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Ruben Garcia – Starting Pitcher - Ciudad Guayana Giants – 96.9% First Ballot

Ruben Garcia was a 6’4’’, 200 pound right-handed pitcher from Palo Negro, Venezuela; a town within the Libertador Municipality with around 115,000 people in north central part of the country. Garcia was a well-rounded pitcher with quite good stuff, control, and movement. His best pitch was a 94-96 mph sinker, but he also had a great slider along with a changeup, forkball, and curveball. Garcia had excellent durability and solid stamina, tossing 235+ innings in all but his final two seasons. He was also known as an intelligent pitcher and a good defensive pitcher, taking a Gold Glove in 1986.

Garcia was arguably the top prospect out of Venezuela entered into the 1978 BSA Draft. Ciudad Guayana picked him fifth overall and he’d ultimately spend his entire pro career with the Giants. CG was still a new franchise at that point, having entered Beisbol Sudamerica with the 1974 season. But Garcia would play a big part in the Giants becoming a contender in the 1980s. He was also a regular for Venezuela in the World Baseball Championship. From 1980-94, he had 186.1 innings for the national team with a 3.04 ERA, 231 strikeouts, 123 ERA+ and 5.3 WAR.

Garcia struggled with control in his rookie season, leading the Bolivar League in both walks and losses. He largely corrected that and looked solid in the next three seasons. His fifth season in 1983 was his first elite one with 9.6 WAR over 290 innings. Garcia was second in Pitcher of the Year voting this season. The Giants also earned their first-ever winning season and playoff appearance.

From there on, Garcia was a bona fide ace. He would post seven straight seasons worth 8+ WAR or more. In both 1985 and 1987 he led the Bolivar League in strikeouts, K/BB, quality starts, and FIP-. Garcia was also the WARlord in 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1991. He twice earned Pitcher of the Year honors (1985, 1987) and also took second in 1984 and third in 1989.

Garcia forever earned his spot in Ciudad Guayana history, helping the franchise to its first Copa Sudamerica ring in 1984. In three playoff starts, he had a 0.78 ERA over 23 innings with 26 strikeouts. The Giants missed the playoffs the next two years, but bounced back to be a regular playoff team shortly after. Just before the 1987 season, Garcia signed a seven-year, $6,650,000 contract extension.

Ciudad Guayana made the playoffs six times from 1987-93. They made four Bolivar League Championship Series appearances and won the pennant in 1989 and 1992, although they did lose Copa Sudamerica both years. Garcia was a great postseason pitcher, even if he didn’t always have the run support with a 7-9 record. He posted a 2.48 ERA over 156 innings with 155 strikeouts, 149 ERA+, and 3.5 WAR. He was one of the rare pitchers to have a better ERA in the playoffs than in the regular season; and he was no scrub in the regular season.

Garcia’s game aged well, as he continued to pitch at a very high level into his 30s. His first major setback would come in the summer of 1993, as sever shoulder inflammation put him out for the second half of the season. It was the first time he hadn’t started 32+ games in a season. The injury tanked his velocity and he had trouble hitting 90 mph in 1994. Garcia struggled and was ultimately reduced to a backup role. He would became the 11^th BSA pitcher to reach 250 career wins in May. Garcia retired in the winter at age 38 and saw his #22 uniform retired immediately.

For his career, Garcia had a 254-181 record, 3.06 ERA, 4094.1 innings, 4213 strikeouts, 777 walks, 339/512 quality starts, 195 complete games, 119 ERA+, 75 FIP-, and 108.7 WAR. At induction, he had the ninth most WAR of any BSA pitcher and still sits 13^th as of 2037. Garcia was also the first star for an expansion franchise and brought them their first title in only their eleventh season. This made Garcia a lock to join the impressive 2000 class, receiving 96.9%.



Lincoln Ruvalcaba – Designated Hitter – La Paz Pump Jacks – 71.9% First Ballot

Lincoln Ruvalcaba was a 6’0’’, 195 pound switch hitter from La Paz, Bolivia. Ruvalcaba was an excellent home run hitter who also hit quite well for contact. His eye and strikeout rate were both middling despite his contact ability. Ruvalcaba was great at getting extra base hits, averaging 46 home runs, 27 doubles, and 10 triples per 162 games. He also had average baserunning skills and speed, stretching out extra bases more than you’d expect from a slugger.

Ruvalcaba was exclusively a designed hitter, making only 99 starts in the field for his whole career. He was technically a right fielder, but an abysmal one in his few games using his glove. Ruvalcaba was a bit of a controversial and unlikeable player in the clubhouse. Some former teammates used words like “greedy,” lazy,” “selfish,” and “dumb,” to describe him. However, the man could hit dingers, which gave him plenty of value still despite his toxic personality and complete lack of defensive value.

