Archive for the ‘Christian Garcia’ Category

While much attention was directed toward Oakland Athletics reliever Jerry Blevins for coming into Tuesday night’s game to shut down the Los Angeles Angels in the ninth inning with runners on the corners and none out, there was another impressive performance from an unlikely source this week that went somewhat unnoticed.

Washington Nationals reliever Christian Garcia, whom I wrote about last week, has an incredible story; and that story has only gotten better since the two-time Tommy John surgery recipient was called up when rosters expanded to make his big league debut on September 4th. The 27-year-old right-hander with an average fastball velocity of 97 miles per hour that is quite nicely complimented by his multiple swing-and-miss off-speed and breaking pitches, has taken full advantage of his opportunities.

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Over this past weekend, Bill Parker tackled an interesting issue for Getting Blanked, attempting to give credence to the much maligned Major League Baseball policy of expanding active rosters from 25 to 40 during the month of September. And while Parker makes a valiant effort of defending the more outlandish points that Joel Sherman made in his piece for the New York Post disparaging roster expansion, there is one argument that is truly difficult to counter.

Here is how you know it is stupid: If the rule didn’t exist and you proposed it today, the 30 general managers would laugh you out of the room.

Since this was written, word broke that MLB was considering changes to their September roster policy. While these changes aren’t likely to be as severe as some of the more interesting ideas being floated around, it seems as though the league might be ready to admit that the rules governing rosters during the last month of the regular season are a bit silly.

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