Far from the limelights of New York, Chicago or LA toils Ryan Garko, shuffled off to Buffalo, whose primary aspiration in life is to get the big ride to Cleveland. From what we can see, he's well on his way.
Aside from a slow freshman year at Stanford University, where he batted a meek .143, his average soared to .368/.562 (AVG/SLG) as a sophomore, .314/565 as a junior. Even with those impressive performances, the scout sheets questioned his D. So Garko capped off his college career by responding to the skeptics with a whopping .402/.703 senior year where he banged 18 bombs and drove in 92 RBIs, making the All-American list in baseball in 2003.
It was enough to impress the Cleveland Indians. They took Garko in the 3rd round (78th OA) of the 2003 Draft.
The scrappy Garko was dispatched to Mahoning Valley in the New York-Penn League. He played in 45 games for the Scrappers, put up a .273/.406 performance which showed some adjustment curve to pro ball.
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Player: Ryan F. Garko
Position: Catcher
(C)
Height: 6-1
Weight: 220
Birthdate: 01.02.81
Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanias
College: Stanford
University
Bats: R
Throws: R
Organization: Cleveland Indians
Acquired: Indians, 2003 3rd Round 78th OA
Signed By: Don Lyle
Last Ballclub: Buffalo
Bisons
2004 FAB50 Ranking: NR
Other honors: 2003 Cleveland Minor League Player of the Year; 2005 Triple-A All-Star Catcher
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In 2004 his career took off, zooming from the Kinston Indians in the High-A Carolina League to the Akron Aeros in the AA Eastern League to the Buffalo Bisons in the AAA International League. He hit 22 home runs that season, 16 in class A, 102 RBIs, for a combined .345/.516!
This year Ryan is batting .304/.500 with 18 home runs and 71 RBIs. In eight seasons, he's only batted under .300 twice, and one was a still respectable .273 year. Other than his freshman year, he's never had a slugging percentage under .406!
From a batting perspective, he was ready for the big leagues last year. When you get the tag of 'needs improvement' on your D as a C, though, you get a bit more scrutiny. Garko returned to Buffalo this season, largely for fine tuning on his defense.
He was voted to the 2005 All-Star team of the International League, and our IL sources tell us that he's good to go for the ride to Cleveland in 2006. We expect him to have a down year in his first season with the Indians, then make his usual adjustment and blow the barn doors off of a few American League seasons.
