Talking Points: Frustration for Felix Hernandez

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

1

You couldn’t blame Felix Hernandez if, out of frustration, he punched a glass fire-extinguisher case or something.

Hernandez has pitched at least 6 innings in all six of his starts this year and has a 2.23 ERA, yet his record is 2-1. But that doesn’t quite tell the story.

Aside from one outing in which he struggled, King Felix has a 1.18 ERA in his other five starts. Some of the performances for which he has failed to earn a victory: One run in eight innings; two runs in seven innings; no runs in eight innings; and one run in eight innings.

Hernandez once won a Cy Young award for a season in which he went 13-12 because of a lack of support. He could be headed that direction again.

2

How impressive was Sean Keller’s performance Saturday? Well, when the Heritage High School senior threw the javelin 244 feet, 1 inch, it was enough to rank him ninth in the United States so far this year.

Not ninth among high school throwers; ninth among everybody, including Olympians and other professionals. Sure, most of the world-class throwers are not in midseason form yet, but a mark of 244-1 would have ranked Keller 16th among all American throwers in 2011.