By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Lou Piniella took a moment 10 days ago to put Freddy Garcia’s potential in a nutshell.
“He’s young and big and strong,” Piniella said. “I would venture to bet he’s getting closer and closer to pitching complete games.”
Three days later, the Seattle Mariners’ 24-year-old right-hander made his manger a prophet. He shut out the Angels last Sunday in Anaheim for his first complete game of the season and the third of his career.
Three days after that, Garcia was named to the American League All-Star team.
What’s next? A ride to greatness that only pitchers with names like Johnson, Maddux and Clemens achieve?
That’s still a little far off but, yeah, says Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price.
After his complete game three-hit shutout Friday night against the Dodgers, Garcia was 10-1 with a x.xx earned run average and, perhaps more impressive, had pitched into the seventh inning or beyond in ten straight starts.
“He has the potential to be a legitimate No. 1 starter with the Johnsons and the Madduxes,” Price said, with emphasis on “potential.”
Garcia is a fastball-sinker-changeup pitcher who can make hitters look feeble when he is sharp both physically and mentally. It was always those moments of mental malaise that left people talking more about his potential than his accomplishments.
In the past eight weeks, however, Garcia seemed to turn a corner, Price said. He found the motivation to go along with his stuff.
“When you turn the corner, you’re all the way around the corner,” Price said. “A pitcher who does that doesn’t go back around the other side of the building. Freddy has teetered on greatness, and in the month of June, he made a pretty hard turn.”
Price gives credit to Garcia’ maturity, but not in the typical definition of the word.
“The first thing people think when they hear the word maturity is that it’s a negative,” he said. “As a baseball player, it’s a whole different thing. It may be a case of not having enough experience to understand what it takes to get away from a big inning so you can get back to being focused. The whole mental side that people talk about is really relevant. Maturity is more than a word or a term.
“You understand the circumstance you’re in, and if you go at it with a clear head, you will get through it.”
As a result, Garcia has been not only the Mariners’ best pitcher the past two months, he’s been one of the best in the American League.
“He can learn from his experience and take the things he didn’t do well and do better the next time out,” Price said. “He has that on his mind now. He’s looking at the things he did well and worked to continue them. And he has taken the negative and gone out and improved on them.”
Price only hopes that being named to the All-Star team will instill a feeling of responsibility in Garcia that forces him to make the most of his talent.
“Hopefully something like this tells him that more than it does coming from me and Lou,” Price said. “There certainly are no negatives to it. Hopefully after he gets that taste of it he will be driven to be acknowledged as an All-Star, and that this will be the first of many.”
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