In career year, Jake Garcia succumbs to injury(44.26)

[niles08]

Raise your hand if you had reliever Jake Garcia with a 1.04 ERA through 34 innings pitched this season. Keep your hand raised or raise it if you thought Garcia would be the best Omaha reliever this season. If you raised your hand to either of those, put it down, go to church, and ask for forgiveness for your lies. Garcia’s 5.13 ERA from last season in 133 innings is more of the prediction that most had him penciled in for.

Regardless, through 34 innings this year, Jake Garcia seemed to have figured it out. He had a 1.04 ERA and despite 30 walks in those 34 innings, his FIP only was a 3.02 indicating that when he was on, he was on. He held opposing lefties to a .086/.243/.138 triple slash line which is incredible, especially in Omaha’s ballpark.

At home, he was actually better than on the road. His home ERA against any hitter is 0.42. That is absolutely unthinkable.

Now the 24-year-old lefty finds himself on the injured list for the next 4-5 weeks with inflammation in his elbow, the first trip to the injured list in his BBA career.

A devastating blow for any pitcher to miss time, but one that hurts especially bad during a career season. Not to mention that Omaha just reshuffled its bullpen before the injury and with Garcia playing a pretty large role in the bullpen, one that likely will have to be shuffled again for the next month or so.