Madison Bumgarner Is the San Francisco Giants' Third Horseman

Entering the 2011 season, the San Francisco Giants were worried about Madison Bumgarner.  He had thrown 214.2 innings in 2010 in total between Fresno, San Francisco and the postseason.  He started 2011 at only 21 years old, so there was concern in the organization regarding overuse.

In the 2010 postseason, the Giants' top two starting pitchers absolutely dominated.  Tim Lincecum won the 2010 Postseason MVP award and Matt Cain did not give up a single earned run in 21.1 postseason innings pitched, posting a 0.938 WHIP.  Then there was young Madison Bumgarner.

In 20.2 postseason innings, Bumgarner posted an ERA of 2.18, a WHIP of 1.113 while striking out 18 against just five walks, one of them intentional.  Probably his defining moment of what should become a stellar if not spectacular career came on Halloween night in Game 4 of the World Series in Texas.

The Giants had taken a two-games-to-none lead in the series before the Rangers won Game 3 in Texas.  Game 4 became a crucial game for the Giants to win in order to maintain their advantage in the series.  If Texas won Game 4, suddenly the momentum would have been gone and it would've become a very short, best-of-three series.

The Giants turned to the 21-year-old kid with the poise of a grizzled veteran to shut down the vaunted Rangers offense.

Bumgarner was up to the task.  He went eight innings, giving up three hits, no runs and striking out six.  He baffled the Rangers hitters that night, making established veterans like Vladimir Guerrero shake their heads at-bat after at-bat, all this on the grandest baseball stage possible.

Watching Bumgarner that night, one would have thought that he was playing catch in his backyard as a kid.  He barely broke a sweat, and the stoic look on his face never wavered.  That was just the end of the impressive run by the kid; he posted a 1.13 ERA in September 2010 as the Giants fought down to the final game to make it to the postseason.

The Giants had to have known that night, if they didn't know before, that they had a truly special player in Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner started out slow in 2011, but has shown once again that he is a force in the league by turning in fantastic pitching performances as consistently as a certain No. 25 used to put baseballs into McCovey Cove.  In August of 2011, Bumgarner went 3-2 with a 2.30 ERA and a strikeout-per-nine-innings-pitched ratio of 8.8/9.

He has built on that trend in his two September starts to date, throwing 13.1 innings, striking out 21 and giving up only one earned run.  Bumgarner has a special mix of talent, mental fortitude and a deceptive delivery.  His talent and ability are right on par with Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, and he gives the Giants three legitimate No. 1 starters atop their rotation for years to come.

As last year ended, the Giants were encouraged by the force down the stretch that was Madison Bumgarner.  Their enthusiasm was tempered by their desire to see if he could duplicate his success over a full season in the major leagues when teams had adjusted to him.

As 2011 draws to a disappointing close, the Giants are anything but disappointed in Bumgarner's season.  He proven that he is a legitimate big-league pitcher, a pitcher who can dominate even the most powerful of lineups on any given night.

It's one less thing for the team to worry about heading into a critical 2012 season.  Let's not forget—he's only 22 years old.