Catching up on: Rico Garcia, sp, Colorado Rockies

This is what I wrote about Rico Garcia in March 2015:

Hawaii Pacific University, on Oahu, is probably most famous for it’s one Alumni that made the Majors, Benny Agbayani. Agbayani was drafted twice, in 1992 and 1993, both times by the Angels. He had a fine major league career: .806 OPS, 39 HR and 1.3 WAR over 5 seasons. Right now there is only one professional player that hails from HPU, and that is Yankee minor league infielder Kale Sumner.

But I would imagine that some of HPU current squad might be joining Sumner in pro ball, highlighted by the teams ace Rico Garcia.

Garcia is having an impressive season. Last week against one of the best D2 teams in the nation (6th Ranked Fresno State), he struck out 10 in 6 innings. He walked a few…but that was more the umpire, who whose love of balls and balks was on full display. He is the Pacific West Conference as Pitcher of the Week, and won again tonight against Holy Names.  He also has a very nice little fan club of family and friends–including his dad–that attends almost all the games.  His dad is a very cool dude, and has been a lot of fun to talk to at games.

On the season he is now 3-0 in 3 games. He has allowed 17 hits in 18 IP, striking out 22 while walking 12. Guys are batting .254 off him.

These stats are good…but D2 stats can sometimes be a little misleading, so just because a guy is putting up good numbers does not necessarily mean his is a legit prospect.

That is not the case here.

This past summer Garcia played in the Northwoods League with the Kenosha Kingfish. He was coming off a stellar season with HPU (4-0, 84 IP, 74 K with a 2.68 ERA). The NWL is second only to the Cape Cod league on the Summer League totem pole, and success there is viewed as pretty legit. Against some of the better college players in the country Garcia put up awesome numbers: 66.1 IP, 49 hits allowed to 51 K for a 1.90 ERA. He was selected to the All-Star team, and was selected as the NWL 10th best prospect by the leagues Field Managers. He did not make the “Baseball America” top 10, but I am thinking that was more because the league blocked BA from talking to the coaches and players because of squabble over BA’s coverage. It’s a bummer, since a full scouting report from the BA staff would have been a lot of fun to read.

Garcia is draft eligible this June, and I have to think that some team is going to snag him. I don’t think that playing at a D2 school has hurt his visibility, and his tools–mid 90’s fast ball, three solid pitches (and I think a fourth, a cutter?). He is 5-11, but has been nothing but a workhorse: last season he pitched a 12 inning complete game, setting a HPU record with 16 K’s. I was reading that his summer league manager Duffy Dyer had plenty of nice things to say about him, noting “[his] advanced for his age in fielding, holding runners on, ability to change speeds and his overall composure on the mound.”

HPU rotation would obviously be hobbled by his loss, but I think that he could easily be dropped into Low-A ball and hold his own. I am not sure how teams handle D2 pitchers, but someone as seasoned as Garcia could probably skip post-draft Rookie/Short Season leagues and just jump into full season ball. Would he be a
reliever or starter? That is a good question. I would think most teams would stick with him as a starter and see how he holds up over a full season, and if needed he could be a power arm out of the pen. Either way, his talent would be put to good use.

Rico was drafted in the 30th round of the 2016 draft by the Rockies. Colorado took it slow with him–for most of 2016 and 2017, he bounced between the rotation and pen with a focus more on process than results. His numbers were generally pretty good. He gave up a decent amount of hits but was able to limit the damage by a mix of low walks and good strikeout numbers. Personally, I got the feeling that the talent was there, and the numbers were good, it was just a matter of getting the innings needed to refine his game. But baseball is tough, and the bar for success for a 30th round pick might be a little higher than most–they are generally pretty expendable–so I think its fair to say that 2018 was an important year for Garcia.

His 2018–has been amazing.

He was good in A-ball, going 7-7 with a 3.42 ERA/1.210 WHIP over 100 innings. Good numbers. Good enough to earn his first two All-Star selections (post and mid-season).

Then he got promoted. Those good numbers turned great. You would think he would struggle initially against AA pitching…but…no. In fact, he was even better. 6-2. 2.28 ERA with 61 K’s to 20 walks. His peripherals only slipped a little against much more advanced hitters–which speaks to his talent. His most impressive start was on 20 August, when he went 8 innings and only allowed 8 hits while striking out 10 Trenton batters.

Its been really neat seeing Garcia develop, and I am excited to see what happens next.