Hey! Jaime Garcia pitched really well again! The St. Louis Cardinals' forgotten third(?) starter threw eight innings, struck out eight, and allowed a single run against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday; that brings his Grapefruit League ERA down to 2.48. Maybe more excitingly, because he's Jaime Garcia, it brings his Grapefruit League innings pitched total up to 29. In that time he's walked all of five batters, and his arm still works.
It's still worth worrying about Jaime Garcia's health, but the healthy (and even kind-of-healthy) version of Garcia has been an effective starter for three-ish years now. In 2012 (in aggregate) he struck out more than three batters for every one he walked and maintained his solid ground ball rates--basically, he was the pitcher he was in 2011.
Which is why I'd like to repeat, one more time, one of my favorite 2012 offseason hobbyhorses: Jaime Garcia is the Cardinal most likely to overachieve, precisely because Cardinals fans don't seem to expect anything out of him. I can't blame them/us for that, since he had a shoulder problem last year, but while he was pitching through that shoulder problem he looked Pretty Okay. So far, that same shoulder has withstood 30 innings. So we have that going for us.