After another masterful outing vs the New York Mets on Sunday, Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez is continuing to build on what has already been a magnificent season.
It has gotten to the point where opposing teams with the audacity to even show up when Jose Fernandez is scheduled to pitch against them deserve a round of applause. Surely, they cant feel like they stand much of a chance, but then again does anyone with the way that Fernandez has been pitching?
The 23 year-old right hander was up to his usual tricks again on Sunday, while simultaneously claiming the lineup of the Mets as his latest victims. Fernandez consistently mowed down Mets batters while allowing no runs and four hits across seven innings of work. Oh yeah, and racking up a mind-boggling 14 strikeouts to secure the win for the Miami Marlins. 14 K’s over seven innings, that’s good, right?
With the win, Fernandez saw his record advance to 9-2 on the season. More impressively is the fact that he has won his last eight starts in a row. In those eight starts, Fernandez has put up double digit strikeouts in four of them, giving him a total of 110 K’s on the year which at the moment, has him in sole possession of first place in the category, even ahead of some guy named Kershaw.
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Fernandez is clearly in the middle of something special, better yet historic, which is exactly what it has the potential to become if he continues to strikeout batters at the rate he has been accustomed to. Through June 6th, Fernandez’s K/9 currently sits at an astonishing 13.26. Although it is a long season, with many games left to be played, if he were able to maintain that, he would join the likes of Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers to finish a season with a K/9 above 13, thus supplanting himself in the history books as one of the greatest strikeout artists who ever played.
After winning National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2013, Fernandez’ 2014 season reached an abrupt halt after it was determined he was in need of Tommy John surgery. It was gut-wrenching news for the Marlins, at a time where their prized possession had shown so much promise so early, but now faced an uncertain future going forward. Fernandez’ return to the mound came roughly half-way through the season last year. Although he performed admirably albeit in limited innings, nothing quite foreshadowed him having a completely dominant 2016 season as he has experienced thus far.
A little more than two years removed from his Tommy John procedure, Fernandez has removed all doubt that he may never quite be the same pitcher again. Watching him, one might actually scoff at the notion that he had any surgery done at all to repair an ulnar collateral ligament considering how dominant he has looked this year. His fastball routinely reaches the mid to high 90’s, according to fangraphs has the highest rated curveball among qualifying pitchers, and on top of all that, Fernandez’s devastating slider has struck out 67 batters this year. A league high for any one pitch. Just how well he uses the pitches at his disposal, can be seen below.
At the tender age of 23, the sky appears to be the limit for the Marlins ace. Assuming he remains healthy this year, whos to say that Fernandez couldn’t go ahead and add a Cy Young to compliment that NL ROY in his trophy case. While the competition will be stiff, with the likes of Kershaw, Jake Arrieta, and another inner-division foe in Noah Syndergaard, all in the midst of strong seasons on clubs that generate considerably more media attention, Fernandez will face an up-hill battle in order to out-shine his tremendously skilled counterparts. However, having already overcome a Tommy John operation, as well as three failed attempts to defect from his native homeland of Cuba before finally succeeding on the fourth, it may not be in ones best interest to ever doubt just what exactly Jose Fernandez is capable of.
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For now, World Series aspirations might be premature for the Miami Marlins. With a good strong nucleus in place, the future does however look bright. And with Jose Fernandez on the bump every fifth day, anything lengthier than a four game losing streak seems inconceivable at this point.