This is a new kind of article that I’m going to start running every monday and in it I will be looking at the upcoming baseball week and giving you a guy who I will be paying extra attention to and you should as well.? I’ll be taking into consideration the upcoming schedule for that player as well as what it all means in the big playoff picture.? This week’s pick: Felix Hernandez.

Here’s the deal with King Felix.? He set the American League on fire to start the year this season only to fall victim to an injury that shelved him for about a month.? Since that time the difference in his pitching has been noticeable.? His ERA has ballooned to 4.33 and he’s picked up four losses to move his record to an even 4-4.? We made it known our feelings about former M’s manager Mike Hargrove resigning yesterday, and because of that I feel like this week will be even more significant for Felix and his Mariner teammates.

On tap this week for Felix are two starts, one against Gil Meche and the Royals tonight and one in Oakland later this week.? These starts are going to be important for several reasons.? First off, the M’s have won 8 straight games and, now that they face Kansas City for three, have a chance to extend that winning streak.? Felix needs to come out tonight and dominate a poor Royals lineup and set the tone for a team that, with all due respect to Hargrove, just had their manager quit on them.? Of course the start in Oakland will be important because of the division rivalry between the two.?

Another reason it will be important is because of the impact it will have on the division leading Angels.? The Angels will be heading to Texas this week followed by a trip to the Bronx.? I’m not going to be so fast to discount the Rangers out of this series with Anaheim based on their ability to spoil.? The Rangers have already taken two out of three from Boston at Fenway and could take a third game tonight to close out the four game set.? The Yankees are another team that has the ability to scare because they are playing dead right now, but you know damn well that at any time, especially at home, the bats could wake up.

Coming off a rough outing against the Red Sox where he didn’t factor into the decision, I’m looking for King Felix to bounce back and pitch well this week.? If the Mariners want to stay in the hunt they’ll need him to return to the form of earlier this season, something he is certainly capable of doing.

In some of the most unfortunate news this baseball season, Seattle Mariners starting Pitcher Felix Hernandez will be forced to miss at least two starts due to injury. Coming just a week or so after his dominant one hit performance against the Boston Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hernandez had to be removed from a game due to a sore throwing elbow. It turns out that soreness is a muscle strain in his elbow and forearm and could have been much worse, but for now he’s only missing ten to twenty days.

This is terrible news for Seattle. Really, the only thing this team had going for them this year was King Felix and now they don’t even have that. A young dominant pitcher is enough to captivate a city and fill the ballpark at least every fifth night, but now Seattle will just have to work their way through this part of the schedule. Now Mariners fans have to ask themselves what’s the point of watching their team struggle when they don’t have a bright spot, and that’s something that no baseball fan ever wants to be asking. I guess the bright spot is that the rest of their division is terrible and as it is now, they’re only one game out of first place.

Also Felix must be careful not to hurt himself again. This is one of those injuries that could flare up again and again throughout the year if he tries to rush back. And if that happens, he could find himself with a much shorter career than he anticipated. It’s scary to see a dominant 21 year old who could be out of commission for far more than the 10-20 days predicted if he rushes himself back. S0o for now the throne remains empty and the DL might be full, but Hernandez should be back to reclaim his spot as king soon.