Close observers of the Twins might be surprised at Garza's domination after he failed to make the team in spring training, then struggled for three months at Triple-A Rochester. But even closer observers will note that Garza likely was the victim of a phenomenon known as What The Hell Am I Still Doing At Triple-A? Syndrome.You see, some guys who struggle at Triple-A are doing so because, frankly, they suck. But others get mired in a funk because they know -- hell, they've proved -- that they belong in the big leagues. They know there's nothing more for them to prove at Triple-A, and instead of being the happy camper and good soldier when the big club sends them down, they get frustrated staring up at the glass ceiling and wondering why they're still riding buses and eating at Carl's Jr. and the Waffle House.
Last year, Garza joined the Twins in August and went 3-6 down the stretch (with losses of 1-0 and 2-0 thrown in for good measure) and showed enough moxie that most people expected him to make the club this spring. But the Twins sent him down to work on his curve ball (so they say), then gave lesser lights Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker the first two shots to make the rotation after the predictable implosion of Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz.
Meanwhile, Garza stewed, whined about being forced to throw something other than his electric fastball, and posted a 4-6 record with a 4.21 ERA against Triple-A hitters. When the league finally caught up with Slowey, the Twins' brass seemingly had no choice but to bring up Garza and hope his results at Rochester were not indicative of future performance.
And they weren't -- not because Garza came back with a huge chip on his shoulder, trying to prove to Terry Ryan, Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson that they were wrong to send him down this spring. Because if you're trying to prove somebody wrong in baseball, the game will eat you alive. (It's probably the same in all sports, but I only speak from experience with baseball.)
No, Garza has been successful so far (and I suspect he'll continue to impress) because he knew all along that he belongs in the big leagues. Now, instead of being nervous like most young pitchers with less than a year of major league service time under their belts, Garza can finally exhale, relax and do what he knows he's capable of doing. And that's exactly how he's pitched thus far since his callup.
Of course, I have no specific insight into Garza's case because I'm here, not there. This is all just speculation on my part. But I've seen it happen before, and tomorrow I'll point out another member of the What The Hell Am I Still Doing At Triple-A? club who's having a breakout year in 2007.
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4 comments:
I had the pleasure (and displeasure) of attending last night's game. I thought the first inning didn't bode well for Garza, as the Tigers would getting good wood on the ball, and he wasn't fooling anybody with his off-speed stuff. But I've got to hand it to him, he was ahead on almost every count and did a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, the Toothless Twins handed him a loss. The meat of the order struck out often and looked absolutely feeble. Bartlett had his error, Garza got a wild pitch that should have been ruled a passed ball (it is blasphemy to state that Joe Mauer, for all his strengths, is a really average catcher?), and that was that.
I've followed this Twinkies team more than any other, and my conclusion is that if they can get six innings out of any starter and have a lead going into the 7th, they can beat anybody. The problem is, they don't usually have the starting pitching or offensive power to get there.
Astute observations, Mr. C. I think you underrate Mauer a bit -- his skills might be overrated by some (like Dick and Bert) but he's got the rocket arm and does a lot of little things that pitchers and umpires love, like how he receives the ball and frames pitches, etc. I think the Garza wild pitch was in the dirt, so that's automatically going to be ruled a WP, but Mauer blocks that ball about 80 percent of the time.
The bats were frustrating, especially the back-to-back strikeouts by Mauer and Cuddyer in the sixth. And any time you look that feeble against Todd Freaking Jones you know you're struggling. Oh well, it's still going to be a fun second half.
What I'm going to be looking for is how quickly this team can make their little "no offense" slumps go away. In the first half of the season, when they hit a wall, it was a good week or two before they got back on track. They'd better shorten that to, like, one day, or they don't have a chance. They're tied for the lead in the Majors for number of times they've been shut out.
hurry home. can we catch a game while you're in town?? Bring the New Ulm folk so we aren't encoaching on their Fiona and Nora time
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