Posts tagged FelixHernandez at FanHouse

That ankle sprain that Felix Hernandez suffered at Shea Stadium last Monday is taking a little too long to heal for the Mariners' liking. So the young ace is going to take some extra time off and take a trip to the disabled list, keeping him out for at least another week.

Hernandez was examined by team physicians Monday as the Mariners returned from a nine-game road trip. Manager Jim Riggleman said nothing significant was found, but since Hernandez was going to miss his next start anyway, the team decided to give his ankle a few more days of rest and put him on the disabled list.

"His landing foot is still not really right, (and) we're not going to put him out there till it is right," Riggleman said.

At 31-51, the M's would be silly to let King Felix get out of bed until he's at full strength. Until then, Hernandez can close his eyes and keep dreaming about that grand slam off Johan Santana.

Things just keep going along greatly for the Seattle Mariners this season. The team has the worst record in baseball, their manager and general manager could get fired any second now, and the organization is thinking about blowing the whole thing up and starting over (I wish them good luck finding anybody on the team they can trade, maybe Raul Ibanez).

To make matters worse for Seattle, they just had to place closer J.J. Putz on the disabled list for the second time this season with a bad elbow. Still, there is some good news amidst all this sadness, as Putz's elbow isn't going to require surgery.

The Mariners closer felt better in one important way, though, after finding out his elbow injury would not require anything more significant than rest to heal.

"I'm very relieved that it was nothing structural," Putz said. "Just take a few days off and start throwing again."

While Putz's injury really means nothing to the team this season - closers are quite irrelevant when you never have a lead to protect - it's a relief that surgery won't be needed. If the Mariners do blow things up and start getting rid of everything that isn't nailed down, I highly doubt J.J. is one of the pieces they'd like to move (along with Ichiro and Felix Hernandez), so knowing there's no structural damage to the elbow and that it won't carry into next season is a plus.

Too bad they've still got 95 games left on the schedule this season.

Spot Jobs takes a look at fantasy baseball gambling via sitting a usual starting pitcher for the week and/or starting a usually unused starting pitcher.

Five Up

Ted Lilly -- He's struggled on several different occasions this season, including his last start against what was left of the Rockies' lineup. Still, the wind was screaming out and only one HR appeared it would have left without said wind. Now he gets the Padres in San Diego. Last time he faced them he picked up a win while striking out 11. Now they are in spacious Petco. He's an absolute must-start.

Glen Perkins and Boof Bonser -- No AL squad has scored less runs than the O's. Perkins was dealing until the hiccup at Yankee Stadium last Friday, so you can expect a bounce-back this Wednesday. For Boof, it's a huge gamble because he's been awful. I've just got a hunch he'll make good on his chance this week.

Jered Weaver -- He's struggled to fulfill his promise since a stellar rookie campaign. He's also only 4-6 for the first place Halos. This week, though, he visits the anemic Mariners offense in Safeco. I like him to deal and pick up a win.

Johnny Cueto -- Coming off a good outing, he figures to have success in punching out some Marlins Friday.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Texas Rangers (19-21) vs. Seattle Mariners (15-25) - 8:05PM Est.

Let's start today's On Deck by taking a trip in the FanHouse Time Machine. We're going to go all the way back to May 8th, 2008. The world was a different place back then. Ok, so the world was really any different as all, as it was just five days ago, but it was sort of exciting!

That was the day when Richie Sexson threw his helmet and charged Kason Gabbard after taking exception to a pitch. Sexson thought that Gabbard's eye-high fastball was meant for his face even though it was over the heart of the plate, and he took umbrage. Of course, had Felix Hernandez not plunked Ian Kinsler earlier in the game after Kinsler homered, none of this would have happened.

Now, here we are five days later, and Gabbard and Hernandez are set to face each other one more time. Will we have an encore?

New Studs takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.

Both of these guys came into the season with gobs of upside, but tempered expectations for different reasons. With one, we were worried that he's still not ready to make "The Leap," after having been teased by his potential the past two seasons. The other? Well, his team sucks. Really, really sucks. So did you really want to waste a high draft pick on a guy that can't win more than ten games? Judging from ADP charts, the answer was a resounding "NO!"

All of a sudden they have something in common: They are simultaneously making the jump from, "dude, he's pretty damn solid, but ... " territory into the "This guy is a freaking monster!" zone. When you drop the "but," the guy is ready to make an appearance on the ever-growing "New Studs on the Block," list.

Welcome aboard, Linc and King Felix. Please bring your nasty stuff and power arms as you join us ...

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Boston Red Sox (5-5) vs. New York Yankees (5-5) -7:05PM Est.

