Post by Fish Troll on Apr 30, 2007 21:52:22 GMT -5
Garko clutch in unexpected role
Indians first baseman gets a shot at an everyday job
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
CLEVELAND -- Be it the lineup or the ballpark, the Indians just can't keep Ryan Garko away.
He arrives at the yard around 1 p.m. for a 7:05 p.m. game, and that's a testament to two things -- his dedication to his work, and his dedication to his stomach.
After all, what better place is there to grab a quick lunch than a big-league clubhouse?
"There's always something to eat here," Garko said with a smile.
It's safe to assume Garko will be enjoying the Major League spreads for some time. As for his near-daily presence in the Tribe's starting lineup, well, that also looks pretty secure these days.
Garko might have reported to Spring Training with a 50-50 shot to make the club, and he might have broken camp with the team as a platoon player at first base. But a month into the season, because of his performance at the plate, his improvement in the field and an injury to Andy Marte, he's manager Eric Wedge's first option at first base.
When Marte went down with a hamstring strain last week, the Indians could have brought up another infielder to help out at third base. Rather, they moved Casey Blake to third, made the call to outfielder Shin-Soo Choo and gave Garko the starting nod.
As you might imagine, it's a development that sits just fine with Garko.
"I'm not going to settle for anything," he said. "I know I was one of the last guys to make the team, but I didn't want to settle for a bench role or even a platoon role. I want to establish myself as an everyday player. As a young guy, that's got to be your goal, to prove you can come in and do it, day in and day out. Hopefully this is an opportunity to get some at-bats and play every day in the middle of the lineup."
If his productivity during the last two months of the '06 season and the first month of '07 is any indication, that's a place Garko belongs.
Last season, called up to fill an injured Blake's roster spot in early August, Garko was expected to spend most of his time on the pine. But he drove in runs at such a prodigious clip -- 45 RBIs in 50 games, when all was said and done -- that Wedge had no choice but to make him a fixture in the lineup.
This year, he's batting .255 (14-for-55) in the early going, but he's been one of the Tribe's top hitters in the clutch. On April 22, the 26-year-old Garko came through with the ninth-inning, three-run homer that propelled the Tribe to a 6-4 victory at Tampa Bay. The next night, in the Metrodome, he punched a bloop RBI single to right in the top of the 12th to spark a four-run rally that gave the Indians a 7-3 win over the division-rival Twins.
"Certain guys want to be up there in those situations," Wedge said after the latter victory. "They want to be up there with the game on the line. Ryan is one of them."
Garko learned early in his baseball career that coming through in the clutch is a fine art.
When he was a member of three College World Series runner-up teams at Stanford, his coach, Mark Marquess, preached the value of having a two-strike approach so often and so feverishly that Garko and his teammates would poke fun at him.
But Garko's not laughing now.
"It's a big reason I'm in the big leagues," he said of those lessons.
Garko's two-strike approach, particularly in RBI situations, is to sacrifice some of his swing for the good of the team. He chokes up slightly, swapping a little power for a little more accuracy.
"You're definitely giving something up," he said. "A lot of guys have a problem with giving something up. But I feel it gives me the most opportunity to put a pitch into play. If you're comfortable hitting with two strikes, you don't have to be so aggressive early in the count. You can work some counts and see some pitches. I was never a big believer in that until I got to the big leagues, and I started to understand the importance of pitch counts."
For further advice on how to handle two-strike counts, Garko doesn't have to make a long-distance call to any of his old Stanford connections. All he has to do is turn toward the locker next to him and solicit the attention of Travis Hafner.
In his relatively short time with the Tribe, Garko has made Hafner a tutor, of sorts.
"I've been picking his brain every time on the bus or plane or whatever," Garko said. "It just looks like he's never off-balance at the plate. Even if it's something in the dirt, he's not lunging at it."
But don't go calling Hafner "Professor Pronk" just yet. Picking his brain, he said, "doesn't take very long."
Or maybe Hafner just believes Garko doesn't have a heck of a lot to learn, given his accomplishments in the bigs.
"He's competitive at the plate," Hafner said of Garko. "That's probably one of the main things in hitting, is you have to have confidence and you have to want to go up there and get a hit. He's fouling off tough pitchers' pitches, and he always goes up there and wants to hit."
Hitting, alone, won't make Garko a mainstay on a team that has Hafner at its disposal as the DH. Garko knows he can't be a liability in the field, where his work at first remains a steady work in progress.
"There's one or two situations that come up every game where Wedge, [infield coach] Luis [Rivera] and I talk," Garko said. "But I feel I make all the plays that should be made. I feel like I'm continuing to improve and getting to more balls than I did last year."
Once Marte returns, the Indians might move Garko back to more of a platoon role.
But even if that's the case, it's a given that he'll still be one of the first to report to the yard, he'll still work to hone his skills at the plate and in the field and he'll still soak up all that life in the Majors has to offer -- lunch and all.
"I love it here," he said, taking a glance around the Tribe's locker room. "It's still so cool to be in a big-league clubhouse."
Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Indians first baseman gets a shot at an everyday job
By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com
CLEVELAND -- Be it the lineup or the ballpark, the Indians just can't keep Ryan Garko away.
He arrives at the yard around 1 p.m. for a 7:05 p.m. game, and that's a testament to two things -- his dedication to his work, and his dedication to his stomach.
After all, what better place is there to grab a quick lunch than a big-league clubhouse?
"There's always something to eat here," Garko said with a smile.
It's safe to assume Garko will be enjoying the Major League spreads for some time. As for his near-daily presence in the Tribe's starting lineup, well, that also looks pretty secure these days.
Garko might have reported to Spring Training with a 50-50 shot to make the club, and he might have broken camp with the team as a platoon player at first base. But a month into the season, because of his performance at the plate, his improvement in the field and an injury to Andy Marte, he's manager Eric Wedge's first option at first base.
When Marte went down with a hamstring strain last week, the Indians could have brought up another infielder to help out at third base. Rather, they moved Casey Blake to third, made the call to outfielder Shin-Soo Choo and gave Garko the starting nod.
As you might imagine, it's a development that sits just fine with Garko.
"I'm not going to settle for anything," he said. "I know I was one of the last guys to make the team, but I didn't want to settle for a bench role or even a platoon role. I want to establish myself as an everyday player. As a young guy, that's got to be your goal, to prove you can come in and do it, day in and day out. Hopefully this is an opportunity to get some at-bats and play every day in the middle of the lineup."
If his productivity during the last two months of the '06 season and the first month of '07 is any indication, that's a place Garko belongs.
Last season, called up to fill an injured Blake's roster spot in early August, Garko was expected to spend most of his time on the pine. But he drove in runs at such a prodigious clip -- 45 RBIs in 50 games, when all was said and done -- that Wedge had no choice but to make him a fixture in the lineup.
This year, he's batting .255 (14-for-55) in the early going, but he's been one of the Tribe's top hitters in the clutch. On April 22, the 26-year-old Garko came through with the ninth-inning, three-run homer that propelled the Tribe to a 6-4 victory at Tampa Bay. The next night, in the Metrodome, he punched a bloop RBI single to right in the top of the 12th to spark a four-run rally that gave the Indians a 7-3 win over the division-rival Twins.
"Certain guys want to be up there in those situations," Wedge said after the latter victory. "They want to be up there with the game on the line. Ryan is one of them."
Garko learned early in his baseball career that coming through in the clutch is a fine art.
When he was a member of three College World Series runner-up teams at Stanford, his coach, Mark Marquess, preached the value of having a two-strike approach so often and so feverishly that Garko and his teammates would poke fun at him.
But Garko's not laughing now.
"It's a big reason I'm in the big leagues," he said of those lessons.
Garko's two-strike approach, particularly in RBI situations, is to sacrifice some of his swing for the good of the team. He chokes up slightly, swapping a little power for a little more accuracy.
"You're definitely giving something up," he said. "A lot of guys have a problem with giving something up. But I feel it gives me the most opportunity to put a pitch into play. If you're comfortable hitting with two strikes, you don't have to be so aggressive early in the count. You can work some counts and see some pitches. I was never a big believer in that until I got to the big leagues, and I started to understand the importance of pitch counts."
For further advice on how to handle two-strike counts, Garko doesn't have to make a long-distance call to any of his old Stanford connections. All he has to do is turn toward the locker next to him and solicit the attention of Travis Hafner.
In his relatively short time with the Tribe, Garko has made Hafner a tutor, of sorts.
"I've been picking his brain every time on the bus or plane or whatever," Garko said. "It just looks like he's never off-balance at the plate. Even if it's something in the dirt, he's not lunging at it."
But don't go calling Hafner "Professor Pronk" just yet. Picking his brain, he said, "doesn't take very long."
Or maybe Hafner just believes Garko doesn't have a heck of a lot to learn, given his accomplishments in the bigs.
"He's competitive at the plate," Hafner said of Garko. "That's probably one of the main things in hitting, is you have to have confidence and you have to want to go up there and get a hit. He's fouling off tough pitchers' pitches, and he always goes up there and wants to hit."
Hitting, alone, won't make Garko a mainstay on a team that has Hafner at its disposal as the DH. Garko knows he can't be a liability in the field, where his work at first remains a steady work in progress.
"There's one or two situations that come up every game where Wedge, [infield coach] Luis [Rivera] and I talk," Garko said. "But I feel I make all the plays that should be made. I feel like I'm continuing to improve and getting to more balls than I did last year."
Once Marte returns, the Indians might move Garko back to more of a platoon role.
But even if that's the case, it's a given that he'll still be one of the first to report to the yard, he'll still work to hone his skills at the plate and in the field and he'll still soak up all that life in the Majors has to offer -- lunch and all.
"I love it here," he said, taking a glance around the Tribe's locker room. "It's still so cool to be in a big-league clubhouse."
Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070430&content_id=1938435&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
