Luis Garcia's injury might have been a blessing in disguise

Yeah if Garcia starts sitting at 95 next season he’s a completely different beast. Maybe unlikely but considering how much movement he has in his delivery, it’s possible a mechanical change would lead to better results

 

I could be wrong....

Just saying I don't believe Garcia was really injured.

But "injury" allows next pitcher unlimited warmup. So glad it worked in Astros favor in that regard.

If Garcia's delivery was truly hampering him, seems Astros would've spotted it sooner.

Again, glad it seems everything had mostly worked out up until this point. Garcia did excellent his last start and majority of the season.

 

There was no need to fake an injury - the Astros could have brought in a regular reliever to clean up that inning and just had Jake start the next inning with proper warmup. You don't want to bring in Jake with that kind of awkward warmup situation (on the mound in front of fans instead of relaxed in the bullpen, etc) and with runners on base already anyway - it's nothing like his normal routine and you're not going to get the best your pitcher that way. It seems like a lot of effort to fake an injury and then keep repeating and expanding on the fake injury for the next week just to do something that had no particular benefit.

 

I've seen teams shut down their young aces because they taxed around 150 innings so what Garcia did against a frightening lineup on Friday was very impressive. Do it again.

 

Nice article. Goes to show how much those little technical details can make or break a season.

 

I doubt Garcia comes out throwing 96-97 in anything other than a playoff setting. The man was gassed 70 pitches in.

But considering his average fastball clocked in at 93.3 MPH, raising that to 94.5-ish could be enough to push Garcia from a 3.4~3.8 ERA 2nd/3rd starter to a Lance/Framber level borderline ace.

 

Astros used seven relievers one day prior. They were down four runs already with no outs in the 2nd inning with nobody warming. Astros simply wanted someone to tread water and eat innings at that point. Injury allowing long relief was the best way to counteract the situation.

Garcia was able to miraculously not miss his next start. He should give McCullers the formula.

 

This. He showed over the course of the season he’s a capable #4 on a contender, but Game 6 showed he could be a #2. That description pretty much fits McCullers, Framber, Garcia, and Urquidy, to varying degrees.

 

He's not a player but Brent Strom should be considered MVP. Alvarez was great but if Stros pitching was still giving up Grand Slams like the did in games 2 and 3 even with Alvarez batting out of his mind it would've been very hard to win this series.

 

If he can consistently throw 95+ mph on his fastball, Garcia suddenly earns Ace potential.

 

Not everything is a scheme or plan. Pitchers get removed for injuries and don't miss subsequent starts. If they wanted someone to tread water and eat innings, why couldn't that person be Garcia? He came out after walking the leadoff hitter. Maldy called the trainer out so he obviously spotted a problem. Or, did they plan this in the dugout in the top of the second?

 

Always love this forum for the great insight and articles. It's truly wonderful to have WS baseball back again. I'm amped for Garcia for next year now.

 

I don't think any injury is a blessing in any form or in hindsight.

There are just those things that work out and those that don't. This one did.

 

Before arm fatigue kicked in he had 3.37 FIP, was striking out 29% of the batters he faced and was consistently getting through 5.

Capable #4 seems more than a little conservative for all of them save for Urquidy. How damn good do you expect rotations to be?

 

Well, I was being conservative. I’m not banking on sustainment or improvement from him. If he repeats his overall 2021 performance every year he’s more of a contender’s #3. If he is able to increase his innings and sustain his performance then he’s more of a #2. If he’s able to both increase his innings and increase his velocity then he’d be an ace. But for a floor of what he’s “proven” I think it’s safer to classify him as a contender’s #4 for now. That’s not really a negative thing as like I said it puts him in the same class of pitcher as LMC, Framber, and Urquidy.

But yes, I expect true contenders to have pretty stacked rotations.

 

If you look at all of the AL contenders over the last decade save for us in 18/19, rotations don't get as good as you expect them to be. We were just barely edged out by Chicago this season in starters ERA and we were also 2nd in starter innings.

 

Unless you thought Odorizzi was going to go 8 innings, this has no relevance. If you bring a reliever in the 2nd and Odorizzi in the 3rd, then Odorizzi just pitches into the 6th instead of the 5th or whatever he did. You'll use the same number of relievers in either case. If anything, giving him a proper warm up and setting him up for success could let you get more innings out of him.

Weird how different injuries have different solutions / recovery times.

 

Nobody was warming

Not sure why posters aren't open to the idea the Astros pulled a fast one.

Props to Dusty and Co for doing it

 

WS winners tend to be top heavy in SP (this year will hopefully be an exception; if Atlanta wins then Morton qualifies as a ToR guy for sure). Top 3 SP of last 5 WS winners:

2020: Kershaw, Buehler, Urias/May (3.57/2.57) era
2019: Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin
2018: Sale, Price, Porcello/Rodriguez
2017: Verlander, Morton, Keuchel
2016: Arrieta, Lester, Hendricks

Every one of those teams had CY candidate and the vast majority of those guys were pretty established ToR SP.