Wowsers! Bowker Comin' Up

As first reported by Hank Schulman of the Chronicle (who got the tip from a writer from the Fresno Bee), and reported as confirmed through sources by NBC's Raj Mathai during the 11PM news, John Bowker is joining the Giants for the start of the San Diego series on Thursday. It was noted that he was pulled after hitting a double in his first AB; some wondered why if they knew he was coming up, but why not get in an AB before taking off, Fresno is not that far away.

The speculation - which makes sense - is that Ryan Sadowski will be optioned back down to AAA to open up space. That works because he just had his last start pre-All Star break and then the rotation will be juggled after the break, and there is a break day for the Giants on Thursday, when most other teams start their second half of the season. Thus the mandatory 10 days would have elapsed by the time his next start, which Schulman thinks would be July 20th in Atlanta, assuming they want him back in the rotation.

Perhaps the New and Better Option

As nice as the young guys have been hitting, and the team been racking up high scoring games, both Schierholtz and Ishikawa has been colder in July, with Schierholtz hitting .192/.241/.231/.472 with no HR in 26 AB since June 30th and Ishikawa hitting .240/.269/.380/.659 with 2 HR in 50 AB since June 23rd.

Obviously, with Schierholtz making a face plant, it looks like Bowker will be taking away ABs in the OF first, though things might open up depending on how affected Rowand was by crashing into the fence to catch a fly ball in Wednesday's game. Rowand might need to miss a game or two (or have Bochy force him to rest). In addition, Ishikawa is still not hitting LHP, and thus the Giants might start Bowker in place of him against any LHP starting for San Diego.

Unlike Frandsen, who was brought up apparently to be MI backup, Bowker has been white-hot in AAA, hitting .345/.446/.609/1.055 with 17 HR in 289 AB, which translates to an MLE of .292/.373/.477/.850, which would be great at any of the corner fielding positions (I would note here that Ishikawa hit for a higher OPS last year in AAA than Bowker, and hit a lot better for HR).

There was no compelling reason to bring him up other than he has been white-hot, so I have to think that Bowker will get to start at least 3 of the 4 games against San Diego, and hopefully all four games, then get to play most of the games after the break until they need Sadowski again, and then will have to make a decision on who to remove off the 25 man roster. Else why bring him up when there was no urgent need to, other than to give us another power bat in the lineup and create competition for Schierholtz, Lewis, and Ishikawa.

I don't see the Giants carrying so many OF, so I have to think that the Giants would designate either Andres Torres or Fred Lewis for assignment, either releasing Torres or trading Lewis for a prospect of some sort. I think trading Lewis would be a mistake, he has shown some goodness while up in the majors, but I don't see how they can carry so many OF on the roster, unless they demote Whiteside to the minors again and make Sandoval the backup catcher again, as Frandsen also has caught a little so that he can be the third catcher.

Thinking more of that option, I can see that happening as Molina would not need a break until near the end of July 2009. Meanwhile, drop Whiteside out, and have Franden ready to catch at any time.