Freddy García
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Freddy Garcia | |
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| Chicago White Sox — No. 43 | |
| Starting pitcher | |
| Born: June 10, 1976 Caracas, Venezuela |
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| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| April 7, 1999 for the Seattle Mariners | |
| Career statistics (through 2009) |
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| Win–Loss | 121–81 |
| Earned run average | 4.08 |
| Strikeouts | 1301 |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Freddy Antonio García (born June 10, 1976 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan baseball player. He is a right-handed starting pitcher who is with the Chicago White Sox. During his major league career, he pitched for the Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Detroit Tigers. García throws a fastball that can get into the 90s and a hard slider. He also throws a two-seamer, a curve, a changeup and occasionally uses a splitter[1]. Garcia's best year was in 2001 in which he led the American League in innings pitched and ERA. He made the All-Star team in 2001 and 2002. In 2005, he was a member of the World Series winning Chicago White Sox and started the series winning game 4.
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[edit] Major League Baseball career
[edit] Seattle Mariners
Originally signed by the Houston Astros as a non-draft amateur free agent in 1993, García was acquired by Seattle in 1998, along with Carlos Guillén and John Halama in the trade that sent Randy Johnson to the Astros.[2]
During García's rookie season, he pitched 201 innings, compiling a 17-8 record with 170 strikeouts and a 4.07 ERA in 33 starts. After going 9-5 in his second season, he went on to win 18, 16, 12, 13, and 14 games over the course of the next five seasons. Garcia was the American League pitcher on the mound when the 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was called after 11 innings, and ended as a 7-7 tie. The other pitcher was Vicente Padilla of the Philadelphia Phillies.
[edit] Chicago White Sox
Garcia was the starting pitcher in the championship clinching Game 4 of the 2005 World Series for the Chicago White Sox, going 7 innings and allowing no earned runs.
Garcia experienced a bit of controversy at the beginning of the 2006 season when he tested positive for marijuana during the World Baseball Classic.[3]
In 2006, he surpassed 1200 strikeouts for his career. In eight post-season games, he was 5-2 with a 3.56 ERA in 48 innings. Also during 2006, on April 29, García recorded his 103rd career win in a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, surpassing former White Sox left-hander Wilson Alvarez as the Venezuelan native with most career wins in Major League history. He finished the season 17-9 with a 4.53 ERA.[2]
[edit] Philadelphia Phillies
In December 2006, Garcia was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for prospects Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez.[2] While Phillies fans eagerly anticipated Garcia's 2007 season, he failed to live up to expectations. He hid a shoulder injury for the first several months of the season and was finally placed on the disabled list (DL) in June. Garcia made 11 starts before being placed on the DL and earned one win. That win infamously became known in Philadelphia as the "ten million dollar win," in reference to Garcia's ten million dollar salary. He was not re-signed by the Phillies after the 2007 season.
[edit] Detroit Tigers
In August of 2008, García signed a minor league contract with the Detroit Tigers. In his first 2 minor league starts with the Tigers he pitched 5 innings, gave up no runs, and struck out 5. In his Tigers debut in late September, García, with a limited pitch count, threw 5 scoreless innings to get the win.
[edit] New York Mets
In January 2009, García agreed to a minor league deal with the New York Mets. He was released from the Mets on April 28, 2009 because of two bad starts with the Triple-A farm team, Buffalo Bisons[4]. He was released without having appeared on the club's regular season roster.[5][6]
[edit] Second stint with the Chicago White Sox
On June 8, 2009, the Chicago White Sox signed Garcia to a minor league contract.[7] Garcia started on August 18 against the Kansas City Royals for the first time with the White Sox since 2006. In his first game back with the White Sox Garcia went 4.1 IP allowing 5 ER with the game ending in a loss for the White Sox
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1077&position=P
- ^ a b c "White Sox trade Garcia to Phillies for Floyd". Associated Press via ESPN. 2006-12-18. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2689303. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ Sanchez, Jesse (2006-04-30). "Report: Garcia violates IBAF drug policy; Venezuela paper claims positive test for marijuana at Classic". MLB.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060430&content_id=1426450&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ espn.com
- ^ Rubin, Adam (2009-01-23). "Garcia lands with Mets". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/01/garcia-lands-with-mets.html. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ "Mets Sign RHP Freddy Garcia". MLB.com. 2009-01-23. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20090123&content_id=3767870&vkey=pr_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ http://scottmerkin.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/06/freddy_garcia_returns.html
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
| Preceded by Pedro Martínez |
American League ERA Champion 2001 |
Succeeded by Pedro Martínez |
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