Fred Lewis: A Nice Beginning

Wow, even if he nevers does anything else in baseball, Fred Lewis will have a lot to tell his grandchildren. Hits for the cycle, first lefty in SF Giants history, one of a handful to do it with his first career homer. Hits 5 for 6 in the same game, a Mother's Day present to rival any other. Hits a grand slam homerun. 7 game hit streak to start off the season. He doesn't even have 100 ABs yet. As it is, he already has a 4 year son and his son is old enough to be remembering his dad's first feats on the baseball diamond in the majors.

This is a far way from his days playing baseball in a grassy lot, using a tennis ball and broomstick, in Wiggins, Mississippi, next to a church (many of the facts used here from a recent article on Lewis by Andrew Baggarly of the SJ Mercury, very good read). Contrary to most reports on him as he rose through the farm system, he's been playing baseball all his life: even though he was mainly known for playing football when he was drafted out of college, he didn't play football until high school, but has played baseball all his life.

Here's how his stats right now would look like, if he played a full 162 game season:

• 162 games (18 games played thus far)
• 630 AB
• 126 runs
• 171 hits
• 27 doubles
• 18 triples
• 18 homers
• 108 RBIs
• 63 walks
• 117 strikeouts
• 18 stolen bases

Not too shabby, eh? Of course, this is all small samples, it is still very early in his career and the league and he will make adjustments to each other as they battle to see who can make the better adjustment. He's been in a bit of a cold spell, as the league started to figure him out, and he's not been hitting that well since the hit streak ended, so today's great game is a nice bust out for him, and hopefully a sign of him adjusting back and figuring out things further.

Still, this is about what has been predicted for him as he's been rising up the system. Double-digit power. Double-digit steals. Leadoff run scorer and base stealer who also has potential to be a middle of lineup run producer as well. He's striking out more than I would like to see, but he's doing OK in that department so I'm quibbling. The only serious flaw in his game is that he hasn't been hitting LHP at all, with a horribly bad batting line that is only assuaged by the fact that it is only in 15 AB. That and that he's already 26 years old, so he needed to start showing what he's got pretty soon.

And so far so good. But so did Lance Niekro, another platoon hitter who couldn't hit pitchers that throw the same side, and you know what eventually happened to him, at least thus far. In a season dominated by our starting rotation, it is nice that a position prospect is making some nice noise under the radar for us. Also takes the sting out of the dashed expectations that many of us had for Todd Linden. Good luck Fred!