On the Greatness of Felix Hernandez

One thing we ask of our baseball writers is that they take a stand.  We want strong opinions, not cop-outs.  There was a lot of fence straddling from the peanut gallery when Felix Hernandez was called up earlier this month. 

Experts like Eric Karabell cautioned us that he'd rather have Jon Lieber and told us not to play the game of upside and potential with arms.  If fantasy baseball owners don't gamble on King Felix, on whom should they gamble? 

In today's ESPN chat, Karabell told us to keep Felix Hernandez over Barry Zito and Zach Duke.  Dude, where was that expert advice two weeks ago when Hernandez was actually available in some leagues? 

All of this is actually a roundabout way of saying that I don't like Eric Karabell.  Actually, I'll elaborate on that in a different post.  All of this is really to introduce a ridiculous, grandiose statement made by blogger Bodhizefa over at The Short Porch.

He claims that Felix Hernandez is "the best pitcher in the last 35 years."  Preposterous isn't it?  Maybe not.  Bods seriously backs up his claim with data.  Go read his article and see if he changes your mind.      

Comments

[Bodhizefa]

Just a head's up. A bit of my data was incorrect due to using the wrong out rates for fly balls and groundballs (mostly fly balls). I'll be updating the post with further research and comparables soon. However, the message is still the same. Felix's ability to deter SLG% and, thusly, Runs is without peer in the Major Leagues right now, and perhaps in the last 35 years of baseball. Obviously, I'd like to see more data come in to prove my point further. But I stand by my original thesis.

Thanks for the head's up on your blog, by the way. Good reading.