2020 Chachi Almost #11 Edgar Garcia

#41
Edgar Ernesto Garcia
Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  205
Opening Day Age:  23
Born:  October 4, 1996, Palenque, DR
How Obtained:  Signed as an amateur free agent, May 29, 2014
Departed:  Traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for a player to be named later, August 18, 2020
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Phillies 2019

First Phillies Card:  N/A
First Phillies Minor League Card:  2016 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #7
First Phillies Team Issued Card:  N/A

Newest Card Added:  2019 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #9

Topps Flagship Set Appearances (0):  N/A

6 - Garcia baseball cards in my collection per The Phillies Room Checklist as of 8/18/20.

Complete Chachi Checklist
2016 Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #2
2019 Chachi #40
2019 Chachi Photo Cards #41
2019 Chachi Friendly Encounters #20
2020 Chachi Almost #11

On Tuesday, the Phillies sent young relief pitcher Edgar Garcia to the Rays for a player to be named later.  Garcia had been designated for assignment on August 13th, when his 40-man roster spot was needed for Alec Bohm.

Despite appearing in 37 games last season for the Phillies, all in relief, Garcia has not yet appeared on a Phillies baseball card and with his departure it's now doubtful he ever will.

I'll remember him for signing autographs for us four years ago at a BlueClaws game, and for having to switch his number when Charlie Manuel rejoined the team in 2019 as an interim hitting coach.  Garcia surrendered his #41 to Manuel, switching to #66 for the rest of the season.  He had switched back to #41 for this year's spring training/Summer Camp.

Departed During the 2020 Season 

• Nick Williams (of) - 8/15/20, Selected off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds. 
• Edgar Garcia (rhp) - 8/18/20, Traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for a player to be named later.

2020 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2020 Season Summary Index / 2020 Chachi Set Checklist

Game 162 - Fan Appreciation Day; Long Offseason Begins

Marlins 4, Phillies 3
Game 162 - Sunday Afternoon, September 29th in Philadelphia
Record - 81-81, 4th place, 16 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies missed out on their first winning season since 2011, dropping the 2019 season finale by a 4-3 score to the last place Marlins.

What It Means:  Was this manager Gabe Kapler's final Phillies game at the helm?

What Happened:  With Maikel Franco representing the tying run on second base in the bottom of the ninth, Andrew Knapp struck out swinging on a ball out of the zone to end the game and the Phillies extremely disappointing season.  Bryce Harper and Adam Haseley had a pair of hits.  The offense went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, leaving 13 men on base.  A bullpen game from the start, the Marlins jumped on starting pitcher Blake Parker for three runs early.

Featured Card:  Brad Miller hit two more home runs (13) and went 4 for 5 overall with three RBIs.  Matt Breen Tweeted Miller is the first player in Phillies history with three multi-home run games in a nine-game span and Corey Seidman added Miller's 12 home runs and 16 extra-base hits were both the most by any Phillies player ever with 130 or fewer plate appearances in a  season.

Field Report:  My family arrived to the ballpark early, as we've now made it a tradition to attend the final game of the year and enjoy Fan Appreciation Day.  While Jenna, Ben and I decided to eat first (Jenna and Ben at Pass and Stow and me at Bull's BBQ), Doug took off as soon as the gates opened for a prime spot down the first base line to hopefully add a few last autographs to his collection.  Fellow collector Rick kept him company and both were featured in the Phillies' Instagram story of the day.

Doug added autographs from Miller, Jared Eickhoff, Zach Eflin and Scott Kingery and Rick passed along a Phil Gosselin Chachi Photo Card he had signed for us.  Doug was bummed Bryce Harper didn't make his way over to the waiting crowd to sign any autographs.  In between eating his pizza, Ben and I got pictures with Jared Hughes and Edgar Garcia, and we caught part of the broadcast team - Larry Andersen, Scott Franzke, Ben Davis and Gregg Murphy as they were leaving the Diamond Club entrance lobby.

Once at our seats, we noticed Aaron Nola talking to a small group of people and the ace of the staff posed for a quick picture with Ben.  We didn't come away with any prizes or other souvenirs, but we had a great day and we're already anxious for Opening Day 2020.

Memory Lane - Game 162
This is my 11th season of posting on this blog and I truly enjoy and appreciate the outlet this has provided for me to share my love of baseball, baseball cards and (occasionally) the Phillies.  Unlike some of the Phillies current coaching staff, I'll be back in 2020 and I sincerely thank you for following along, commenting and sharing your Phillies stories.