Bolivia’s newest team was Santa Cruz, who joined Beisbol Sudamerica with the 1974 expansion. The Crawfish picked Ruvalcaba seventh overall in the 1980 BSA Draft. He wouldn’t see use in 1981 and only played 14 games with two starts in 1982. He was a part-time starter in 1983, but managed to hit 25 home runs with 3.3 WAR with only 66 starts. That earned Ruvalcaba a third place finish in Rookie of the Year voting and the starting job the next year.

The still young Santa Cruz franchise struggled, but Ruvalcaba emerged as a batter to watch. He led in runs scored in 1984, then led in 1986 in home runs, total bases, slugging, OPS, and wRC+. His 56 home run effort in 1986 earned Ruvalcaba Bolivar League MVP and his first Silver Slugger. This was also the best season in franchise history for the Crawfish, albeit at 81-81. Ruvalcaba also started playing for Bolivia in the World Baseball Championship in 1984. From 1984-98, he had 119 games with 105 hits, 55 runs, 27 home runs, 66 RBI, a .240/.307/.469 slash, and 3.1 WAR.

Despite his on the field accolades, there were clubhouse issues with Ruvalcaba and Santa Cruz. The reigning MVP ended up traded two months after the awards ceremony, being sent to La Paz for pitcher Martin Negron and SS Juan Herbas. For his Crawfish tenure, Ruvalcaba had 642 hits, 366 runs, 149 home runs, 361 RBI, a .308/.342/.608 slash, 161 wRC+, and 16.9 WAR.

Ruvalcaba immediately performed for his hometown squad with league bests in runs, homers, RBI, OPS, and wRC+. He repeated as MVP and Silver Slugger winner and helped the Pump Jacks to a division title, although they lost in the first round of the playoffs. He was on a similar pace in 1988, but lost the second half of the season to a torn meniscus.

Ruvalcaba was right back to his elite batting form, winning MVP in both 1989 and 1990 1989 saw career and league bests in runs (130), RBI (140), total bases (427), and WAR (8.5) along with another 56 home run season. That effort convinced La Paz to sign Ruvalcaba to a seven-year, $10,760,000 extension. He wouldn’t win MVP again, but did win a fourth Silver Slugger in 1994.

He still provided very solid firepower in his later La Paz years, although another meniscus tear in 1992 shredded his knee and cost him 10 months total. Ruvalcaba was a hometown star for the Pump Jacks and would get his #40 uniform retired eventually. La Paz won another division title in 1990, but eventually became a bottom-tier team soon after. In total with the Pump Jacks, Ruvalcaba had 1297 hits, 725 runs, 346 home runs, 856 RBI, a .321/.367/.654 slash, 178 wRC+, and 47.7 WAR.

With the competitive window clearly over for La Paz, Ruvalcaba opted out of the remaining years of his deal following the 1994 season. At age 34, he was a free agent for the first time and had plenty of suitors. He left for the United States and signed a big deal with MLB’s Denver Dragons on a five-year, $16,560,000 deal.

Ruvalcaba had a strong start to his MLB career, leading the American Association with 48 home runs in 1995. He stepped up in the playoffs as the Dragons won the World Series, posting 15 hits, 11 runs, 3 doubles, 4 home runs, and 14 RBI in 14 playoff games. MLB pitchers figured him out though in his second year. Although he still had 33 home runs, his .233 average and 96 wRC+ marked him as a subpar bat.
He was only a part-time starter in 1997 and struggled as his greatest asset disappeared; his power. Denver cut their losses and released Ruvalcaba two games into the 1998 season. For his MLB run, he had 397 games, 90 home runs, 236 RBI, and 3.8 WAR. Ruvalcaba was unsigned for the rest of 1998 and retired that winter at age 38.

For his BSA career, Ruvalcaba had 1939 hits, 1091 runs, 266 doubles, 111 triples, 495 home runs, 1217 RBI, 287 stolen bases, a .316/.358/.638 slash, 173 wRC+, and 64.6 WAR. His case was a peculiar one with his personality and lack of any defensive value working against him. He also had a relatively short career and lower accumulations as a result relative to other Hall of Famers. Ruvalcaba’s rate stats and his home run and RBI tallies were quite impressive though. Plus, at that point, he was one of only six players in BSA history with four MVPs to their name. There were also voters who didn’t want to put a pure DH in outside of exceptional circumstances. Enough were impressed by his prolific power though to get Ruvalcaba across the line at 71.9% as a first ballot inductee and the fourth member of the impressive 2000 crew.