Tonight will be the first of eighteen over-hyped games between the Yankees and Red Sox this season. Aren't you super excited!? I mean, we only get to see these two teams play each other like 25 times a year, so you have to cherish every single pitch, because they're such a rarity. Though the newest chapter of this storied rivalry is going to be missing a few key characters. The Yankees won't have Derek Jeter or Jorge Posada (or Joe Torre for that matter), and the Red Sox don't have Curt Schilling or Mike Lowell at their disposal. Not to fear, though, as we now have completely idiotic new curses to talk about thanks to some dumbass thoughtful construction workers, and there's always the chance that hawk will attack the real Alexa Rodriguez tonight. I don't know about you, but I hope that hawk pecks Alex's eyes out and then craps on everybody in the stands. Clay Bucholz will be introduced to the Yankees for the first time tonight, and he looks to improve on a rather pedestrian performance in his last start. Chien-Ming Wang goes for the Yanks, and in his career against the SAWX he's 5-5 with a 4.56 ERA, but that could change tonight if he continues to pitch the way he did in his first two starts (13IP, 2 earned runs).

"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.

It took a few weeks for him to get there, but Erik Bedard is finally a full-fledged member of the Seattle Mariners. While Erik spent the first part of his career in Baltimore, there really wasn't all that much pressure on him. Sure, he was the ace of the Orioles staff, but nobody ever really expected the Orioles to contend with the Yankees and Red Sox anyway.

Now that he's in Seattle, things have changed.

There's one reason the Mariners wanted Bedard, and that's because they feel it's their only shot to compete with the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West. Whether or not his addition is really enough to help the Mariners get past the Angels is debatable (I say no), but still, those are the expectations.

He hasn't even thrown a single pitch in a Seattle jersey, yet he's already been given the assignment of Opening Day starter over Felix Hernandez.

As if all that wasn't enough pressure on the young Canuck, the Mariners basically sold their future to pry Erik away from Peter Angelos' cold dead hands. If Bedard struggles out of the gate and the Mariners fall behind Los Angeles while Adam Jones feasts on the short porches of Camden Yard and George Sherrill blows hitters away, the brunt of Mariners fans' anger will be directed at Bedard.

Personally I think Bedard is going to do just fine for Seattle. If nothing else the move from hitter friendly Camden Yard to spacious SafeCo Field on it's own. What were once home runs will now become routine fly balls. Still, at the end of the day, I don't think Erik is going to be enough to get Seattle over the hump in 2008.

Let's just hope for his sake, Mariners fans are as reasonable as I am.

It's too bad really. When I started writing for FanHouse earlier this spring and I took on coverage of the AL West, I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. I've always been a huge baseball fan that follows the entire league, but I didn't know if I'd find time to cover nine teams equally.

Thankfully the White Sox, Royals, A's and Rangers were kind enough to suck just bad enough that I could ignore them a little. Obviously this also meant that I was going to be spending a lot more nights fast forwarding through Angels and Mariners games on my DVR.

Well, watching the Mariners this season, I found a team that I genuinely started to like. With my White Sox so far out of the race, I had kind of adopted the Mariners as my team for this season. Aside from Ichiro, there is no real star power on the team. Sure, Felix Hernandez is amazing at times, but he's also incredibly human at other times. As a team, they are just a group of guys that became easy to root for. I didn't really want to, but I couldn't help myself. I had fallen for the Mariners in 2007.

I'm sorry, Seattle. I shouldn't have done that.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

New York Yankees (76-62) vs. Seattle Mariners (74-62)-7:05PM Est.

If this weekend did anything in the AL East, it was letting the Yankees know it's time to turn their attention to the wild card race. They're not going to catch Boston, not that I ever thought they would mind you, so Seattle is their newest rival. The Mariners were able to take the first game of this series behind Felix Hernandez and Ichiro Suzuki, and ended their 9-game losing streak in the process, as they got back to within a game of New York and the wild card. The Yankees on the other hand are losing players. Andy Phillips is done for the season, and Roger Clemens is undergoing an MRI on his elbow. If Clemens is lost for some time, will the Yankees already questionable pitching staff be good enough to hold on? Chien-Ming Wang starts tonight, and he's 9-2 in his last 12 starts. He's also done a good job of keeping Ichiro off the basepaths, as Suzuki is hitting only .176 off of Wang. The bad news for Wang is that after Seattle snapped each of it's previous long losing streaks this season, they've gone on a run. It'll be up to Horacio Ramirez to get another one started tonight.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Seattle Mariners (73-57) vs. Los Angeles Angels (78-54)-4:35PM Est.

Things are starting to go sour in Seattle. The Mariners have lost four in a row with the last two coming to the team they're chasing in the division. Now Seattle finds itself trailing the Angels by 4 games, and they've got the Yankees sneaking within a game of the wild card slot. It's probably premature to say this at the end of August, but I think this is a must win for the Mariners tonight, because after tonight they're on the road for 16 of their next 22 games. Luckily for Seattle, they have the guy on the mound they'd want in a must win situation. Felix Hernandez is looking for his fifth straight win. He'll have to solve an Angels team that's given him fit during his career. He's 2-3 with a 4.28 ERA lifetime, including a 7.13 ERA against them in three starts this season. Jered Weaver starts for the Angels, and he'll be hoping the Angels offense continues it's recent scoring surge. He has a 9.41 ERA against Seattle in his last three starts against them, and is 0-2 with a 6.85 ERA in his last four road starts. All of which means that Jered will throw a one-hitter this afternoon, but it won't be enough to overcome Felix's no-hitter.