MESA, Ariz. — When the Minnesota Twins decided to promote their fastest-rising pitching star to the majors in the summer of 2006, the minor-league pitching coordinator was asked if the kid was ready.
"His stuff is ready," said the coach.
Not quite five years later, as he takes the mound for his Wrigley Field debut today, that still might be the best way to describe Matt Garza with certainty.
The stuff has always been there, since the day he was drafted in the first round out of Fresno State through his American League Championship Series MVP performance his first full year in the big leagues in 2008, through a 15-win season in the rugged AL East last year.
Electric stuff that starts with a hard, heavy fastball he used almost exclusively in his no-hitter against Detroit last July.
The only question has been the other stuff. The electric temper that tended to short and spark during games, sometimes turning a little damage into a big inning, or a loss — and in one highly publicized case turning pitcher against catcher on the mound and then moments later in the dugout, with TV cameras rolling.
Garza hasn't had an incident rise to that level since that 2008 run-in with his Tampa Bay catcher Dioner Navarro, likely at least in part because of the work he started doing with a sports psychologist soon after that.
But it's one of the first questions that came up in January when the Cubs traded for Garza in that eight-player deal with Tampa Bay, sending him out of a small media market for the first time in his career and into one of the most ardent, passionate, vocal places in baseball.
"We did a lot of [background] work on him," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "Obviously, he was able to handle himself on the biggest stage in the biggest games [in the playoffs and World Series]. And part of the emotion that he has, we like. I've always been from the school of thought that you'd rather have to have a guy notch it down a little bit than have to jump-start him."
But Garza has also toned it down noticeably since his minor-league days with the Twins — when friction over development of secondary pitches caused a longer stretch in the minors in '07 — and his first season or two in the big leagues.
"That kind of goes with age," he said of learning to channel his emotions. "Being 27 now and a father of three, it's kind of easy to slow things down. This is how you want to be portrayed and how you want to be seen.
"Of course, I get angry. Being a competitor and being fiery, you get angry, but you find a way to let it out."
One way is to pause more often from his typical catch-and-fire pace when things aren't going the way he wants on the mound. Having his kids' names written under his cap to look at for inspiration sometimes helps, too.
"His desire to be so, so good sometimes worked against him," said Cubs teammate Carlos Pena, who also spent the last three seasons with Garza in Tampa Bay. "But now he's in the process of learning how to control himself, so that when things do go bad, he still understands, 'Hey, wait a second, a ground ball right here, a double play, I'm out of [the inning] with only one run scored.'
"To have the presence of mind to be able to control himself and think that way, that's huge. And he has done it better and better and better over the years."
The turning point came that night in Texas in 2008 when Garza got into a shouting match on the mound with Navarro that carried into the dugout, where they had to be separated.
"I got embarrassed," Garza said. "I was embarrassed because everybody saw it. It wasn't in the clubhouse. It was on the field. I not only embarrassed myself, but I embarrassed my family. And having kids, you don't ever want to do that."
As Rays manager Joe Maddon told reporters after Garza pitched the Rays into the World Series that fall, "I confronted him afterward. I'd had it with him. But then he said flat out, 'I need help.'"
That's when Maddon put him together with a sports psychologist he knew.
"And you see what Garza's become," Maddon said.
"You just learn from it and grow," said Garza, who had joined the Rays in a multiplayer trade the previous winter. "I was 24 at the time, 24 in the big leagues and a lot of responsibilities. I was a big name in a trade and trying to live up to the trade. And I figured out the rough way that it's not the right way to handle yourself."
If nothing else, that should be a good starting point after this trade, with Garza again the centerpiece and considered a key player for a team at a crossroads.
"The competitive fire and spirit, the intensity, were well documented in the American League," Hendry said, "and well respected by the American League GMs. I can't tell you how many people called us after we got him and said, 'You're going to love this guy; we'd love to have him.'"
Ezra Shaw
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий