Based on what we’ve seen Ryan Vogelsong do so far in the 2012 playoffs, the answer to that question has to be yes, doesn’t it?

Without question, he’s been the most dominating starting pitcher in a rotation full of former Cy Young Award winners, ballyhooed youngsters and pitchers with multiple All-Star games on their résumés.

All the 35-year-old Vogelsong has done is toss 19 innings of three-run baseball, striking out 18 batters along the way. He’s taken the ball in pressure situations and flourished where others would wilt.

Oh, and he’s made a little history along the way.

But Ryan Vogelsong isn’t supposed to be here.

Drafted by the Giants in the fifth round of the 1998 draft, he found himself traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates as part of the package that bought All-Star Jason Schmidt to the Giants’ rotation.

Vogelsong spent parts of five years with the Pirates, who cut ties with him following the 2006 season after watching him pitch to a 6.00 ERA during his time in Pittsburgh.

Nobody would give him another chance, so he left for Japan. Three years and a 4.17 ERA later, all Vogelsong could land would be a minor league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies…who released him midway through the 2010 season.

So he signed with the Angels, never pitching above Triple-A, and they let him go at the end of the season.

Believe it or not, there isn’t much of a market for a 33-year-old pitcher who has a losing record and ERA of 5.86 in just over 300 innings of major league work.

Yet the Giants bought him into camp in 2011 with nothing to lose, and they’ve gained everything—well, almost everything.

Vogelsong has seen it all. His career has hit the lowest of lows, and he’s now sitting on the cusp of enjoying the highest of highs.

While anyone who doesn’t have a rooting interest in the 2012 World Series will be cheering him on, whether he continues his remarkable run Saturday night in Game 3 of the 2012 World Series is largely irrelevant. 

For no matter what happens in the story from this point forward, Ryan Vogelsong has already won.

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