Ortmeier is hitting against anybody? I mean, physically in the games, standing in the batters box, taking pitches?

Stop teasing.

Harper is at or near his last shot at the big leagues (he’s 26) and I think he knows it too (especially since he left the Mets system to come to the Giants thinking he’d have a shot at playing time). He should get a shot at 1B, but the Giants seem to want to give Bowker that chance. Who knows, but I like you’re line of thought…

Are you discussing the same Dan Ortmeier that went on the DL so Brian Horwitz could come up?

Harper should have been given the shot before Bowker, but now that Bowker is here there is really no point. Bowker has stopped hitting homeruns, but he hits lots of balls hard. (no S&M jokes please!!) The Giants are committed to Bowker for the rest of this season, and as one of the few young guys on the team, i expect the power to come as he matures.

If you remove that one flukey-looking 36 HR season from Harper’s career, he has 50 HR’s in 1696 minor league AB’s. Which is remarkably similar to Bowker, who has 48 HR’s in 1649 AB’s. This year, they also have the same amount of HR’s (4)—even though Bowker has spent the vast majority of his year in the big leagues while Harper has been in the hitter-happy PCL.

In fact, even with that 36 HR season, Bowker and Harper have very similar numbers across the board through their respective minor league careers thus far:

Bowker – .294/.350/.468
Harper – .299/.360/.485

And, despite the fact Bowker is 2 years younger than Harper (almost to the day), and Harper has 3 more years of experience in pro baseball, they both spent last season in AA, and again put up remarkably similar numbers:

Bowker – .307/.363/.523
Harper – .296/.350/.500

So Bowker had higher numbers across the board at the same level last year, in one of the toughest hitting ballparks in the minors, at a younger age, and with less experience. He has more upside (see the age), better pedigree (Bowker was a 3rd round pick, Harper a 45th rounder & minor league FA), and a better track record (similar stats, but Bowker has moved through the system in four years, the same amount of time Harper had spent just at AA before this year).

I like Harper and wouldn’t mind seeing what he can do in the majors, but not at the expense of Bowker, who is clearly the best in-house candidate to man 1B right now. And since Harper is LH and it appears he can only really play 1B, I don’t really see how the two could co-exist on the roster right now.