was considered the best changeup in MLB. This is what kills me, that aspect to his career seems to be completely forgotten, or ignored...

here, he is credited with redefining the modern changeup...he needed to have some velocity, his arm wore out but to believe he wasn't working on his pitch development is just not correct

Félix Hernández didn’t always throw his signature changeup. When he was a teenager coming up through the Mariners organization, his best pitches were his electric fastball and a nasty curveball. That breaking ball has stuck with him in some form or fashion throughout his career, but his changeup was an afterthought until around 2009, the year before he won the Cy Young award. Since then, his cambio has become almost synonymous with his approach as a pitcher.

The changeup has existed in the game as long as pitchers have been trying to disrupt the timing of the opposing batter. But Félix’s changeup was unlike any that had come before. “There is no one in baseball that throws a Félix Hernández changeup — no one,” Brandon Moss told Sports Illustrated back in 2014. What made it so unique was it’s combination of high velocity and elite vertical movement. He threw it around 90 mph when almost no one else in baseball was throwing a changeup that hard. Conventional wisdom assumed that the velocity differential was the most important aspect of a good changeup. Afterall, what better way to disrupt the timing of a batter than to throw two pitches with a significant gap in speed even though they look the same out of the hand.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-felix-h ... -changeup/

[DanielVogelbach]

You're crazy if you think Hernandez was satisfied with getting rocked by opponents batters. He was a fierce competitor. I think the fact that he took the minor league deal with the Braves shows exactly that. He wanted to win. If his repertoire of pitches wasn't working, you know he would want to try something new. I think sometimes he just made too many mistakes. Things would be going okay, and then suddenly he's got 2 guys on base and throws one right down the middle and it's game over.

For me the two greats are Griffey and Felix, and each was flawed in their own way. Griffey was flawed, because he left the Ms. Felix was flawed, because he lost his ability to dominate. Edgar gets tons of points for being a career Mariner and Hall of Fame player, but I can't put him in the same category as Felix and Griffey or even Ichiro in terms of how much excitement and hype they generated for fans coming to the ballpark. In fact, for much of Edgar's heyday, he wasn't even the most popular player on the team.

[bpj]

He obviously wasnt satisfied, he was just too stupid to stop pumping "fast"balls where they could be smashed.

You guys here were the only ones satisfied with the adjustments Felix made when he was in the process of his downslide.

He didn't believe he was slipping and it showed.

[DanielVogelbach]

He obviously wasnt satisfied, he was just too stupid to stop pumping "fast"balls where they could be smashed.

You guys here were the only ones satisfied with the adjustments Felix made when he was in the process of his downslide.

He didn't believe he was slipping and it showed.

I was disappointed in his decline. Perhaps he could've done something differently to be more effective. Maybe he still will. I have no idea. I just don't let the decline overshadow the shine. Same thing with Griffey going to the Reds. Same thing with Shawn Kemp.