Professional Career
The Florida Marlins drafted Vargas out of Long Beach State with their second-round pick in the 2004 MLB Draft and signed by scout Robby Cosaro; he was a collegiate teammate of Jered Weaver, who was the Anaheim Angels' first-round pick in 2004. Vargas was the 68th player taken overall in the draft. He signed with the Marlins in time to make eight starts with their Low A affiliate, the Jamestown Jammers, with whom he went 3-1 with an ERA of 1.96. He finished 2004 with three starts at the end of the 2004 campaign with one of the Marlins' Single-A affiliates, the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the South Atlantic League. He had a record of 2-1, an ERA of 2.37, and struck out 17 batters in 19 innings pitched.
Vargas was then promising enough that Baseball America listed him 8th among the Marlins' top 10 prospects for 2005; those above him were Jeremy Hermida, Scott Olsen, Yorman Bazardo, Jason Stokes, Josh Willingham, Eric Reed, and Taylor Tankersley. Baseball America predicted that Vargas would start the season in Greensboro and finish it in High A with the Jupiter Hammerheads; Vargas would very easily surpass that expectation during the 2005 season.
Vargas did start the 2005 season with Greensboro, as was expected, but he advanced quickly through the Marlins' minor-league system. He made five starts with Greensboro, going 4-1 with an earned run average of just 0.80. He was then promoted to Jupiter, where he went 2-3 with a 3.42 ERA in nine starts; while there, he struck out 60 batters in 55⅓ innings. With his third club of the year, the Double-A Carolina Mudcats, he made three starts, going 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 19 innings pitched.
The Marlins noticed Vargas's success in the minor leagues and, when faced with injuries to their own pitching staff, decided to make him the fourth Mudcats pitcher to play in the major leagues in 2005 (the others were Logan Kensing, Olsen, and Bazardo). He made his major-league debut on July 14, 2005, the same day on which the Marlins designated veteran starter Al Leiter for assignment. His first start in the majors would come on July 18 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Unlike Kensing, Olsen, and Bazardo, Vargas enjoyed nearly immediate success upon his arrival in the major leagues, and after Ismael Valdéz returned from a leg injury, the Marlins moved Brian Moehler to the bullpen and left Vargas in their rotation. On August 21, Vargas started against the Dodgers and pitched his first complete game in the majors, giving up one run on six hits and striking out seven. He finished the season with a record of 5-5 and a 4.03 ERA. Vargas received one third-place vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America in the 2005 MLB Rookie of the Year voting.
Vargas started the 2006 season in the Marlins' starting rotation, but he struggled there; in five starts, he went 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA, 20 walks, and 14 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings. For the month of May, the Marlins moved him to the bullpen, where he gave up one run in 5⅓ innings over his first three appearances. In his fourth appearance out of the bullpen, he allowed eight runs (seven earned) over 3⅓ innings; the Marlins optioned him to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes on May 14. Vargas started improving with Albuquerque, going 2-2 with a 4.54 ERA in seven starts and earning another promotion to the major leagues on July 6.
However, over his next three games with the Marlins, all in relief, Vargas allowed 13 runs (12 earned), four home runs, and five walks in 10⅓ innings; he struck out five batters. The Marlins sent him back to Albuquerque on July 29, where he stayed for the rest of Albuquerque's season. Vargas continued to struggle in his second stint with Albuquerque, allowing 38 earned runs on 56 hits in 31⅓ innings.
The Marlins did not call him up again in 2006 after the major-league rosters expanded in September. Overall, Vargas went 1-2 with a 7.33 ERA for the Marlins and 3-6 with a 7.43 ERA for the Isotopes in 2006.
Read more about this topic: Jason Vargas
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or career:
“I sometimes wonder whether, in the still, sleepless hours of the night, the consciences of ... professional gossips do not stalk them. I myself believe in a final reckoning, when we shall be held accountable for our misdeeds. Do they? If so, they have cause to worry over many scoops that brought them a day’s dubious laurels and perhaps destroyed someone’s peace forever.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)