The Detroit Tigers just signed Freddy Garcia, which is (yawn) not especially interesting.
That said, I was fascinated by a sentence that appeared in Buster Olney’s ESPN.com piece a few minutes ago: “His agent, Peter Greenberg, felt very good about how Garcia looked, with his fastball velocity in the range of 85 to 87 mph—lower than it probably would be if Garcia threw in a big league game, with the benefit of full adrenaline.”
I’ve been covering this game for a long time now, and I’ve never—never—heard a scout, player, manager attribute a mediocre workout to a lack of adrenaline. In all likelihood, Garcia threw 85-87 mph because he’s a past-his-prime pitcher who can’t generate the juice anymore. Hell, if you can’t get the adrenaline going in a workout that could save your career, when will you ever?
** For the record, Buster is a helluva writer and reporter, and I have tons of respect for the guy.
