This Venezuelan baseball player, whose team is Seattle Mariners has a current net worth of $80 million. Felix Abraham Hernández was born in Valencia, Carabobo (Venezuela) on April 8th, 1986.
“King Felix” Pitching Arsenal
Hernandez pitches a fastball that has timed at speeds of up to 100 mph, although he does not depend entirely on his overwhelming speed. Instead, he often uses a two-seam fastball, which comes a bit slower, but with more movement and sinks as it approaches the hitter, much like a splitter.
His pitching repertoire also includes a fast curve, a change, and a slider, all of which can throw extremely well. When it is in his best moments, Hernandez can induce the hitters to connect constant ground tacks and the strikeouts, allowing very few flies. As for the mix, he makes of his pitches, it could be said that he depends mostly on his fastball, followed by his change of speed, slider and finally the curve.
Interesting facts
Like some other pitchers, Hernandez wears a long sleeve t-shirt under the jersey of his uniform. While this is typically done to prevent the launcher arm from cooling, Hernandez takes it even in warmer times. This works in the case of Felix, to prevent perspiration from running down his arms and interfering with the grip of his hand on the ball.
A few years ago, Felix was a stranger among the Venezuelan baseball fans, appeared in Venezuela in his first formal game in the Professional League on October 31, 2003, and since that day the fans, and the scouts of the best baseball of the world knew that this arm, was a “gem in the rough”, which would become one of the most precious not only in Venezuela but in North America.
In 2005, when he debuted with the Seattle Mariners, he was the youngest player in the Major Leagues. On August 9 of that year he became the first teenager since 1984 to win a Major-League Baseball game.
Career
No active pitcher as young as Hernandez has achieved so much for his young age. Since 1980, only two pitchers have struck out as many hitters at the age of 23 as Hernandez, who has 810 strikeouts in his career. One is Dwight Gooden with 1,067, and the other is Fernando Valenzuela with 824 strikeouts, and Gooden had thrown almost 300 more innings (1,172); Valenzuela 100 more innings.
Hernandez has averaged 8.06 strikeouts per nine innings, his local park adjusted ERA-plus is 125, and has allowed 8.58 hits for every nine innings. Gooden is the only pitcher of the last 30 years with at least 80 starts at that age with superior numbers. If you count those who have made at least 50 starts at that age, there would be only nine pitchers, including Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens.