Big Gregorio Petit: Astros’ Secret Weapon

His Houston Astros teammate (and fellow Venezuelan), Jose Altuve, would be the first to tell infielder Gregorio Petit that stature is measured by more than a ruler or yardstick. As starting 2nd-baseman, the 5’6″, 175-lb Altuve is rolling toward the first league batting title in franchise history; meanwhile, Petit is making a name for himself as a super Astro reserve infielder.

“Petite” is from the French meaning “little,” “slight,” and even “dainty.” “Petit” is the masculine form, and fittingly so, as no one has played bigger on the Astros than this longtime minor leaguer.

Petit (pronounced “puh-teet,” with accent on the last syllable) is 5’10” and just under 200 lbs, and joined the Astros as a spring training invitee this year, after spending 2013 with the Padres’ AAA Tucson affiliate, and 2012 with AAA Columbus, in the Cleveland organization. He was signed by the Oakland A’s as a 16-yr-old non-drafted free agent in 2001, but it took him 6 years to finally make the A’s 40-man roster. He made his MLB debut the next year, in 2008.

Slickly flashing his leather mostly at SS (while splitting time with Marwin Gonzalez and, in the past few days, Jonathan Villar at short), the 29-year-old Petit has made a more than competent double play combo with Altuve, while raising his batting average from .275 on August 30 to .293 as of September 16. His 3-run home run on September 14 provided the winning margin in a 6-1 win over the Angels.

In 75 ABs, Petit has accumulated 22 hits, scored 12 runs, driven in 9, and smacked 6 doubles, through games as of September 16. His BA in September alone is an impressive .350.

Against left-handed pitchers, Petit is batting .385, vs. .245 against right-handera. His road BA is a lofty .360 with .260 at home, and his day game/night game BA split is .333/.283, respectively. These stats may be based on a relatively small sampling of games (28), but early on, it appears Petit is particularly effective in day games on the road vs. left-handed pitchers.

With continued playing time, and more at bats against right-handed pitchers, these stats are likely to even out, raising Petit’s team value, which is already considerable.

Quietly, Petit has cemented himself as an important part of a Houston Astros team purposefully building itself toward a consistently winning future. That promising future builds on a better win/loss record in 2014 than 2013, and continues as the team looks confidently to Spring Training, ’15.

Just don’t shortchange Gregorio Petit’s big team contributions during this rise to the top.

Author: Brad Kyle

Brad was born the same year as rock’n’roll and Disneyland. Aging only slightly better than one of them, he’s a Houston native, and has seen countless Astro games, in all three Houston pro ball stadiums: Colt Stadium, The Astrodome, and Minute Maid Park.

His favorite non-Astro was Pirate legend Roberto Clemente, with 3rd baseman Bob Aspromonte his favorite Houston player as a kid, and Jeff Bagwell more recently.

Brad has spent professional time as a teacher, youth minister, radio personality, record store manager, entertainment booking agent, singer, comedy writer, and…..oh, yeah, sports writer!

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