No Texas Ranger has ever won an American League Cy Young Award. Oh, Fergie Jenkins finished a distant second to Catfish Hunter back in 1974, but more usually, even when a guy like Little Ricky Helling won 20 games in 1998, he didn't receive a single vote -- Jay fans may remember that as a Roger Clemens unanimous Cy year.
Well, I am here to tell you that all that is about to change. Not this year (sorry, Kevin Millwood) or even in the next couple of years (calm down, Tommy Hunter), but at some point in the next 5-7 years, and I write this without even a hint of hyperbole intended -- young Neftali Feliz will win 20+ games, strike out 300+ batters, maybe toss a no-hitter or two, and be the first Ranger to haul home a Cy to Arlington, Texas.
Feliz, who is just barely 21 ...
... is a 6'3" whippet who touched 101 on the radar gun in his big league debut on Monday night. He struck out the first four big league batters he faced -- making at least two of them look plain silly on at-bat-ending 91 MPH changeups. He retired all six batters he faced in Oakland. (And yes, the Rangers found a way to lose.)
The kid Feliz is for real. I haven't had the sense of pitches on TV being optical illusions since Doc Gooden's mid-1980's curveball, but Feliz is right there. Is he going to turn into Pedro Martinez? Hard to say. Maybe Mariano Rivera? He could, but I doubt the Rangers will be able to resist handing him a 2010 rotation slot.
As Jamey Newberg, the unofficial online voice of the Rangers, wrote just after Feliz's debut, on behalf of Ranger fans everywhere, it's hard to forget that in the Spanish-speaking world, "Feliz" means "happy." That is something young Neftali will make many Ranger fans feel ... for a very long time, one hopes.
Offer me Roy Halladay right now for Feliz straight up and ... yeah, on behalf of the Rangers, I'd probably still do that. But I'd think long and hard!
Cy Young Awards? No-hitters? After one two-inning big league appearance? Okay, maybe a little hyperpole. But keep your eye on North Texas. The heat is rising.
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