Assorted thoughts on this Monday night

Today concluded a match up of polar opposites. Felix, a young, up-and-coming, flame thrower faced off against Moyer, the aging (a term used lightly), twilight-of-his-career, crafty veteran. The results were probably as you would expect, Felix won and Moyer did not. Not that we still don’t love the former Seattle Mariner, we do and we wish him the best as he braves the mile high city.

Onto the post game notes!

• Velocity Dip?

Felix certainly has Seattle worried. Felix maxed out around 91 for today’s game and the rest of spring hasn’t been any different. According to Brooks, all of Felix’s pitches have dipped by about 3-4 MPH. Some of the worry stems from Michael Pineda and his recent shoulder woes. Pineda insisted he was fine and then insisted he was fine again, until he finally admitted that he really wasn’t fine. Felix has done the same, even cracking a joke.  Bottom line, while there is reason to worry, it isn’t time to crawl into the fetal position and frantically rock back and forth. His movement and results are still there. Pineda was terrible, Felix hasn’t been. Now, if this trickles into the regular season then this is something we will undoubtedly discuss again.

• You Won’t Like Him When He’s Angry

Montero displayed today that injury risk for cathers can come from standing in front of the plate as well as behind it. During the 6th inning of today’s affair an Edgmer Escalona pitch went rogue and attempted to assassinate Montero’s dome. Clearly the pitch wasn’t intentional, but that didn’t stop Jesus, as the medical staff and Wedge suddenly became a somewhat fleshly straight jacket. Montero later stated that he didn’t have any history with the Rockies errant pitcher, the reaction was due to frustration. He didn’t necessarily like having his head hit, and that is where the anger originated from.

"“I don’t know him,” said Montero. “I have no idea of where he’s from, but I got mad because that’s not a game. I cannot play anymore if he hits me in the head really hard. But thank God everything is fine.”"

Thank goodness for technology. If that were Ty Cobb, his career would be over.

• Planes Are Petri Dishes

Several member of the team have succumbed to sickness and the latest addition is Hector Noesi. Just a viral reminder that these players are human. You don’t go to work while you’re sick…do you?

• Better Than He Looks

Don’t judge Iwakuma by his stat line today, the results are not indicative of how well he pitched. He just looked different today. His pitches had snap, he displayed poise, he was good. Iwakuma is going to wiggle his way into the rotation at some point during the season, if he can throw the ball like his did today, then no fan should be all that concerned.

Still a couple of cuts to be made. No team is concern free, or problem free, but I think I’m a lot less worried than most about the upcoming season. The Mariners are going to be just fine and there is still plenty of stories to track this season, and plenty to look forward to.