Editor’s note: 24-year-old Miami Marlins right-handed pitcher Jose Fernandez was tragically killed along with two others in a boating accident early Sunday morning. Fernandez was an alumnus of the 2010 Perfect Game National Showcase, the 2010 Perfect Game All-American Classic, and the 2010 PG WWBA World Championship. He was a first-round draft pick in 2011 and made his major league debut in 2013. We at Perfect Game would like to extend our deepest condolences to the friends and family members – which includes his father Ramon, mother Maritza, sister Yadenis and grandmother Olga – of Fernandez and the two others that were killed.
THE IMPACT JOSE FERNANDEZ HAD ON MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL was swift and profound, earning 2013 National League Rookie of the Year honors pitching for the Miami Marlins just two years after the Marlins’ had selected him with the 14th overall pick of the first-round in the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft.
But before Fernandez reached big-league super-stardom and after he had survived several harrowing escape attempts from his native Cuba (see below), Fernandez had just as quickly established himself as a Florida high school pitching phenom.
He led Tampa’s Alonso High School to the 2011 Florida Class 6A State Championship just months after he made lasting impressions at the 2010 Perfect Game National Showcase, the 2010 Perfect Game All-American Classic and, finally, at the 2010 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
At the 2010 PG All-American Classic Awards Banquet, Fernandez was the recipient of the coveted Nick Adenhart Award, given out annually to the prospect who has shown outstanding character and courage during his young life up to that point in his career.
Scouts, coaches and fellow players will long remember Fernandez’s Most Valuable Pitcher performances at the 2010 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter while pitching for Jared Goodwin and FTB Mizuno. Javier Baez, Francisco Lindor, Henry Owens, Daniel Vogelbach, Jesse Winker and Tyler Marlette were among Fernandez’s FTB Mizuno teammates in 2010.
Not quite a year ago, PG had a conversation with Goodwin, who is now the recruiting coordinator at FIU, in which he reflected on Hernandez’s performances in Jupiter. What follows is what was written in the piece, published in October 2015:
And then there’s a prospect like Fernandez, who everyone knew was special coming in. The Emperor of Japan probably had an opinion about the 6-foot-3, 215-pound 18-year-old from Tampa with the 97 mph fastball and absolutely devastating 83 mph slider who was named the 2010 PG WWBA World Championship Most Valuable Pitcher.
There is no need to remind Goodwin of the details involving Fernandez’s two appearances that weekend; it’s probably not necessary to refresh the minds of the hundreds of scouts that watched him pitch during those outings. Goodwin, the head coach at Hegarty High School in Oviedo, Fla., during the spring, was accompanied by his long-time Hegarty HS pitching coach and former minor league pitcher Derek Griffith, and they enjoyed the view from two of the best seats in the house.
Fernandez told Goodwin and Griffith that he would be willing to throw 45 to 50 pitches in the opener against the Reds Midwest Scout Team on Thursday and then would be good for another 50 to 60 pitches in a Sunday playoff game, if such a schedule could be accommodated. Game on, the coaches told him.
The pool-play game between FTB Mizuno and Reds Midwest ended in a 0-0 tie. Afterwards, Griffin walked over from the bullpen after watching Fernandez pitch for the first time and Goodwin asked him what he thought.
“He said that was the most impressive thing he had ever seen from an 18-year-old kid,” Goodwin recalled during our conversation. “I said, ‘Come on,’ and he said, ‘No. I just called my dad on the walk over here and told him I had just seen a big-leaguer throw.’ That was how it started with Jose.”
When Fernandez was marched back out there for the Sunday night playoff game against the Dallas Patriots, hundreds of scouts parked a hundred golf carts all around Field Blue 7 at the Roger Dean complex and watched him throw five more seemingly effortless shutout innings.
It’s important to note the Patriots’ lineup included high-end hitting prospects Josh Bell and Trevor Story, both of whom are now in the big leagues. In Goodwin’s recollection, Fernandez allowed just two hits in the 8-0 victory: singles to Bell and Story.
Andy Stack, an area scout for the Cincinnati Reds and the manager of that 2010 Reds Midwest Scout Team, was in awe watching Fernandez pitch in Jupiter.
“He was electric, and it wasn’t just the stuff,” Stack told PG on Monday. “The stuff was obviously top-shelf, but I was impressed by the command. He threw fastballs where he wanted to, he threw breaking balls where he wanted to and you could tell he was a competitive kid. It was the best amateur performance that I had ever seen … and that still holds today.
“It’s Jupiter and you think the team that you bring there is going to be competitive … and I’ve never seen a team have no chance against a guy. That’s what it was with us that day.”
Please follow the link below to read a 2011 Draft Preview written by Perfect Game Vice President of Player Personnel David Rawnsley, which was published in April 2011:
Jose Fernandez Pre-Draft Report
The following Soundcloud audio files share the thoughts of Perfect Game founder and President Jerry Ford and former FTB coach Jered Goodwin as they reminisce on Jose Fernandez' career with Daron Sutton as part of Sunday night's MLB Roundtrip with Perfect Game program on MLB Network Radio.