Spirit of Independents: Garza, Reilly thrive in Indy Leagues
Aaron Garza is a Bum. And the former Silkworm standout has worked hard to be that way.
On June 30th, Garza was signed by the Traverse City (MI) Beach Bums of the independent Frontier League. In just his third professional at-bat, the left fielder belted a middle-in first pitch fastball for a grand slam. Since that auspicious debut, Garza has quickly become one of Traverse City's best hitters.
Garza's 1,500 mile route from his Austin, Texas home to Western Michigan was circuitous. "There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to get drafted, maybe in the 20 something rounds," he recalls. "I had a great summer at Manchester and a pretty decent year in college (a .341 average, 16 steals and 51 runs while starting all 60 of Texas State's games). I figured that somebody would give me a chance to see what I could do."
Silkworms' fans thought someone would give him a chance too because Garza's 2006 was one of the best in Manchester history. The starting All-Star right fielder hit .348- a Silkworms' record- and good for fourth best in the NECBL. He also ranked second in the league in doubles (15), RBIs (28) and hits (56). For good measure, Garza slugged over 170 points above the NECBL average, swiped five bases and made just two errors.
Garza-listed at 6'0" 190- does not have the prototypical size of a left fielder; perhaps that is what caused his draft snub. Regardless, the measurements failed to account for Garza's oversized heart and work ethic. "Once I didn't get drafted, I knew that I wasn't ready to be done playing baseball. I wasn't going to pout about it and feel sorry for myself," says Garza determinedly. "I wanted to be proactive so I went to a couple of professional tryout camps, but it is hard to get signed there. I got hooked up with the Frontier League because I sent about 60 e-mails to just about anyone I could think of: Presidents. GMs. Coaches. The Frontier League. The Golden Baseball League. The Northern League. An independent league in Texas. The Can-Am league. Fortunately, Traverse City said ‘Do you want to come up here?' I said ‘Absolutely.'"
The Beach Bums, as Huck Finn might have said, "gave him an inch and he took an ell." After opening the season with a .250 average, Garza compiled a 12 game hit streak and blasted 8 dingers over his next 87 at bats- including a stretch where he homered in four straight games. "When I first got up here, I hadn't played in an actual game with live pitching in over five weeks. Baseball is all about timing and being comfortable. It took me a little while to get my timing back and get comfortable in the box. Also, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I felt good at the plate because of two adjustments- in my stride and in my hand positioning. That has made a big difference," Garza explains.
Traverse City is an ideal place to play. Located in a resort town, the team regularly draws 5,000 fans per game, provides its players with host families and boasts some of the nicest facilities in professional baseball. Nonetheless, Indy leagues know that every player dreams of making it to The Show and to do that, players need to sign with a major league affiliate. "The Frontier League is really good about letting guys sign," Garza notes. "There is an age limit on this league- everyone has to be younger than 27- which is good because scouts come around more and are more likely to sign a young guy than an older guy."
This coming offseason, Garza's sights are set even farther than Michigan. As he describes, "They are looking for players to go play in a professional league in Australia from October to March. I'm really putting my hopes in trying to go over there and play. It would be an awesome experience and I'd be getting paid to do it, so I can't think of anything better."
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Silkworms' fans may remember July 2005 as the time when right hander Matt Reilly- who was Garza's teammate on the '04 Worms- morphed from a nice college pitcher into a lights out prospect. In a 10 game span, the 6'1" right hander used great command of a low 90s fastball and a heavy dosage of newfound confidence to chalk up 3 wins and 3 saves, strike out 24 and allow a paltry eight base runners over 18 innings. Reilly's highlight was his July 23rd start in the second half of a double header at Pittsfield, where he took a perfect game into the 6th inning and fanned 12 overmatched Dukes in seven frames. The performance earned him NECBL Pitcher of the Week accolades.
Like Garza, Reilly carried his NECBL success over into his senior college season. He racked up a 2.43 ERA in 11 starts for Pace. Unlike Garza, Reilly was selected by the Los Angeles Angels in the 27th round of the 2006 draft. He made ten relief appearances for the Angels' Rookie League affiliate, winning two of them, but he fought tendonitis each step of the way. "My shoulder was bothering me and I tried to overcompensate with my elbow," recalls Reilly. "By Spring Training, it just was not doing well. I guess they had other plans and they had to release me. I went home to Texas and to look around for tryouts. There was one tryout with the American Association's Fort Worth Cats, which was pretty close to home. The funny thing was, I didn't have any cleats because I had broken my old ones and thrown them out. I was also using someone else's pants because the Angels took my pair. But I showed up and did well on the first and second days. They only drafted 11 guys- out of the 150 who came to the tryout."
One of the 11 was Reilly. As fate would have it, the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League had traded their first three draft picks with teams in the American Association. Brockton's player development head knew Reilly well from college and had even tried to sign him out of Pace. Reilly thus became a Rox instead of a Cat. "It's really worked out well for me," Reilly mentions. "It's a good league and a great atmosphere. Brockton probably has the biggest fan base in the league. There are a lot of scouts around here and I'm hearing from them again." Through August 18th, Reilly is 3-1 with a 2.23 ERA in 21 appearances. His ERA leads Brockton. The Denville, New Jersey product recently spent some time on the disabled list after a collision at the plate left him with a concussion and two fractured bones around his eye. Yet he came back just five days after being activated to earn a win by tossing 2.2 shutout innings of relief.
Reilly compared the disparities between the Indy Leagues and affiliated baseball: "It's completely different in independent ball in the way they go about things. Everything in rookie ball is very scheduled. There are a lot of younger guys so the teams have a lot more discipline and control. Here in Independent Ball, it's your career and it's based on your stats. There are no politics. If you're doing well, you're going to stay. If not, you're going to go. There have been so many roster moves made-it's pretty intimidating if you try and put it all together- but you just need to come in and do your job.
"The level of play is much higher - it's mostly high A," he continues. "I'm glad that I'm throwing well because it gives me the confidence that I can play at this level and that I hopefully get back into affiliated ball. Off the field, it's like we're big leaguers here," he laughs. "We sign autographs every Sunday on the field for half an hour. We have nice lockers. It's like Manchester, but about ten times bigger. Brockton is very professional; they really try to keep the fans in the game for all nine innings and it's a fun time."
Manchester manager Trevor Brown was Reilly's college pitching coach and he is quick to give him credit for his baseball development. "Coach Brown's first year at Pace was my first year and we grew our relationship together," he says. "I always thought I worked pretty hard and but he really pushed that work ethic. He made us do a lot of drills that shot me above and beyond where I was going, and I think that really helped me going into pro ball."
Both Garza and Reilly have used their talent and work ethic to advance one more rung higher in their baseball careers. While they may not know who their Presidential candidate will be in 2008, they're content to vote Independent in 2007 as they work- and play- as far as they can go.
Article courtesy of Don Leypoldt of the Manchester
Silkworms.