Jose Fernandez Is A Big Time Pitcher

The Miami Marlins are by no stretch of the imagination this year a good baseball team but like any struggling team they have a few bright spots and the brightest happens to come in the form of rookie 21 year old right hand pitcher Jose Fernandez. Here is some background Fernandez.

• Drafted 14^th overall in 2011 by the Marlins
• Never picthed above A ball before this season started
• Became only the 7^th player in MLB history under the age of 21 to record at least 8 strikeouts in his debut since 1916
• Named an to the all-star game at 20 years old
• Struck out Dustin Pedroia and Chris Davis at the all-star game.

So odds are you aren't familiar with Jose Fernandez but that’s ok because most of the baseball world is slowly but surely figuring out who he is. Prior to the season starting the Marlins had a shortage of arms in the starting rotation so they rushed Fernandez to the big leagues and named him as the opening day starter. I was very critical of that move because this was a guy who hadn't pitched above A ball and now he his the opening day starter against the New York Mets, it's a pretty big jump. Fernandez quickly put to bed any doubt of good he would be for the rest of the season with a performance of 5 innings pitched 3 hits, 1 earned run and 8 strikeouts.

When you watch him pitch Fernandez does a great job establishing his fastball command and sets up his secondary pitches very well. Many baseball experts have compared Fernandez to Seattle Mariners all-star Felix Hernandez. People who aren't familiar with Fernandez might disagree but if you watch both of them pitch they have a lot of similarities. Fernandez like King Felix sets up hitters very well and can bury you with multiple pitches. He can thrown it by you with his fats ball or paint the outside corner with his curve ball. The Comparison is valid.

Statistically when you look at Jose Fernandez he is even more impressive. He has an 8-5 record on the worst team in the national league. The Marlins are not an offensive juggernaut in fact its hard to get run support when the whole team collectively has scored the 363 runs the entire season which ranks them dead last in baseball. So to be 3 games over 500 as a pitcher for them is impressive. Recently in the last few weeks he did something very historic. In his July 28^th and August 2^nd starts he faced 2 quality teams in the National league leading Pittsburgh Pirates and then then Cleveland Indians who are in the playoff hunt. In his start against the Pirates he has a very good outing going 8 innings giving up 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 13 strikeouts for a win. You think to yourself “ wow he can't pitch any better then that” well your wrong. Very next start against the Indians he goes 8 innings only allows 3 hits, collects 14 strikeouts and shuts out the Indians. So do the math 14+13=27 Jose Fernandez in 2 starts struck out 27 hitters. Thats just ridiculous for a guy his age to be doing that. In doing that he put his name in some elite company (see tweets below).

Jose Fernandez is the 4th-youngest pitcher with consecutive 13-strikeout games since 1900. Check out the list: pic.twitter.com/vNtAP655jj

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 3, 2013

As you can see Fernandez put his name in same company with some former all-stars but he also has his opponents in aw of him. Rays manager Joe Maddon who is one of the best in baseball praised Fernandez.

— Joe Maddon (@RaysJoeMaddon) May 31, 2013

 So the word on Jose Fernandez is finally getting out and if healthy it looks like the Marlins have an ace for years to come. The only question is how many years before he gets traded?

Steele City: 2nd half importance for the Pirates

Pittsburgh the Steele city a town of grit, grind and pride. The people of Pittsburgh are blue collar people who love they’re sports teams, from the Steelers to the Penguins to The Pirates this city has seen its fair share of classic teams and players. The Pirates have for 19 seasons had losing seasons and haven’t qualified for the playoffs since Barry Bonds wore the black and yellow. Pnc park Opened in 2001 and is a gem of baseball cathedrals but it has never seen playoff baseball. It has how ever seen many All-stars such as Jason Bay, Aramis Ramirez, Jack Wilson, Nate Mclouth traded to other teams. These days around Pnc park are different though, the Pirates are Playing very exciting baseball lead by young guns Andrew McCutchen,Garret jones,Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Joel Hannarahan. As I sit here and type this the pirates are half a game out of first place and sit in one of the 2 wildcard spots. Now in most city’s its this would be cool and not that big a deal but when you haven’t had a winning season since 92 then this is big being in a wildcard spot after the all-star break. The pirates have given the Steele city faithful a lot of reasons to cheer at Pnc park these days with McCutchen putting up MVP numbers Leading the league in Batting average hitting 371.with 21 homeruns 64 Rbis this guy is the face of the pirates, is an MVP candidate and franchise player. When he comes to the park he gets after it with his combination of speed, power and high baseball iq he electrifies pirate fans with his spectacular play on a daily basis. He is the kid of guy that when kids walk into a gift shop they will want to buy his jersey you can build a team around him and sell tickets he is the type of guy who can be a role model too kids in the city. A.J Burnett and John McDonald have also become a nice 1-2 punch in the pirates rotation combining for a 19-6 record 3.10 era and 188 strikeouts. The stability off the top of the rotation along with timely hitting has the pirates at 49-39.The Pirates returning to the playoffs would mean a whole lot too the city of Pittsburgh but also the MLB.People forget that the pirates are one of the most tradition rich franchises in league history all you need to do is look at the players who have put on the black and yellow back in the day. Roberto Clemente,Willie Stargell, Dave parker, Barry Bonds are all names who hold a place not only in pirates but in baseball lure. This franchise has 5 world championships and this 2012 pirates team has a chance to do something that no team in the big leagues can do and that is reconnect a city with a proud franchise. Pnc park is arguably the best park in baseball it deserves playoffs baseball. Who knows in a few years names like McCutchen,walker, Jones, McDonald and Alvarez might hold a place in Pirate baseball lure. With a great 2nd half of baseball the pirates can make that yellow letter “P” on their new era fitted relevant again. I’m sure the longer they stay in contention the more black and yellow I will see at pirate home games.