Baseball-Matt Garza
Matt Garza is a right handed starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. He is on a pitching staff that includes David Price and Jeff Nieman.
After high school at Washington Union High School, he attended Fresno State. He was a pitcher for the Fresno State Bulldogs.
Matt Garza was a first round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2005. He made his major league debut in 2006 with the Twins. He started the 2006 season at Single A Fort Myers and ended the season with Minnesota.
In between he played at the Double A level with the New Britain Rock Cats and the Triple A Rochester Red Wings. At the three minor league levels he had a combined 14-4 record. His ERA was 1.99 and he had 154 strikeouts in 135 2/3 innings.
In November of 2007 Garza was traded along with Jason Bartlett and Eduardo Morlan to the Tampa Bay Rays. His uniform number was changed from 21 to 22. In the 2008 season Garza went 11-9 with a 3.70 ERA.
That year saw the Rays win the American League’s Eastern Division Title. The Rays would beat the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Garza would win the seventh game and the series Most Valuable Player award. He won two games in the series and had a 1.38 ERA.
In 2009 Garza held opposing teams to a batting average of just .233 4th best in the American League. He had 189 strikeouts which was 9th in the league.
Garza has started the 2010 season with nine strikeouts and a win over the Baltimore Orioles. If he continues to produce at a high level he could easily become an All Star and have his Garza jersey called to the mound often in the playoffs.