October 4, 2009 - Catcher Paul Hoover singled in the winning run in the 10th in a 7-6 win over the Marlins.
October 3, 2010 - The Phillies lost 8-7 to the Braves in their final tune-up before facing the Reds in the NLDS.
September 28, 2011 - The Phillies closed out the 2011 regular season with a 13-inning victory against the Braves, setting a franchise record with their 102nd regular season win.
October 3, 2012 - The Phillies closed out their 2012 season with a lethargic 5-1 loss to the N.L. East Champion Nationals.
September 29, 2013 - Zach Miner got the ball for the Phillies and lasted 2 1/3 innings in a 12-5 loss to the Braves.
September 28, 2014 - Cole Hamels pitched another fine game and suffered through another outing with minimal run support.
October 4, 2015 - Phillies avoid 100 losses and Ichiro makes his pitching debut in a 7-2 victory.
October 2, 2016 - Phillies bid an emotional farewell to franchise icon Ryan Howard.
October 1, 2017 - Phils clobber Mets in Pete Mackanin's final game as manager.
September 30, 2018 - Lame duck Phillies win season finale in Gabe Kapler's frustrating debut season.
September 29, 2019 - Phillies miss postseason for 8th year in a row, Brad Miller finishes the season red hot.

Want to revisit every game of the 2019 season?  My handy game summary index can be found here.

2019 Chachi #40 Edgar Garcia

#41
Edgar Ernesto Garcia
Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  179
Opening Day Age:  22
Born:  October 4, 1996, Palenque, DR
Signed:  Signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent, May 29, 2014
Teams:  Phillies 2019
Acquired:  Signed as an amateur free agent, May 29, 2014

2016 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #7

2016 Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #2

First Phillies Minor League Card:  2016 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #7
First Phillies Card:  N/A
First Phillies Team Issued Card:  N/A
First Topps Flagship Base Card:  N/A
Newest Card Added:  2018 Grandstand Reading Fightin Phils Update #30

5 - Garcia baseball cards in my collection per The Phillies Room Checklist as of 5/13/19.

Complete Chachi Checklist
2016 Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #2
2019 Chachi #40
2019 Chachi Photo Cards #41

2019 Chachi Set Checklist
Virtual Phillies Wall - Featuring Current Active Roster

Game 34 - 2018 Grandstand Reading Fightin Phils Update #30 Edgar Garcia

Cardinals 6, Phillies 0
Game 34 - Monday Night, May 6th in St. Louis
Record - 19-15, 1st place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Miles Mikolas shut the Phillies down and Vince Velasquez struggled again in this 6-0 loss to the Cardinals.

What It Means:  Velasquez has made six starts so far this season and has pitched six full innings only once.  If you go back to August 1st of last season, he's made 16 starts and pitched at least six full innings twice.  This isn't sustainable.

What Happened:  Velasquez lasted four innings, giving up three home runs.  The Phillies offense had five singles and only once had a runner in scoring position.

2007 Bowman Prospects #BP48

Featured Card:  Pitching prospect Edgar Garcia made his debut, relieving Velasquez in the fifth inning, allowing a run on two hits.  I have several Garcia card in my Phillies collection, all from recent minor league team sets.  This Garcia, Edgar Ernesto Garcia, is not to be confused with a different Garcia, Edgar Alberto Garcia, who pitched in the Phillies system for six seasons between 2005 and 2010.

The earlier Garcia received a card in the 2007 Bowman set.  The newer Garcia has yet to appear on any mainstream baseball cards as far as I can tell.

Transactions:  Enyel De Los Santos, who had pitched two scoreless innings in the series finale against the Nationals on Sunday was optioned to Lehigh Valley to make room for Garcia.

3 Prospects Added to 40-Man Roster

2015 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs #BCAP-AG

2016 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #7

2017 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs #CPA-AME

On Tuesday, the Phillies added three prospects to their 40-man roster, protecting them from the upcoming Rule 5 draft.  Right-handed pitchers Edgar Garcia (22) and Adonis Medina (21), along with shortstop Arquimedes Gamboa (21) joined the roster, bringing the current count to 38.

Todd Zolecki gave a nice overview of the three players here, but I wanted to summarize their baseball card appearances to date.

