Karim Garcia (1995 - 2004)
Karim Garcia is another former major leaguer making news in the World Baseball Classic. As the leader of a potent Mexican offense, Karim is hitting .385 with three homers and 5 RBI. Fans of Garcia are certainly not surprised to hear this. He has been tearing up the Japanese, Korean and Mexican leagues the last few years. He is ready to do more damage this year as a member of the Lotte Giants in the Korean League, where he is known as the “Latino Bambino.” After his major league career, he learned a little patience at the plate and has emerged as an offensive force.
It is too bad he could not learn that in the big leagues. He was given several opportunities to do so, but poor defense, lack of plate discipline, and an awful attitude lead to his early departure from many major league organizations.
Karim started out as a top prospect in the Dodgers organization. He was picked as Sporting News Minor League Player of the year in 1995 and made his major league debut that year at the age of 19. He was also ranked higher than Alex Rodriguez as a prospect in AAA Pacific Coast League. He was certainly on the fast track, but he failed in 3 brief stints with the Dodgers and was selected by the Diamondbacks in the 1997 expansion draft.
Arizona made him part of a platoon in the outfield and he responded with nine homers. The power was the only part of his game. His defense in the outfield made him a liability. Arizona swindled the Tigers in the off-season by shipping him to Detroit for Luis Gonzales, who went on to lead the Diamondbacks to a World Series championship. The Diamondbacks took advantage of the Randy Smith’s obsession with power-hitting prospects to pull off the best trade in their short history.
Karim, a left-handed hitter, used the short right field porch in Tiger Stadium in 1999 to hit 14 homers in 288 at bats. But Detroit had enough of his antics after one season. They dumped him off on the Orioles in 2000. It was the beginning of his career as a journeyman. The Orioles released him after he went 0 for 16. The Indians picked him up in 2001, but released him even though he hit 5 homers in 45 at bats. The Yankees picked him up and released him. The Indians picked him up again. He hit 16 homers in limited duty and had a .584 slugging percentage. But the Indians couldn’t wait to dump him again and sold him to the Yankees in 2003.
Karim had a decent year for the Yankees in 2003 and was a member of their ALCS and World Series rosters. However, he embarassed himself that year by joining Yankees reliever, Jeff Nelson, to beat up a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew in the visitor’s bullpen during the ALCS.
The Yankees let him leave as a free agent in the off-season. The Mets picked him up and traded him to Baltimore where he was released a second time. It was the end of his major league career.
You can view Karim’s stats at www.baseball-reference.com:
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