There is a special player down in South Florida. The Miami Marlins have struggled all year, there is no secret in that, but one of the few bright spots has been the play of 20 year old rookie Jose Fernandez.
Fernandez got off to a hot start in the first half of the season, and somehow managed to only get hotter after the all-star break. Don’t let the 11-6 record fool you. He has received virtually no run support this season and sports a sparkling 2.23 ERA. He has nasty swing-and-miss stuff evident with his 182 strikeouts in 165.2 innings pitched.
His talent isn’t the only thing that he has going for him this year. His exuberance is off the charts. By all accounts he is a fantastic teammate and you can sense a different electricity in the air between the fans and his teammates when he pitches. There is no mistaking how much he loves the game.
His excitement definitely got the best of him tonight against the Braves. After showing some displeasure with the length of time that Brian McCann watched his homerun earlier in the game, Fernandez hit his first homerun of the season and made sure to just stand there and admire his handiwork. This drew the ire of many of the Braves and before Fernandez headed back to the dugout he decided to go toe-to-toe with McCann which caused both benches to clear and some elementary school shoving to commence.
No one was ejected but Fernandez may have the last laugh. Fernandez currently has a higher batting average (.191) then his opponents do on the season (.181).
Fernandez absolutely deserves to be the rookie of the year.