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PERSONAL:
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- While Garza was a prospect in high school at Fresno's Washington Union High, where he also played quarterback, he didn't seriously consider signing when the Rockies drafted him in the 40th round in 2002.
His son Matt, Jr., born the day of the draft, making him a father at the age of 18. The baby, Matthew Jr., was a big reason he went to college. Matt and his girlfriend Serina Ortiz now have a daughter Sierra as well, born almost 3 years later.
Matt stayed home to attend Fresno State, a once-proud program in rebuilding mode. He was a part-time starter for his first two seasons, posting a 9.55 ERA as a freshman, before anchoring the Bulldogs rotation as a junior. In 2005, his junior season at Fresno State, he went 6-5 with a 3.07 ERA and 120 strikeouts over 108 innings. He earned Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year honors. The 6-foot-4, 190-pounder also led the WAC in strikeouts and earned first-team all-conference honors. And Garza studied civil engineering.
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Matt works hard and is serious about his pitching career. During the off-season before 2006 spring training, Baseball America rated Matt as the 7th-best prospect in the Twins' organization.
Then, before 2007 spring training, the magazine had Garza as the #1 prospect in the Twins farm system.The Twins named Garza their Minor League Pitcher of the Year for 2006.In May 2007, Matt complained to the Minnesota press about the way the Twins were handling him. That really was the competitor in him.Garza is high-energy and free-spirited. He can also be way to emotional at times.
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Matt is a fan of the video games. He has all three major systems — Xbox, PlayStation 3, and Wii. "I get too excited, too amped when I play," he said. "I like the action games like Call of Duty and war games. I'm so gung-ho I'm right in the middle trying to shoot somebody and I usually die a lot. Sometimes I get calmed down and pick some corners, hide and actually use some strategies." (Marc Topkin-tampabay.com-4/02/08) Garza had a scuffle with teammate/Rays catcher Dioner Navarro on June 8, 2008, during a game. It was settled in-house.
Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey said there is an obvious lesson for Garza: "A little bit of less drama and less theatrics and less expenditure of energy and that type of thing … and more focused on the task at hand, the making of the pitch. Just channel the energy, the emotion, the enthusiasm and all that good stuff into being a better pitcher vs. being so dramatic."
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Starting before the 2008 All Star break, Matt began seeing a sports psychologist, Ken Ravizza, who helped him learn to control his emotions.
"It's been a process for me just understanding that one pitch won't end my life," he said. "I was supposed to be that golden right arm that carried (the Twins) to the postseason in '06. I helped us get there, but it wasn't me. I tried to be a different pitcher, tried to be a different person. Here [with Tampa Bay] I just try to be myself, try to pitch my style and have fun doing it."
Rays manager Joe Maddon noticed: "He is an entirely different person," Maddon said of Garza near the end of the 2008 season. "Best way I can describe it. … Now he's more under control. He does not get emotionally bound up. He is just — he is really at 24 or however old he is right now, has done something kind of unusual and kind of changed his personality and the way he is in the middle of a baseball season. To his credit, for the better.
"You look at him physically, this guy's one of the most gifted pitchers in the American League in regard to stuff," Maddon said. "And now you are getting a guy maturing in regard to how to handle all the tools that he has. So for me, it's been a tremendous growth year for him."
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When Garza needs to make an important pitch, he often will walk off the mound, remove his cap and read inspirational writings scrawled insde it. (His teammates don't even know what it says.) He then focuses on the next pitch.
A peek inside his hat are the initials of his three children: Matthew, Sierra and Savannah. Matthew, born just after Garza's senior year at high school, is what stopped him from quitting baseball during his freshmen struggles at Fresno State. They're why Garza overhauled his offseason conditioning program, showing up in 2010 spring camp in the best shape of his career. And they're whom he thinks about when he's in tough spots on the mound; he'll step off, stare at the inside of his cap and wonder what his son would tell him to do.
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"I think every pitch he throws, it's for his kids," said Garza's father, Rudy. "What's holding him there now is his kids." When Rudy, an Army sergeant major back from a one-year stint in Kuwait, brings Matthew to Port Charlotte on Monday for a weeklong visit, the reunion could serve as a reminder of how Garza got here. Garza said it was his father — who worked in the fields before spending 32 years in the military — who instilled his work ethic and love of baseball. And it was Matthew who kept Garza in the game when he considered giving up in 2003.
Before 2010 spring training, Matt changed his diet and stepped up his offseason program, working out 5-6 hours a day, taking yoga and spin classes and surrounding himself with minor-leaguers who pushed him. (Joe Smith-St. Petersburg Times-3/19/10)
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Garza's venture into organic table grapes was coincidental because there already is a working farm on the Easton, Calif., land he bought to eventually build his dream house (which he is personally designing). But now he's getting into it, eyeing expansion of what's already a "very profitable" set-up producing Thompson, Crimson and the high-end Flame.
