Brisbee: Felix Hernandez is out of the Mariners rotation

From SABR member Grant Brisbee at SB Nation on August 11, 2018:

There could be a fourth act. Bartolo Colon is on his sixth, after all. We’ve seen it before: The ace fireballer molts and becomes a cagey veteran, and we all get to appreciate him in a different way. This could be the path that Felix Hernandez takes, now that he’s in the bullpen.

There probably won’t be a fourth act.

This timeline is too familiar. There’s a gradual decline in velocity and overall quality of stuff, and then there’s a canyon. At the bottom of the canyon are alligators with opposable thumbs and dolphin brains, and they’re quicker than they have a right to be. Hernandez fell into that canyon last year and hid in the bushes for as long as he could, but the gators got him. The gators will always win. Baseball is like an old Atari game where the only objective is to stay alive long enough to rack up the highest score, and when you’re out of lives, there isn’t an option to continue. Everyone runs out of lives. It’s built into the game.

Read the full article here: https://www.sbnation.com/2018/8/10/17675028/felix-hernandez-mariners-rotation-calm-measured-reactions



Originally published: August 10, 2018. Last Updated: August 10, 2018.