Rico Garcia, RHP, Colorado Rockies

Fastball 88-94 (90-92) … Cutter 88-90 … Curveball 72-79 (74-77) … Changeup 81-84 … Times to plate with runners on: 1.28, 1.31, 1.32, 1.33, 1.33, 1.34.

Undersized as a starter at just 5’11”, but gets surprisingly good downward plane on the ball, in part thanks to a high three-quarters look. Reminds me a bit of Angels prospect Jaime Barria in that regard; tons of downhill plane with everything and it really plays up when he pounds the bottom of the strike zone … Strong command early, but quickly faded late as pitches lost sharpness and flattened out. Tale of two pitchers — first three innings of work were sharp, final two were far from it … Strong fastball early up to 94 with life, and played up from plane even when sitting at 90/92. Fastball faded late back to upper 80s and lost bite, but still attacking with it. Sneaky-good cut fastball at times; movement is subtle and too often on one plane, but it can come late and change swings … Throwing curveball really, really hard early as well; sharp with late break, really snaps it off with great arm speed and great arm action. Got it up to 79 mph with actual vertical drop. Later in game, became more of a slurve and lost bite and depth; slower without as much late action … Changeup primarily a weapon to LHH only; did draw a couple awkward check swings as though guys were having trouble picking up the spin out of his hand … Love his mechanical look from the stretch; powerful for a small guy, with great explosiveness and leg drive; looks the part of a power-pitcher type even without ideal size. Does take the ball out of his glove early from the stretch, which makes me wonder about deception to hitters, particularly LHH; that said, powerful kid with stretch delivery that makes it pretty easy to dream on a high-leverage bullpen future.

Betrayed my projection comments a bit in that last sentence of the notes section; admittedly need to see Rico Garcia more, but if the Colorado Rockies have anything here in this small school, late round arm, they’ve got a short-stint relief pitcher with power and explosiveness. He could become a tough little number with that fastball/curveball/cutter combo in one-inning stints, and really blowing it out like that should bump up his velo and pitch life. He may start games the rest of the year in Lancaster considering the thin staff here right now, but at his size and with his age, command profile, stamina issues, etc., tough to see Rico Garcia remaining a rotation arm in any meaningful way. Bullpen or bust if he’s ever going to make it; could fill out a meaningful relief one day, but needs to flourish fairly quickly if it’s going to happen.

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