Feliz

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WhiteSox
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Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2002 1:00 am
Name: Aaron Dorman

Feliz

Post by WhiteSox »

Rangers' Feliz still unhittable

August 13, 2009 6:27 PM

If you haven't seen Neftali Feliz pitch yet, you should. During today's game I flipped over to watch the Royals and the Twins, but had the presence of mind (a rare thing for me) to record the Rangers and Indians, just in case Feliz should pitch.

He did. Two full innings. Two perfect innings, with five strikeouts.

Broadcasters Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve were calling Feliz' breaking ball a slider, probably because that's what the Rangers (and perhaps Feliz himself) calls it. But FanGraphs calls it a curveball, and before this season Baseball America wrote, "He throws a power curveball that sometimes reaches 83-84 mph, and it's a plus pitch with 11-to-5 break when he stays on top of it."

So I'm calling it a curveball, with the full knowledge that it might actually be a slider or a slurve or perhaps it's something for which we don't yet have a name. As I discovered when writing my book about pitchers, the name of a pitch often depends on the mind of the beholder. We know that Bert Blyleven threw a curveball and Randy Johnson a slider, but everything in the middle is open to interpretation.

How overpowering is Feliz? Today when he was pitching, I saw something I've never seen before. Feliz struck out the first five Indians he faced. His fifth victim, Shin-Soo Choo, missed a fastball that clocked at 99 miles an hour. Catcher Taylor Teagarden missed it, too. The ball zipped to the wall and bounced right back to Teagarden, who threw to first base for the out.

I don't mean to make too much of this passing incident, but I suspect that unique events tend to follow unique players. I also suspect that Feliz is, right now, one of the dozen or so best relief pitchers in the major leagues. He won't be 22 until next spring, and at some point the Rangers will have to find out if Feliz can be one of the two dozen or so best starters.
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Marlins
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Post by Marlins »

Yup, got yourself a nice RP there.
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