Anthony García (minors02)

From BR Bullpen

Anthony García

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 0", Weight 180 lb.

BR minors page

Biographical Information[edit]

Anthony García has been MVP of the Puerto Rican League and Caribbean Series and dominated the Pan American Games. He has played in AAA but never in the majors.

García was taken by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 18th round of the 2009 amateur draft, one pick before Daniel Webb. He hit .235/.316/.333 for the GCL Cardinals that year as a catcher; he would move to the outfield the next summer. He split 2010 between the GCL Cardinals (.284/.406/.457 in 39 G) and Johnson City Cardinals (1 for 3, 2B). He tied for 8th in the Gulf Coast League in home runs (5). In 2010-2011, he was 0 for 1 for his hometown Gigantes de Carolina.

With Johnson City again in 2011, he produced at a .308/.407/.527 clip with 38 runs in 51 games. He tied Kyle Kubitza for third in the Appalachian League in OBP and was third in the Cards chain in OPS. His 11 times hit by pitch tied Grant Buckner for second in the loop. He was 2 for 10 with 3 walks and a double for the Gigantes in 2011-2012.

In his first full-summer league, he excelled, batting .280/.354/.525 with 34 doubles and 19 home runs for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He tied Kevin Patterson for second in the Midwest League in homers (9 behind Miguel Sano), tied Eugenio Suarez for 7th in doubles, tied Jordan Smith for 6th in RBI (74), was second in slugging (.005 behind Colin Walsh) and was third in OPS (after Walsh and Sano). He was named to the MWL All-Star team, alongside Drew Vettleson and Pillar. Among Cardinals farmhands, he tied Eugenio Velez for second in doubles, was third in homers (four behind Oscar Taveras), ranked third in RBI (behind Taveras and Xavier Scruggs) and was third in HBP. He was now a regular in winter ball, hitting .279/.377/.433 for Carolina.

Anthony slumped in 2013 with the Palm Beach Cardinals (.217/.286/.383, 16 2B, 13 HR, 45 RBI). Things were much better in the winter - .305/.376/.504. He was among the Puerto Rican League leaders in runs (20, tied for 3rd), hits (40, tied for 5th), doubles (11, tied for 3rd with Ramón Castro and Rubén Gotay), homers (5, tied for third with Kennys Vargas and Jordan Lennerton), RBI (26, 1st, 4 over Neftali Soto and Randy Ruiz), total bases (66, tied Jon Singleton for 4th), OBP (10th), slugging (5th, between Ruiz and Gotay), average (tied for 8th with Ruiz) and OPS (5th, between Gotay and Andy González). He won Comeback Player of the Year.

Repeating at Palm Beach in 2014, he hit .227/.320/.385 with 10 home runs, though he fielded .993. With the Gigantes, he continued to progress, hitting .328/.422/.635 with 10 homers and 34 RBI in 39 games in 2014-2015. He led the league in RBI again (9 over Rey Navarro), the first player in the league to defend his RBI title successfully since Héctor Villanueva almost 20 years earlier. He also handily led in home runs (four over Vargas), total bases (87, 14 more than Ozzie Martínez), slugging (.102 over Martínez) and OPS (102 ahead of Martínez there as well). He was second in runs, two shy of leadoff man and teammate Martínez, second with 45 hits (four behind Martínez), was 5th in doubles (10), tied Roberto Perez for third with 20 walks, tied Martínez for second in OBP (.008 shy of Vargas) and was third in average (after Martínez and Jesús Feliciano). He was a unanimous pick as both the All-Star right fielder and the MVP. Reinforcing the Santurce Crabbers for the 2015 Caribbean Series, he hit .214/.353/.214.

García split 2015 between the Springfield Cardinals (.285/.400/.476 in 87 G) and Memphis Redbirds (.276/.344/.483 in 18 G). He had 10 outfield assists and 3 errors. For the year, he tied for 6th in the Cards chain in home runs (13), was 7th in RBI (64), tied Darren Seferina for 4th with 26 doubles and tied for 4th with 11 times plunked. That was despite missing time to represent Puerto Rico in the 2015 Pan American Games. He drove in 3 in a 10-9 upset of Team USA and 4 in a win over the Dominican national team. He hit a big grand slam off Ronald Ramírez to help power a comeback win over Colombia and smacked a three-run homer off Kyle Lotzkar of champion Canada. For the event, he hit .393/.486/.964 with 7 runs, 5 homers and 17 RBI in 8 games, while playing excellent defense in RF (20 PO, 2 A, 0 E). He led right fielders in defense at the Games. In the round-robin phase, he was 6th in average, led in home runs (5, two ahead of Tyler O'Neill and Alfredo Despaigne), led in slugging (1.044, .086 ahead of teammate Dickie Joe Thon), easily led in RBI (ten ahead of runner-up Urmaris Guerra) and tied for 5th with 6 runs.

After his excellent 2014-2015 winter, he struggled in 2015-2016, hitting .223/.288/.362. His summer of '16 was also a far cry from 2015 as he hit .229/.296/.394 in 70 games for Memphis and .254/.331/.377 in 37 games for Springfield for a 696 OPS, a drop off 172 points. In 2016-2017, he rebounded with the Gigantes, batting .280/.338/.371 with 10 doubles in 38 games. He was 8th in average, between Jorge Padilla and Soto and he tied Martínez for second in doubles. He kept it up in the summer, split again between Springfield (.294/.370/.487, 15 HR in 101 G) and Memphis (.179/.256/.282 in 14 G). He tied Ryan McDaniel for 5th in home runs by a Cards farmhand and was second with 72 RBI (17 behind Patrick Wisdom). He was 7th in the Texas League in average (between Luis Urias and Erick Mejia), tied Matt Beaty for 6th in home runs, was 6th in OBP and ranked third in slugging (behind J.D. Davis and Beaty). He made the TL All-Star team, joining Ian Miller and B.J. Boyd in the outfield.

The Carolina native played in two winter leagues in 2017-2018. With the Puerto Rican League season cut short by Hurricane Maria's damage, he started off with the Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, hitting .247/.356/.442. He then moved to the Gigantes as usual and hit .310/.388/.466 in the condensed campaign. He tied Edwin Gomez for 5th in average and tied Gomez and Vargas for the most RBI (14 in 17 G). In the 2018 Caribbean Series, he dazzled. He hit .500/.556/1.042 with 3 home runs, 8 runs and 8 RBI in 6 games to help the Criollos de Caguas win the title (he was a reinforcement player for the team). He had a 3-hit game in the opening win over the Mexican host Tomateros de Culiacán, had 3 hits and 3 runs against the Caribes de Anzoátegui and hit a two-run homer off Granma's Ulfrido García. Down 4-0 in the 6th inning of the semifinals, against the Caribes, he hit a grand slam off Nestor Molina as Caguas rallied to win. He then had a couple runs in the finale against the Águilas Cibaeñas. For the Series, he led in runs (one ahead of René Reyes), hits (12, two ahead of Jesmuel Valentin), doubles (4, tied with Luis Domoromo and Reyes), home runs, RBI (one ahead of Balbino Fuenmayor), total bases (25, 8 more than Fuenmayor), slugging (.155 ahead of Frederich Cepeda) and OPS (237 ahead of Reyes). He was second in average (.063 behind Juan Perez) and OBP (.004 behind Reyes). He was an easy pick for Caribbean Series MVP, the first Puerto Rican outfielder so honored since José Cruz, Jr. in 2000.

Sources[edit]

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