Giants ace Madison Bumgarner named SI's Sportsman of the Year

Madison Bumgarner's dominating postseason effort has earned him plenty of praise around baseball. The rest of the sports world is taking notice, too.

The San Francisco Giants left-hander was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year on Monday after a record-setting playoff performance that led his club to its third title in five years.

Bumgarner is the seventh MLB pitcher and first Giants player to earn the distinction. 

The 25-year-old southpaw carried the Giants with a virtuoso playoff run, coming back from two days rest and a 117-pitch effort in Game 5 to blank the Kansas City Royals over five innings in the series-clinching win.

From SI managing editor Chris Stone:

It's easy to mythologize the small-town sports hero. Baseball, especially, is full of them. Madison Bumgarner isn't the Sportsman of the Year because he's from a tiny town, but that town goes a long way toward defining who he is and it gives his story a different texture from past Sportsmen. And while he's been an outstanding pitcher for the last five years, his Sportsman candidacy was so sudden and seemingly out of nowhere that it makes him the most unique Sportsman in recent memory.

The Giants went 6-1 in postseason games Bumgarner pitched in, which included two complete games and at least seven innings in each start. Bumgarner threw a record-setting 52 2/3 playoff innings in 2014 and lowered his career postseason ERA to an all-time best 0.25 (among pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched).

Bumgarner is the first MLB selection since Derek Jeter in 2009. 

For more on SI's 2014 Sportsman of the Year, check out the story here.