Giants Unsung Hero - Journeyman Pitcher, Yusmeiro Petit
By Brian Posada
In a year where the San Francisco Giants starting pitching has been plagued with injuries and poor performances, Yusmeiro Petit has been their savior.
The 2010 and 2012 world champion San Francisco Giants were built around the core of a strong pitching staff. With Matt Cain being shut down mid-season – Tim Linceum and Ryan Vogelson are shells of their former selves -- Sergio Romo struggled and lost his spot as closer -- the Giants pitching staff has been "putting it kindly" fallen short of expectations.
One of the only pluses has been Petit who was crucial in the Giants game two win in the National Leagie Division Series, going six plus innings of 1-hit ball, and was essentially a second starter in a game that went 17+ innings. The Giants eventually won the marathon and hold a 2-0 advantage in a best of five series. (for highlights of game two - click here)
As the Giants look to close out the series and advanced to the National League Championship Series for a third time in five years, they will either their arch enemies, the hated Los Angeles Dodgers or the incumbent National League champs, the St Louis Cardinals.
The unknown Venezuelan pitcher, Petit, is 29 years of age and has been been used as a spot starter and long-relief pitcher by the Giants. Despite a great close to the 2013 season as a starter, Petit was unable to break the starting rotation this year and eventually did only due to the numerous pitching woes facing the Giants this year.
The signings of former CY Young winners, Tim Hudson and Jake Peavy have allowed for Petit's success to go unnoticed. Bumgarner has no problem being the Giants Ace. Hudson and Peavy even at their age are respectable #2 and #3 starters. The Giant's secret weapon has now become Petit at the #4 spot, which opposing teams will have difficulty matching the depth of quality pitching.
If Petit can get some run support, the Giants have a huge advantage going forward. Not to mention if they can manage to win a third championship in five years, they will solidify their legacy as a dynasty built on dominant pitching.
On a side note:
Petit could be a hot commodity this off season. He’s signed to a one year 800k contract and is arbitration eligible after this season. I will be intrigued to see how the Giants reward Petit for his services or if they prefer not to pay him and let him test the free agency.
Given the Giants' inconsistent pattern of signing key players in recent years, it'll be another case-study to see how they treat Petit. After all they let go of big contributors Juan Uribe and Carlos Beltran (2010, 2011) without much effort to re-sign and turned around and inked Tim Lincecum and Hunter Pence to very inflated contracts. Lincecum signed a two year $21 million per year to ride the bench, and at 31 -- Hunter Pence signed a 5 year $90 million dollar contract, perhaps Sabean forgot his mistake signing Aaron Rowand to a very similar deal back in 2008.
In light of their free agent history, it will be interesting to see how the Giants reward or dismiss Petit’s recent success. Stay tuned.
