As an eventful 2017 season winds down here at Pitcher List, it’s time for us all as a staff to look back at what we took a stance on before the season started and see how we faired with our bold predictions. I usually don’t need reminders that putting faith in the Mariners is a terrible life choice, but it seems like ‘pre-season me’ could still use a wakeup call. I’ll be sure to use the past 16 years of sadness to not be so optimistic for any Mariner’s fantasy outlook for 2018. Live and learn – I guess. And by learn, I mean keep coming back with blissful ignorance that your hometown team will finally put it together one year. But probably not. Let’s get into it!
1. Felix Hernandez returns to form and finishes as a top 10 SP
Yikes. Ian, what in the world were you thinking? Your Mariners needed a healthy Felix to return to a fraction of his past self to make it down the stretch for a playoff push. That’s like a guaranteed reason for it to never happen – you should know these things by now! Look, I remember in Spring Training Felix was flirting with 94mph on his Fastball. That got me excited. He didn’t have to get all the way back up to 98 like his Cy Young days. 94 would be enough if everything else clicked. It did not click. Nothing did. Hernandez saw all four of his pitch types dip in velocity as the season wore on and encountered injuries, such as shoulder bursitis, that kept him off the field for lengthy stretches of time.
Needless to say, I missed big time on this one. Hernandez did not finish as a top 10 SP. He didn’t even finish as a top 100 SP. Among all the players that qualify as a SP, Felix Hernandez finished #110 on the player rater.
WRONG - 0 for 1
Kudos for actually writing this up haha. As a sox fan I’d like to think it’s karma for the Benny blurb!
What did you see in Sanchez that made you think he would not finish in the top 3-5? Or were you just that Bullish on Castillo? It’s not easy to predict baseball. Shout out for sort of getting one right.