Cards found a gem in Game 3 starter Garcia

Jaime Garcia is testimony to old-fashioned scouting. The Game 3 starter for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium on Tuesday afternoon could just as easily be back home in Mission, Texas, trying to get by. But St. Louis scout Joe Almaraz wouldn't let it happen. Thanks to a tip from a friend, Almaraz came across Garcia back in the spring of 2004, when Garcia was a junior in high school but old enough that he was draft eligible. At the time, Almaraz was working for the Baltimore Orioles. When the 2004 draft got into its third day, Almaraz convinced the Orioles to use their 30th-round choice on the left-hander, who was born in Reynosa, Mexico, but moved to Texas at a young age when his father took a job as a civil engineer. Garcia, however, got lost in the shuffle in Baltimore. "Everyone (Baltimore) drafted had to take a test before we could sign him," Almaraz said. "He did not do well on the test. The problem is he took the test in Spanish, and the interpretation of the test from English to Spanish was wrong. Baltimore didn't sign him." That was to become St. Louis' gain. Following the 2004 draft, Baltimore replaced scouting director Tony DeMacio. In the scouting shuffle, DeMacio's replacement, Joe Jordan, let Almaraz go. St. Louis gave him a job and Almaraz again went to bat for Garcia. He convinced the Cardinals to select him in the 22nd round in 2005. Once he signed, the work began for Garcia. After the disappointment in Baltimore, Garcia fell out of shape and was out of sight of scouts, having used up his high school eligibility. Teams in Mexico did make offers, but Almaraz explained to Garcia that if he signed in Mexico he would become property of that team and it would make it more complicated for him to get to the big leagues. When St. Louis did sign him in July 2005, it was to a 2006 contract. Almaraz knew Garcia wasn't ready to compete in 2005 and didn't want to have him create a bad first impression once he started to play pro ball. "He was so out of shape that he stayed with me that (2005) summer when I managed our team in the Appalachian League," said Almaraz. "The idea was to get him in shape and have him ready for instructional league. That summer in Johnson City, all he did was run and pitch simulated games. "There is no way he could have pitched in game in the shape he was in. He would have gotten hurt. We talked about making sure he did things the right way because the idea was to pitch in the big leagues." Garcia, obviously, listened. Despite a detour in following the 2008 season, when reconstructive left elbow surgery limited him to 37-23 innings in 2009, Garcia made it to the big leagues for good in the spring of 2010. "I felt good about him," said Almaraz. "I felt he was driven to be in the big leagues." He has made himself a key member of the Cardinals' rotation the past two seasons. And he has given every indication he is driven to stay around for a while, too, with back-to-back 13 wins seasons and a 3.27 career ERA. And he has earned the respect of manager Tony La Russa, so that the Cardinals look at their best-of-five series with Philadelphia optimistically in light of the fact they split the first two games in Philadelphia and have Garcia set to take the mound in Game 3 at Busch Stadium. He is 16-9 in 35 career appearances, 30 starts, at Busch Stadium, with a 2.37 ERA, and he has allowed hitters a paltry .231 batting average. "He has done everything that we ever asked him to do," Almaraz said. "A lot of kids you sign have a chance to play in the big leagues if they do what they are told to do. We are there to help them get there. Jaime is one of those kids who listened to what we talked about and he did what he was told." And the Cardinals took advantage of the Orioles' oversight.