You all know what happened this past Sunday. One of my– and the game’s– favorite players died. Selfishly, I was upset. I never knew the guy, and my team, the Atlanta Braves, had recently thrown at his head. But now he’s gone. He leaves behind a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten– Dave Cameron can’t wait to tell his children about Jose Fernandez, and the Marlins are going to retire his number so that little kids who attend games will forever ask their parents about Number 16– but I think Max summed it up perfectly on Sunday: this sucks.

A few days have passed and baseball had its Jose Fernandez wake on Monday, and Dee Gordon hit the most important and magical homerun of his life. But I still feel like Jose Fernandez is around. I am not going to try to do any sort of tribute article; I simply would not do a good job if I tried. Someone a year younger than me dying leaves me a bit scatterbrained.

Instead, I’ll try and write a baseball article, which I think will be difficult and awkward, but necessary. The realization crept into my head today that Jose Fernandez is going to appear on Cy Young ballots. The voters list their top 3 pitchers and Fernandez leads the Majors in fWAR, is second in strikeouts, and while he sits 8th in ERA, he actually leads the league in the two primary ERA predictors, FIP and xFIP. He was among the top handful of starting pitchers in the game in his first real season back from Tommy John.

To continue reading about Jose Fernandez Cy Young voting, please visit my full website at Off The Bench.

By Josh:

The passing of Jose Fernandez has come as a great shock and a huge blow to the baseball community. Teammates, coaches, competitors, and fans have all been at a loss for words after the news broke yesterday.

I too have just been in a little bit of a daze.  I never met Jose, never watched him play in person, but he was a part of the baseball community/family. Baseball brings strangers together, and when a talented player, and by all accounts amazing person, dies way to young it affects the entire baseball family.

Read the rest of What happens to the Marlins now via 9 Inning Know It All.

Ian Anderson is 6’3″ 170′ 18-year-old out of Shenendehowa High School in Rexford, New York. He was selected third overall by the Braves in the 2016 MLB Draft. He has a hard fastball with growing offspeed pitches. He currently can throw 90-94 with a potential to add more velocity. He has a big gap between the speed in his off-speed pitches and has room to create two pitches out of his curveball. He has some red flags regarding injury potential and needs to clean up his mechanics and generate more energy up the chain in his lower half. He has lightning quick arm speed that helps compensate at the moment. When fully matured and refined he could be a real ace.

Ian Anderson’s Scouting Report

Reports are pouring in that Miami Marlins star pitcher Jose Fernandez has sadly died in a tragic boating accident.

Details are sparse at this point but the death has been confirmed by multiple sources. Baseball has lost one of its youngest and brightest stars.

The 24-year-old right-handed native of Cuba (later came to the United States) came to the Marlins as a first-round draft choice in 2011 out of high school. He made the majors just two years later, and despite undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014, came back as good as ever.

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The Winter League helps players work on their weaknesses, their game plan and do so facing more advanced levels of competition. It also has the obvious benefit of helping stay in shape. For many these factors assist them to get to spring training with a more distinct advantage over those that stick to the gym and home based development work. The competitive level in these league don’t allow managers to treat this tournament as development leagues since they are there to win, we have seen times with four different managers in a season including switching managers in Playoffs, even in Finals!

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