USA TODAY International Edition
National Cubans
Cuban exiles clear favorites for NL honor
NL rookie of the year favorites Yasiel Puig and Jose Fernandez are representing Cuba well,
They hail from the same country and endured similar hardships before arriving in the USA. Their impact and roles once they got to the majors have been considerably different, though, making for a fascinating race for the National League’s top rookie between Cuban exiles Jose Fernandez and Yasiel Puig.
They garnered the large majority of the votes from a USA TODAY Sports panel and, barring stunning developments in September, figure to contest the award until the end of the season.
Fernandez holds a 10- point lead on Puig in the most recent voting, a sign his season- long brilliance carries more weight than Puig’s splashy first several weeks.
By the time he was legally allowed to drink a beer July 31, Fernandez had made the All- Star Game — where he struck out two in a scoreless inning — and become the ace of the Miami Marlins staff.
Armed with a high- 90s fastball and a devilish curveball, Fernandez has become the second- hardest pitcher to hit in the NL, holding opponents to a .188 batting average. Only Clayton Kershaw’s .182, entering his start Tuesday, is better.
And Fernandez might be improving every game. He lowered his season ERA from 2.83 on July 7 to his current 2.30. Should it hold, that would be the lowest ERA for a rookie starter in either league since 1970, better than such first- year wonders as Mark Fidrych ( 2.34 ERA for the Detroit Tigers in 1976) and Fernando Valenzuela ( 2.48 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981).
Currently in the majors, only Ker- shaw ( 1.72) and the now- injured Matt Harvey ( 2.27) boast a better ERA.
Fernandez reached the All- Star Game — which Puig didn’t make — with a pedestrian 5- 5 record, hurt by poor run support provided by his last- place team.
But he has been unbeaten since then, improving to 10- 5. In his 15 starts beginning June 1, Fernandez went 8- 2 with a 1.52 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 1001⁄3 innings, allowing opponents more than two earned runs once.
Puig’s case is nearly as compelling, and it comes accompanied by all the hoopla you’d expect from a Hollywood- type story.
The injury- depleted Dodgers were 23- 32, buried in last place in the NL West and the butt of jokes about their profligate ways, when the hardcharging outfielder arrived June 3.
Entering Tuesday, the Dodgers had gone 54- 22 since then, and while the return to health of Hanley Ramirez and Zack Greinke often gets lost in the narrative, there’s no doubt Puig’s presence revitalized the team.
His spectacular throws, daring baserunning and flair for the dramat- ic have captured the imagination of the country’s second- largest media market, giving birth to Puigmania.
Puig has kept on producing after his astonishing June (. 436 batting average) but not at nearly the same pace. He was batting .346 with 13 homers and an impressive .967 onbase- plus- slugging percentage. He had seven RBI in August, though, the same number as in July.
It’s worth noting that, according to Baseball- Reference. com, Puig has a wins above replacement ( WAR) figure of 4.0, remarkable for a player who was in the minors for the first two months of the season.
Fernandez’s WAR comes in at 5.3, an indication that, while position players might have more chances to impact their team’s fortunes, being around for the full season carries extra value.