Félix Hernández

We have Pujols, Barry Bonds, Bobby Witt Jr., Jack Haggs.

I like CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter, King Felix, Lindor, Gary Sheffield, Ichiro.

We got all the Jacksons, Chirio, Holiday, then we got...

Well, I guess, um, we are gonna see some Jacksons, but that's okay.

Bobby Witt and Jack Haggs, classic pairing already.

Bryce Turner, Trey Turner.

Felix Hernandez, Brian Moo for you.

Nick Kurtz and Mark McGwire.

... what happens there.

Uh, King Félix almost certainly will get in.

Hmm.

Um, he's in, in that kind of steady where he gets in on, like, his sixth or seventh year on the ballot, and everybody's like, "Why the hell didn't you just vote for him on the first ballot?" Um-

All right.

So you know where.

He actually has more career WAR than, um, Félix, so anyway.

He was, he was really good.

And then it's like, well, okay, how do we measure how great this guy really was? Um, you know, putting in starting pitchers with, with win totals in the low 100s, let's say, but they were really dominant for a, a, a short burst.

You know, it's a question of how, how dominant do you have to be for how long, um, if the, if the numbers aren't gonna be there? And, and what is the acceptable workload? And then if you do start putting in guys like that, what about the big mass of pitchers who, you know, were awesome, but are not in the Hall of Fame? I'm talking guys like, uh, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez and Johan Santana, even back to Brett Saberhagen and Jimmy Key.

Like, you know, guys who, Burrell Hershiser-

Mark Buehrle

I was around him a lot, and then years later, we talked about how that first year of the contract, it felt like he was, he, for the first time, it felt like a job.

And then eventually he got back to, and we think now about Adrian Beltre and playing around in the field with Elvis Andrus and Félix Hernández and the joy that he had, but it took him a while to get there.

I think Vladi can get back to that.

It's just a matter of recentering things and understanding what is going to be required physically, mentally, emotionally, routine, structure, all those things that will be necessary if he wants to have the type of career that we all see that he can have.

Oh, God, there.

Itro, you're talking about Griffey, you know, Felix Hernandez, some of the greatest, Adrian Beltre, you know, what you notice though is when you're around these players, when you're around these different guys is how much they love the game and just like showing up every day is a joy.

You know, get to talk to Griffey still on a decently regular basis and just joy for life and joy for baseball.

And yeah, it's amazing.

And I was impressed by that part of his career overall as well.

I mean, there have been a lot of pitchers that have had three or four or five good years, but to have the number of good years that Verlander has had, you know, I think about like Felix Hernandez, he had a bunch of great years, but then kind of fell off the table.

Um, so the fact that Verlander can do it for so long and so well, it's really, really impressive.

And, um, I haven't seen anything that cool.

You're doing Storm games, obviously, man.

So I just can't tell you, and I know that you guys agree with this, and I wish there was another way to say it, how just completely bizarre Bummed out I am that they could never get that guy to a World Series, that they could never get Dave Niehaus, they could never get Felix Hernandez or Ken Griffey Jr. or Edgar Martinez to a World Series.

I mean, you go out there and you play 50 years.

I mean, you know, you just...

How everything this franchise does comes back to they've never been to a World Series.

Everything.

From the great weekends and the top 50 and Rick Riz's retirement and Dave Niehaus' passing and Edgar in the Hall of Fame and Griffey in the Hall of Fame and Randy Johnson's jersey retirement, Ichiro's retirement, Felix Hernandez's career, everything always comes back to, yeah, but.

They've never been to a World Series.