Of the three, Medina is the most represented in my Phillies collection as I've somehow managed to already accumulate 16 of his cards.  He first appeared in the 2016 Williamsport Crosscutters set and he was all over the 2017 Bowman releases.  Most recently, I have card of his from the 2018 Bowman Prospects insert set.  Medina represented the Phillies at the All-Star Futures Game in July, and he's only pitched as high as High-A Clearwater.

Garcia shows up in my Phillies collection five times, all within 2016, 2017 and 2018 Phillies minor league team sets.  Garcia appeared in 47 games for Double-A Reading and 5 games for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2018.  He was one of the BlueClaws players who signed for Doug back in the summer of 2016, so he already has his first Chachi card.

Gamboa was a teammate of Medina's in Clearwater last season.  He showed up in the 2015 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs team set as well as four minor league team sets between 2016 and 2018.

Listed below are the prospects added to the 40-man roster in advance of each Rule 5 draft dating back to 2009, and most of these guys would eventually play in the Majors.

Memory Lane

2009 Additions - Quintin Berry, Yohan Flande and Jesus Sanchez
2010 Additions - Cesar Hernandez, Matt Rizzotti, Harold Garcia, Freddy Galvis and Justin De Fratus
2011 Additions - Phillippe Aumont, Jake Diekman, Tyson Gillies and Sebastian Valle
2012 Additions - Zach Collier, Ethan Martin, Trevor May and Jonathan Pettibone
2013 Additions - Aaron Altherr, Kelly Dugan, Tommy Joseph and Rob Rasmussen
2014 Additions - Jesse Biddle, Adam Morgan and Nefi Ogando
2015 Additions - Jimmy Cordero, Roman Quinn and Edubray Ramos
2016 Additions - 11 prospects
2017 Additions - Seranthony Dominguez, Franklyn Kilome, Ranger Suarez, Jose Taveras, Engelb Vielma
2018 Additions - Arquimedes Gamboa, Edgar Garcia and Adonis Medina

4th Annual Lakewood @BlueClaws Outing

2016 Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #1

2016 Chachi Special Edition #8

Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #2

For the fourth summer in a row, we travelled to Lakewood to see the Phillies low Class-A team, the BlueClaws.  As an added bonus, thanks to the rain out on Friday night, we were there for a double header!  As an super added bonus (not really), it was #Caturday at the ballpark and the BlueClaws players and coaches had the unfortunate task of wearing jerseys adorned with hundreds of pictures of cats.  There were cat puns throughout both games, cat-inspired between innings shenanigans and actual cats on the field pre-game.

In game action, the BlueClaws won the first game, 4-0, helped by a Carlos Duran home run and a fine pitching performance from Edgar Garcia who pitched five shutout innings.  The second game ended up going 12 innings and the BlueClaws won, 2-1, on a walk-off wild pitch.  The team's #1 draft pick from last year, Cornelius Randolph, went 0 for 2 in the first game as he's trying to battle back from an early season injury.  We also got to see visiting player Ke'Bryan Hayes, who played third base for the West Virginia Power (a Pirates affiliate) in the first game.

Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #3

2016 Bowman Family Tree #FT-H

Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #4

Chachi BlueClaws Signing Autographs #5

The 2016 BlueClaws team sets weren't available for sale yet, but our boys purchased team baseballs and were able to get five signatures on each of their baseballs.  The gracious signers were Jose Taveras, Edgar Garcia (right before he took the mound in game one), Sutter McLoughlin, Zach Morris and South Atlantic League All-Star Josh Tobias.  Sitting behind first base, my wife Jenna was quick to recover an overthrown baseball that bounced into the stands and the ball immediately became part of our youngest son Ben's collection.  (Doug was kind enough to let Ben have the ball.)

We had another #Clawsome time at the game, and we'll be back next year for our milestone fifth annual visit.

Memory Lane
2013 BlueClaws Game
2014 BlueClaws Game
2015 BlueClaws Game

Meanwhile, in Denver . . .

Rockies 8, Phillies 3
Game 89 - Late Saturday Night, July 9th in Denver
Record - 41-48, 4th place, 12 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  Jared Eickhoff's train went off the tracks in this game, and the Phillies couldn't get a hit with runners in scoring position as the Rockies won easily, 8-3.

What It Means/What Happened:  Eickhoff had pitched extremely well of late and it's a shame he has to go into the All-Star break after such a shoddy outing.  He allowed eight runs on eight hits in just 5 1/3 innings.  Tommy Joseph had a four-hit night, including his 11th home run.

Be sure to check out the 2016 Season Summary page with game results and links to game summary posts.