Phillies release John Bowker (former BCB Baseball-Reference adoptee). I’m not saying that John Bowker could have been as good as Willie McCovey, but what I am saying is that John Bowker could have been as good as Willie McCovey.
Ever since the Giants opened their gorgeous home in 2000, they’ve been counting balls that reach McCovey Cove on the fly Splash Hits. I think the Giants may have believed, before the park opened, that a great many balls would land in the water. They would be wrong. Well, except for when it came to Barry Bonds. Bonds hit 23… Read more →
I’m a bit late on responding to the Giants deadline deals, but I wanted to briefly write a few words about the two relievers the Giants picked up. Giants Lose: OF John Bowker, RHP Joe Martinez Giants Get: LHP Javier Lopez I guess this means the quest for the LOOGY is over. I’ll state up front that I don’t really… Read more →
Go gently, my sweet prince. According to CSN Bay Area, the Giants have sent OF John Bowker to AAA Fresno. The Giants, as usual, don’t seem to have the patience to let young hitters just play for an extended period of time. After being proclaimed the starting right fielder, John Bowker played for most of the month of April. He… Read more →
I know it’s tacky to quote yourself, but I never claimed to be non-tacky. I got the opportunity to write a guest post for Rob Neyer’s SweetSpot blog this week and I took the chance to talk a little about the Giants situation with Mark DeRosa. It seems that the Giants are hoping that some rest will cure DeRosa’s wrist… Read more →
You might think that fresh off a sweep of the Houston Astros I’m thinking about Matt Cain’s first start of the year? Or maybe, Edgar Renteria’s first 5 hit game since 1910. Nope. Instead, I was amazed by the lineup that the Astros used for most of the series. And not in a good way. With Berkman hurting, the Astros… Read more →
It’s time for my annual Giants WAR projection post. You can find the link to the 2009 projection, here. It explains a few things in general and it’s not a bad place to start if you’ve never seen a WAR projection. But, the basics are that: a team totally devised of ‘replacement level talent’ — ie: freely or cheaply acquired… Read more →
In 2008, Bowkermania hit the Giants like a hurricane. A hurricane with little stubby arms that sprayed line drives and dingers all around the ballpark. And then, poof, it was gone in the blink of an eye and 326 at-bats. Of course, I’m talking about John Bowker. Bowker entered baseball with a bang — blasting a HR in his first… Read more →
Today’s post is similar to yesterday’s post, I’m using the same plot format but instead of using 2008 data, I thought I would plot some projections for 2009. I’m a big fan of ZiPS — a free projection system from BBTF — and I think it’s one of the better systems out there. Again, we’ll be looking at ISO vs… Read more →
I meant to do this earlier when the call-ups were first announced, but I got sidetracked. If you’re wondering how some of our minor league player’s performances might translate to the majors, this post is for you. Note: Translations are NOT a guarantee of performance nor are they a prediction of what a player will do, but they are a… Read more →