Andrew is a RHP for Pat Med. He possesses a very unique delivery and is an unconventional pitcher in another sense. That will come in a couple paragraphs.
In the windup, he attempts to confuse the batter by rocking his glove around is circles and it is very distracting for the batter. Clearly, you cannot do that in the stretch position because it would be a balk, so he gets set with his hands high with runners on base. He has a high leg kick, just before coming to its apex his leg is straight out, a lesser version of what Bronson Arroyo does. He is slightly open at this point, I would like to see him stay closed a little longer to generate more torque. He keeps his eyes locked on the target through out the delivery. From this point on, his delivery is very sound and conventional. He generates good drive from his back leg and has a long stride. His arm angle is high 3/4. He gets good extension but lands with his front foot slightly closed. He finishes with good balance and ready to field his position.
In his start on May 16, Garcia worked mainly in the 76-78 MPH range with his fastball but that was tertiary in terms of importance. In the first inning, Garcia threw 10 pitches. Eight of those were breaking balls or changeups–highly unusual for a prep pitcher. The first pitch of the game was a 76 MPH two-seamer and he basically went exclusively with curveballs or sliders. It’s difficult to differentiate the movement between the two but during warm ups he clearly signaled for both. They both seemed to have the same movement and he threw it from the same arm action. His change up, however, was being tipped. His arm angle drops down a little bit but fortunately, for him, the batters did not pick up on it.
Garcia threw a terrific game, he struck out four and scooted in-and-out of trouble. In the sixth it appeared he had lost control and was losing steam after a single and two walks, but he regained focus on induced two weak pop ups to escape any danger.
It is obvious that he favors his breaking balls much more but he did throw more fastballs as the game went on. His curve was coming in as slow as 61 MPH and the opposition just couldn’t square it up. He threw it for strikes but also located down and away–not many hangers.
He was also very economical with his pitches, there was a ton of early-count outs and he got ahead. The only negative was that he hit three batters and that just puts more runners on.
Garcia is adept at holding runners on–he has very quick feet and an exceptionally quick throw that he releases from his ear. On the only ball that tested his fielding ability, he had a miscommunication with the third baseman and it resulted in a bunt single.
He is a very workman-like pitcher, he throws strikes with all his pitches on any count and that’s why he is able to dominant without the great fastball. Even in this era of explosive fastballs, a pitcher like Garcia will be successful because he possesses mental toughness and he hits his spots.
