Garza Lands in Tampa Bay Rotation

December 3, 2007 @ 10:13:18

By Art Morath
Edited by Tim Heaney

The Tampa Bay Rays acquired starting pitcher Matt Garza to bolster their 2008 starting rotation Wednesday, Nov. 28 in a six-player trade. Garza is a highly touted righthander and was one of the key players in the deal that also sent outfielder Delmon Young to the Minnesota Twins. Garza, who turned 24 years old on November 26, will likely follow 23-year-old Scott Kazmir and 25-year-old James Shields in the Rays rotation. Kazmir is the reigning AL strikeout leader and Shields started popping up on the fantasy radar when he began the 2007 season with a 6-0 record. Although Kazmir and Shields both posted ERAs under 4.00, the Rays finished last in MLB with a team ERA of 5.53.

Working Up to the Majors

After being drafted by the Twins in the first round in 2005 out of Fresno State, Garza began the 2006 season in advanced Single-A Fort Meyers. He pitched at all three levels of the minors, compiling a record of 14-4 before being called up by the Twins in August 2006. After being called up he struggled, posting a 6.29 ERA in nine starts. He began the 2007 season back with Triple-A Rochester, but in July he was called-up by the Twins and made 15 starts, posting a 5-7 record with a 3.78 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in his starts. He averaged 4.4 strikeouts and 2.1 walks per start while giving up an unimpressive .296 batting average against in his starts.

At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, Garza uses a mid-90s fastball along with a slider, curveball, and change-up. As a young pitcher still learning how to get major league hitters out, Garza can not be considered a finished product yet. In 2007 he worked on developing a change-up in Spring Training and after being sent back to Triple-A. As his off-speed pitches improve and he learns to trust them, Garza will be more imposing to major league hitters who already have trouble catching up to his electric fastball. Garza has had difficulty throwing first-pitch strikes, a weakness of many young pitchers. He has struggled at the major league level when he has tried to rely exclusively on his fastball and when he has run up high pitch counts by falling behind on hitters.

Fantasy Outlook

Garza will now have to pitch in the ultra-competitive AL East, but in a Sept. 30 win at Fenway Park he didn't allow an earned run. Unfortunately Garza threw 109 pitches in just five innings, but he still did very well against the potent Boston Red Sox lineup. For Garza it will be a daunting challenge having to face the New York Yankees and Red Sox lineups on a more frequent basis. In 2008 it should be expected that he will take some lumps against the better offenses, but also show shutdown capabilities from time to time. If Garza can begin to show consistency, he will become much more relevant to fantasy owners.

Garza should be taken in the late rounds of drafts, although he will most likely be taken before then in some drafts by less conservative fantasy players. He has not shown enough yet to warrant a mid-round pick, however he could very well become one of the steals of fantasy drafts if he continues to improve on his expanding pitching arsenal. Garza has all the tools to be a great pitcher, so he may be worth taking a flier on in 2008, especially as a back-end starter in a fantasy rotation.

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Art Morath
Art Morath has been a contributor to KFFL since 2007.

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