Thursday, April 12, 2007
King Felix, Lord of Men, Dwight Gooden
I hate to add to the hype that now surrounds Felix Hernandez after his start last night in Boston, but ...
OhmyGod did anyone else see how he pitched against the Boston Red Sox lineup and Dice-K and with 350 media members watching his every move people thought that Matsuzaka was going to be the one to watch but no Felix proved them wrong because he has a 99 mph fastball and a 92 mph slider and a 12-to-6 curveball in the mid-80s which is just unfair and he had pinpoint control and David Ortiz who knows a goddamn thing or two about hitting said that he was "filthy" and he almost had a no-hitter until JD Drew broke it up with a single that just barely made it through the middle and this is the best stuff that I've ever seen except for maybe Dwight Gooden and this kid is another Dwight Gooden and maybe better especially if he can avoid arm injuries and drug problems and the Clap and I can't really breathe because hyperbole sucks the wind right from your lungs but this kid is good and I would be stunned to see him give up a run before June and he's basically a non-Jewish Latino right-handed Sandy Koufax but only younger and I can't wait to see what he does in his next start but I tell you right now that if he gives up more than two hits I'll eat my wingtip shoes.
• Alex Rodriguez, who is totally non-clutch (as if you need to be reminded), is lacing the cover off the baseball this season. He's hitting .355 with a .447 OBP, and he's racked up a 1.065 slugging percentage. He's got six home runs and has already driven in 16 runs. He currently has more home runs than 10 major league teams. Since small sample sizes are fun, if you extrapolate A-Rod's numbers over a full season, he's on pace for the following totals:
121 home runs
364 RBIs
203 runs
And they'd still boo him in New York.
While he won't continue that pace -- at least I don't think so -- it would be my greatest joy to see A-Rod hit 60 homers, drive in 150 runs, win the adoration of Yankees fans ... and then use the opt-out clause in his contract to bolt for free agency. They deserve it.
• The Bulls hammered the Knicks 98-69 the other night, and Steve Francis complained after the game that the Bulls ran up the score.
I always find these arguments interesting in pro sports, since we're no longer in Little League and grown men shouldn't really care how much they get beat by. Should the Bulls really be worried about Steve Francis' feelings? Hardly. They didn't play their starters at all in the fourth quarter and didn't score in the final two minutes. I don't think there was much of an effort to humiliate the Knicks. New York does a pretty good job of that on their own accord.
If anything, given how Isiah Thomas has recently tried to hype that he "got the better end" of the Eddy Curry trade, I think the Bulls should have pushed it further and tried to win by 50.
As a sidenote, Eddy Curry still can't guard anyone in the post. He's awful.
• Obligatory Don Imus note.
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Regarding the Knicks whining about the Bulls the other night... Toronto Maple Leaf fans were whining about teams playing starting goaltenders against them, and resting their goaltenders against other teams attempting to make the playoffs TWICE within a week. 1st, the Sabres played their starter, Ryan Miller against Toronto on a Friday night, then rested him and started backup Ty Conklin Saturday night vs Montreal...who was also in the thick of the playoff race.
After Toronto won their final game of the season, media freaks in TO were saying that NJ had an obilgation for the "integrity" of the game to play their starters in the last (meaningless) game of the season the next day vs the Islanders. Of course NJ rested many key players, the Islanders won and Toronto missed the playoffs.
If your team doesn't suck, you don't really have these problems, ya know?