On Being 20 Years of Age and Carrying the SEA Baseball World on Your Shoulders--The Felix Hernandez Story

Frankly, I'm glad that I am not Felix Hernandez right now. He is a (just barely) 20 year old from Latin America, and almost everyone who is a baseball fan in Seattle seems to be looking at him to be the second coming (of whom, though, I'm not exactly sure......Dwight Gooden? Nolan Ryan? Roger Clemens? All of the above? Some of the above? None of the above?)
He developed shin splints late in Spring Training and missed his last two spring starts. As a result, he seems to have developed a slight layer of rust, and has not looked quite his "King"ly self in his last three regular season outings--shaky control, quite a few walks, and a few more balls over the wall for the other side than we would like to see.
The Mariners signed him when he was a mere 16 years old in Venezuela, and he has been laboring in the organization ever since. There was quite the clamor to bring him up from AAA Tacoma even earlier last year than he actually was. (I will admit, I was one of the "clamorers", having lived through the last two "disastrous" seasons of our discontent, along with everyone else). And he did pretty well in his short stay with the big club last late summer/early fall.
Did those who begged for him to come up to the big club sooner than later do him a dis-service? Did management, by giving in and promoting him? Did he come back too early from his shin splints? Did he get enough rehab and time pitching something other than on the side before he came back for his first regular season game? And, most importantly, has he been done irreparable harm by any of this (physically and/or emotionally)?
Beginning in the Gillick era and beyond, the Mariners don't exactly have the best record with their pitching prospects. They seem to get injured, or they seem to develop "mental problems" (i.e. doubts about their abilities), or both.: Ryan Anderson, Gil Meche, Joel Piniero, Matt Thornton, just to mention a few.
It would be a shame to think that a youngster with all of the talent that Felix has would be wasted or misused. He is currently on a strict pitch and innings count, but does there need to be something more, in order to safeguard this treasure in the making? If so, Mariners' front office, please figure out what it is and do it, for Felix' sake primarily, but for all of your fans as well.