Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto, perhaps unwittingly, said something refreshingly old-school Thursday as he informed reporters that Felix Hernandez would begin the season in Seattle's rotation.

Dalvin Tomlinson Jerseys It was Dipoto's reasoning for keeping Hernandezin his accustomed role rather than making him, say, the succe sor to traded closer Edwin Diaz. From :

Note two parts of that quote.To these eyes, they addre s something that appears to be fading from the game:

". . . needs the game to evolve to use all his weapons."". . . incorporate all of his stuff and pitch over the long innings."

That sure reads like code for "knowing how to pitch," "making adjustments" and "setting up hitters." The closest modern term may be "sequencing," but that practice appears to be more data-driven than responsive to in-game movements.

TOUCH 'EM ALL, JOE:

Noticing hitters' swings,knowing in real time what pitches are working best and intentionally altering patterns (i.e., throwing a first-pitch slider to a hitter the third time through Minnesota Vikings Sleepwear Underwear after throwing first-pitch fastballs the first two times) should continue to be embraced, and pitchers who are good at it should be rewarded with more batters and more innings. There's more to "pitching backward" than sliders in hitters' counts followed by four-seamers above the hands, or offspeed pitches on 3-2 counts.

Hernandez has shown adaptability by using his fastball le s and le s. He hasthrown it nomore than 46 percent in a season over the past five years; before then, his low was 53.6 percent in Paul Krause Jerseys 2011. He threw it a career-low 42.8percent last year, according to Fangraphs.

The bad news is that the 32-year-old former ace posted a career-high 5.55 ERA last season and earned a demotion to the bullpen, only to be saved whenJames Paxton was injured. Like a lot of starting pitchers, he faltered the third time (and first time, for that matter) through the batting order:

With those numbers, it's difficult to sayHernandez's "stuff" and savvy are keeping him inthe rotation. The more Myron Mitchell Jerseys plausible reason is that Seattle doesn't have veteran starting depth. Behind the team's top five Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Wade LeBlanc, Mike Leake and Hernandez are mostly prospects acquired in offseason trades (Justus Sheffield, Erik Swanson and Justin Dunn) who need more time to develop.

Dipoto has time to add arms before spring training begins. If that happens, there's a good chance he'll be back to explain to reporters why Hernandez is better suited as a multi-inning reliever than an innings-eater at the back of the rotation.