Some Stuff on Yusmeiro Petit

I realized that I never actually wrote anything about the Mariners claiming starting pitcher Yusmeiro Petit off of waivers, and even though it happened weeks ago, I feel like I should at least get some thoughts out about it.

Basic stuff on Petit: He’s right handed, about to be 25 years old, he was once a pretty highly regarded prospect with the Mets, and he hasn’t pitched well as of yet in the major leagues*.

His stuff won’t blow you away, but he’s got a couple of okay pitches, and he throws strikes. Because of those two things, he does have a shot at becoming a halfway decent middle of the rotation starter in the future. However, for that to happen, a couple of other things are going to need to happen.

1) He’s going to need to either bring up his fastball velocity, or develop excellent fastball command. In the big leagues, especially the American League, an 87 MPH fastball with decent command just isn’t going to cut it.

2) He’s going to need to cut down on the home runs. Pitching at Safeco alone would probably make a really positive difference for him – because right now, the home runs are one of his biggest problems (1.96 career HR/9).

3) He’s going to need to improve his off speed stuff. Currently, he has a decent curve, an average slider, and a bad change. If he could just develop a decent fastball and one good off speed pitch, that would probably be enough to at least make him a serviceable back-end starter.

As of right now, he isn’t good enough to even earn a spot on the big league club for 2010. However, he has a good 3 1/2 months to get better before Spring Training, and he may end up being worth taking a look at.

*Just for reference, in case you’re wondering how he’s done thus far in the big leagues:

2009 tRA (89.2 IP): 6.26

2008 tRA (56.1 IP): 5.84

2007 tRA (57 IP): 5.59

2006 tRA (26.1 IP): 6.84