Back in March, I wrote a piece for the P-I divulging my fear that Felix Hernandez' off-season weight loss could cause an injury. After Hernandez' hot start, I looked pretty dumb, and I got more than a few emails telling me so. I would've loved to keep getting those emails all year.
Then I went to Hernandez' third start, and I was just digging into my Dixie's BBQ when I saw the trainer walk out to the field. Didn't get any emails that night, just angry glares from my friends.
Since he came back from the elbow strain, Hernandez hasn't been the same.
In his two starts before the game where he got hurt, Hernandez allowed four hits in 17 innings. :)
In the four games since, he's allowed 31 hits in 20 innings. :(
He's throwing the ball just as hard as he always was, so what's happening?
Is it location? Hernandez threw 65% strikes in his first two starts, 61% in the last four. The three homers the Angels hit last night, the first three against Hernandez all year, looked to be the result of bad location.
Maybe Hernandez is just having trouble finding his feel after sitting out for a month. I hope to hell that's it. Because I'm terrified that he's changed his delivery somehow because he's afraid of hurting his elbow again, an approach that will probably just lead to another injury. And if that happens, I'm going to drink waaay more than my fair share of summer beer.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
What's Wrong With King Felix?
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1 comments:
He looks to me like he's just pressing -- overthrowing a bit.
He looked very composed and controlled early in the year, and if I recall, his fastball was topping out around 95. That could have been due to the cold weather, but it seemed to me he was taking a little off by not overthrowing.
Now, he looks like the guy he was last year -- trying to exert more effort than necessary most of the time.
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