July 24, 2008

Being a relief pitcher does not bother Andy DeLaGarza

Throughout high school and college, 2003 Norwell High School graduate Andy DeLaGarza has been a starting pitcher, but since being drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 2007 Major League Draft the 23-year-old lefthander is being groomed as a relief pitcher.

After starting out his Minor League career in 2007 with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Northwest League, DeLaGarza was sent to the Augusta (S.C.) GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League in 2008.

With the GreenJackets, the 6-4 southpaw has had a successful season.

Appearing in 41 games and working 64 innings, DeLaGarza has compiled a record of 6-1 with a 2.81 ERA. He also picked up his seventh save in the GreenJackets’ victory Wednesday night. He has allowed 53 hits, struck out 63 batters and walked 12.

Originally drafted by Minnesota in 2003, DeLaGarza turned down the Twins and went to Coastal Carolina (Conway, S.C.) University, where he was a college teammate of fellow Giants’ farmhand Dom Duggan.

After coming out of Coastal Carolina, DeLaGarza went to Oregon, where he was a teammate with T.J. Brewer of Bloomington, Ind. De-LaGarza and Brewer tied for the Northwest League lead in wins with nine. DeLaGarza finished the 2007 season at 9-3 with a 3.57 ERA. The Volcanoes were the Northwest League champs.

Good things have continued to follow DeLaGarza.

Before being with the title-winning Volcanoes, he was a member of the 2003 Norwell Knights who won the Indiana Class 3A state championship.

Then at Coastal Carolina, the Chanticleers (50-13) finished as the 2007 Big South Conference season and tournament champs and De-LaGarza was named to the Lowe’s All-Senior All-America first team.

Now, DeLaGarza and the GreenJackets (41-28) are leading the Southern Division of the SAL in the second half of the season and are playing for a spot in the postseason playoffs.

“It’s a lot of baseball, but it’s a good job to have. It’s a good thing to be doing every day,” said De-LaGarza on Tuesday from his home in Augusta.

After a slow start, the GreenJackets have meshed together.

“We’ve been throwing the ball well, getting timely hits and just playing pretty good overall baseball,” said DeLaGarza, who also will be getting married in September.

“It’s a lot better playing for a chance to play in the playoffs than it is just to play to play. It’s good to have something on the line,” he added.

DeLaGarza enjoys going to the ballpark and making that more enjoyable is pitching coach Ross Grimsley, who has “tons of knowledge.”

Grimsley was a Major League standout with the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians.

What DeLaGarza likes to do with Grimsley is ask him more about off-the-field things.

“He’s been in a lot of situations and has tons of experience and tons of advice to offer. It’s a great time to sit down with him and pick his brain. A guy with that much Big League experience and that much knowledge, it’s pretty cool to play for him,” said DeLaGarza.

Grimsley has been working with DeLaGarza on being the closer for the GreenJackets, because the previous closer was promoted to another level within the Giants’ organization.

Being in the bullpen every day, DeLaGarza has to be ready for the call to enter the game in tight situations.

“You have to be ready to go pretty much every day. When you’re starting, you know what day of the week you’re going to throw and you can base your routine off of that. But as a reliever, it’s hard to have a routine,” he explained.

DeLaGarza does not mind being a relief pitcher.

“I like it better, for sure, because it gives me an opportunity to get into more games even though it’s not as long. I’d much rather get into more games than just throw once a week,” he noted.

DeLaGarza is primarily a fastball/breaking ball pitcher, but he is trying to develop a changeup as a third pitch to keep batters guessing.

By coming out of the bullpen, he is able to get away with two pitches — basically living off his fastball.

However when he is in the bullpen, he is working on his control and developing his changeup.

“I never take more than two days off so I get plenty of time to work on stuff. I’m just trying to take some speed off. I’m not necessarily looking for movement on the changeup as much as I am the change of speed,” he stated. “I play with a bunch of different grips.”

Grimsley has been working with DeLaGarza and the other pitchers on keeping their pitches low in the strikezone and forcing batters to hit groundballs.

“The more I can get sink on my ball I can get a guy to take a swing at it and it sinks on them and they hit the top half and beat it into the ground. That’s definitely a huge pitch,” said DeLaGarza.

“Here the defenses are so much better than the college and high school level and you can afford to throw down in the zone and get your groundballs and be OK.”

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By playing so much, DeLaGarza has been away from his family and his hometown of Ossian for a long time, but he does keep track of his family and high school friends.

During the past offseason, he attended the wedding of Jake Ringenberg, who was a teammate on the 2003 Norwell Class 3A state championship team.

At the wedding, DeLaGarza also had a chance to meet Boston Red Sox rookie pitcher Justin Masterson, who is the son of Norwell graduate Mark Masterson. Jake and Justin played together at Bethel College in Mishawaka.

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