"They're pretty good," Garza said. "Some of the guys were giving me (a hard time), and then I went over the financials with them. They're like, 'That's pretty smart.' " Don't expect them to be called Garza Grapes, however: "I'll let my kids come up with something clever." (St. Petersburg Times-4/10/10) Garza explained growing his goatee, thusly:
"It started with just messing around, seeing what could happen and how it would look. Then I made a couple bets with a couple guys in the clubhouse and wanted to see how long I could let it grow before I'd get annoyed by it. I'm already annoyed by it, but I'm not going to lose the bet. There's no monetary value; it's more of a pride issue," Matt said.
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Early in the 2010 season, close watchers of the Rays noticed Garza was spitting less. The Sporting News' Ryan Fagan asked Matt, who said, "It's not a conscious effort (to not spit). I'm not using the rosin bag as much as I used to.
"I had been spitting so much because a lot of the rosin was getting on my tongue. I'd lick my fingers, then go back to the rosin bag and then lick them again. You want your hand not to be slick. You try to keep your hand dry so you're able to control the baseball. But that's dry tree sap, you know? You try to lick tree sap and tell me if you like it or not. I couldn't swallow it, and the only way to get rid of that taste was to spit. It started giving me real bad heartburn, so I'm not using it as much."
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July 26, 2010: Garza pitched the very first no-hitter in Rays' history, beating the Detroit Tigers.
TRANSACTION REPORT June 13, 2005: Garza signed with the Twins for a bonus of $1.35 million after being taken in the first round. Kevin Bootay is the scout who signed him.November 28, 2007: The Rays sent outfielders Delmon Young and Jason Pridie and infielder Brendan Harris to the Twins, acquiring Garza, INF Jason Bartlett, and P Eduardo Morlan.January 19, 2010: Garza and the Rays avoided salary arbitration, agreeing to a $3.35 million contract for 2010.
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PITCHING:
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- Garza is a tall (6-foot-4), thin (190 pounds) righthander with a loose, fluid delivery. He comes at hitters from a three-quarters arm slot. That delivery has a little deception in it.
- His late-moving 2-seam sinking FASTBALL is 93-98 mph and gets on hitters in a hurry, because of a little quirk in his delivery. That heater sinks down-and-away from righthanded hitters and down-and-away from lefties. Matt also has a 72-78 mph CURVEBALL that has a late bite and a hard tilt on his 82-84 mph SLIDER that is a fine pitch for him. His CHANGEUP has good sinking and fading action. He spots that changeup well to lefthanded hitters.
Garza said that one of the keys to the development of his changeup was working with lefthander Dave Gassner in Rochester early in the 2007 season.
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"Probably the best way to teach pitchers pitches is to work with someone that has a good one, and Gassner's key pitch is a changeup," Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson said. "So I told Garza that was the perfect situation." In 2008, Garza reallly impressed Rays manager Joe Maddon. His power stuff is filthy.
"I'm OK with him going out there and throwing fastballs 100 percent of the time," Maddon says. "I'm not kidding. His velocity, command and movement with his fastball are that good." Garza occasionally drops down in an attempt to bury his slider instead of repeating his delivery. But basically, he has a smooth, repeatable delivery and above-average command of all of his pitches.
But when Matt starts getting tired, his mechanics break down and his command goes out the window. So, before 2007 spring training, Garza revamped his mechanics a bit. He shortened his stride to get a better angle in his delivery and to help keep him strong throughout the long season.
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"I got to the point (late in 2006) where I was using all arm, and that's where you got the lofty curveballs and floating sliders," Garza said.Matt aggressively goes right after hitters. He maintains a tough demeanor, displaying moxie on the mound. He is not shy about letting his emotions show on the mound. Some people like that, some consider it a negative.
His control is good; he rarely walks guys.Garza had trouble maintaining control of his emotions at times. This can happen on the mound, or in the clubhouse. But he turned things around in 2008, starting with a blow-up with his catcher, Dioner Navarro. The next day he told manager Joe Maddon that he needed help controlling his emotions. That was a huge turning point for him
He began seeing a sports psychologist, Ken Ravizza.
BREAKDOWN VS. LEFTIES AND RIGHTIES
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With the Twins in 2006, the righty throwing Garza held lefthanded hitters to a .245 with just one home run in 102 at-bats. But righthanded batters hit .356 with 5 home runs in 104 at-bats.
In 2008, Matt was equally effective against both left and righthanded hitters. Lefthanded batters had a .244 average with 11 home runs in 332 at-bats, while righthanded hitters had a .245 average with 8 homers in 363 at-bats.
In 2009, Garza held lefty hitters to a .196 average with 11 homers in 392 at-bats. Righthanded batters had a .271 average with 14 home runs in 369 at-bats.
As of the start of the 2010 season, Garza had a career record of 27-34 with a 3.99 ERA, having allowed 58 home runs and 505 hits in 520 innings.
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