Sullivan: Felix Hernandez And Pitch-Receiving And So On

The Mariners have been below-average at pitch-receiving. And among those same Mariners, Felix’s results are still worse than the team mean. Many calls have been missed with Felix on the mound. A fraction of those calls were because the catcher or umpire did something wrong. The remainder of those calls were because the catcher or umpire did something wrong, and also the pitch was particularly insane. You can only blame the catcher and umpire so much. Felix might throw a few more strikes with an automated strike zone, but that’s not what we’ve got, and it’s not like this is a phenomenon that’s preventing Felix from being one of the best pitchers in the world. Felix is one of the best pitchers in the world!

Of note: between 2008-2010, Felix was about 41 strikes below average per 1,000 called pitches. Between 2011-2012, he was about half that. Still well below average, but half as below average, which is something. This might be the nicest thing I’ll ever say about Miguel Olivo’s defense.

In closing, between 2008-2012, 26 different Mariners pitched at least 100 innings. In terms of the called strike zone, the least fortunate was actually Luke French, 15 strikes below Felix. Thankfully French had the powerful repertoire to mitigate the effects of such human-error shenanigans.

Thanks to Murph.