He had never pitched a shutout before , let alone a complete game. He had only won 10 games and lost 20 in a journeyman 10 year career. Now at an age when pitchers with his history are already out of the game or close to it, Yasmeiro Petit is suddenly pitching better than all the other Giant starting pitchers - and most in baseball for that matter.
So, he didn't quite get the perfect game September 6, coming just one hit away, the Giants fans are ecstatic, of course. But before we get too excited, one has to question this picture.
When the Giants top starters Bumgardner, Cain, Linsecum haven't come this nearly close to a perfect game how the heck can an over the hill nobody do it. Think Brady Anderson suddenly nitting 40 homers onoe year after never hitting more than 10 before or after.
In three years with Arizona, before coming to the Giants he had over a 5. ERA with less than a strikeout per inning. After leaving baseball for two years he comes to the Giants at age 30 and cuts his ERA nearly in half and more than a strikeout per inning. He's never been known as a velocity pitcher yet his velocity, if anything has gone up a little since 2009 instead of beginning to drop as it usually does for pitchers around age 30
Standard Pitching YASMEIRO PETIT
Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L%ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB Awards 2006 21 FLA NL 1 1 .500 9.57 15 1 5 0 0 0 26.1 46 28 28 7 9 1 20 0 0 0 129 46 2.089 15.7 2.4 3.1 6.8 2.22 2007 22 ARI NL 3 4 .429 4.58 14 10 2 0 0 0 57.0 58 30 29 12 18 1 40 0 1 0 243 104 1.333 9.2 1.9 2.8 6.3 2.22 2008 23 ARI NL 3 5 .375 4.31 19 8 6 0 0 0 56.1 45 29 27 12 14 2 42 1 1 3 229 107 1.047 7.2 1.9 2.2 6.7 3.00 2009 24 ARI NL 3 10 .231 5.82 23 17 2 0 0 0 89.2 102 62 58 19 34 1 74 0 0 3 407 77 1.517 10.2 1.9 3.4 7.4 2.18 2012 27 SFG NL 0 0 3.86 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.2 7 2 2 0 4 0 1 0 0 1 22 100 2.357 13.5 0.0 7.7 1.9 0.25 2013 28 SFG NL 2 0 1.000 3.12 3 2 0 0 0 0 17.1 19 6 6 1 4 0 23 0 0 0 72 110 1.327 9.9 0.5 2.1 11.9 5.75 6 Yrs 12 20 .375 5.37 75 39 15 0 0 0 251.1 277 157 150 51 83 5 200 1 2 7 1102 83 1.432 9.9 1.8 3.0 7.2 2.41 162 Game Avg. 7 12 .375 5.37 45 23 9 0 0 0 150 165 94 89 30 50 3 119 1 1 4 657 83 1.432 9.9 1.8 3.0 7.2 2.41 ARI (3 yrs) 9 19 .321 5.05 56 35 10 0 0 0 203.0 205 121 114 43 66 4 156 1 2 6 879 91 1.335 9.1 1.9 2.9 6.9 2.36 SFG (2 yrs) 2 0 1.000 3.27 4 3 0 0 0 0 22.0 26 8 8 1 8 0 24 0 0 1 94 108 1.545 10.6 0.4 3.3 9.8 3.00 FLA (1 yr) 1 1 .500 9.57 15 1 5 0 0 0 26.1 46 28 28 7 9 1 20 0 0 0 129 46 2.089 15.7 2.4 3.1 6.8 2.22
Velocity Charts show all of his pitches improving 1-2 mph between 2009 and 2013 with the Giant
A player just doesn't cut his lifetime ERA in half at an advanced age over a prolonged period. We saw the same thing happen with Scutaro last year, raising his average nearly 100 points the second half of the season after coming to the Giants from Colorado. Granted it's been only three games so far with the Giants but Petit looks like , if anything, he's improving his numbers and the fact that the Diamond backs showed no improvement but hit worse against him the second time around makes one further ask questions.
-Its not like the Diamondbacks had never seen him before the Sept 6 one hitter...the Diamondbacks had a good look at him last week already.
- You've got the perfect candidate for using PEDs.. the 30 year old pitcher at the crossroads of either retiring or going for it with PEDs. At least one minor league Giants coach is known to even have suggested to such action to a player in a similar career situation.
- Latin players, particularly those from Venezuela have been the big culprits in the recent PED busts, with another Venezuelan and Giant, Melky Cabrera , leading the pack last year.com.com\
We've seen Venezuelan pitchers for the Giants such as Machi and _____ improve their numbers once with the Giants, but not like what we've seen from Petit in the last three games since coming up to the Big Leagues. It's reminiscent of Chad 'the incident' Gaudin who suddenly became the no. 2 most successful starter after coming up midseason. He may not be from Venezuela but we have questions about him, too, and not just his penchant for visiting young women on gurneys in hospitals.
We're afraid It's the same old Giants story, that of bringing in players, mostly Latin, er Venezuelans, in recent years - players who've done virtually nothing to distinguish themselves but once with the Giants they almost always hit 30-50 points higher than their career average - or the last team they came from. I know we're not supposed to talk this way but by now it's our strong belief that GM Sabean purposely goes after these rejects in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle, or , more likely something else in a bottle and syringe, perhaps. It's happened year after year in the lax state of baseball testing , which, by the way, hasn't caught a single player all year; baseball had to go after Biogenesis to save face since its own testing is well behind the curve of designer PEDs that go undetectable to their tests. You can chalk up some of the past to lack of good judgement and the influence of Bonds around them - decent guys like Aurilia, Matt Williams, Santiago . Then there were Mendoza guys like Marvin Bernard who were still able to raise their numbers into the respectable range. There was more innocense back then, except for Bonds . Today, players should no better and we cant feel sorry for them .
We don't know where Petit is getting his stuff but it would seem there's plenty to go around once players land on the Giants. San Francisco is, after all, the BALCO and BONDS capital where it all really began in the most liberal city in America where the smell of canabis in the stands was rampant during their World Series home games. You can throw in local guys McGwire and Conseco, too , yet that was from a slighty earlier, not so much designer drug era. If the Giants didn't have such a consistent history, year after year , of having convicted PED users (not to mention the ones not caught) we wouldn't be as quick to jump on this. Just to many dots connected. Remember, it took almost 10 years before a couple of brave reporters broke the Bonds story
- And, just an afterthought or sidelight that we thought it rather bizarre that the Giants would interview Petit - in Spanish , no less (Petit doesn't speak English after playing American basebally nearly 10 years) over the PA system after the game. If it had been no hitter or perfect game
it might be understandable but one there's a big difference between a one hitter and perfect game - agt least in status.
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