Improvement from within - young hitters

I want to say Bowker, but I don’t feel like he’ll get much of a chance to actually play. Actually I’d say the same for the others you listed… except for Velez.

The said thing is that a lot of these guys aren’t even legitimately “younger” players anymore.

As far as guys who were on last year’s 25 man roster, i’d be afraid of playing most of them full time. I think the Giants have themselves a nice group of platoon players, but very few show the ability to hit both sides of the mound. Even Garko has been fairly mediocre vs. right handers in his career. But, if i had to rank them from best to last, it would probably be something like:

Panda
Lewis
Posey
Garko
Bowker
Schierholz
Ishikawa
Velez
Guzman
Burriss?
Rohlinger
Frandsen
Downs

That’s off the top of my head; I hope there are some other guys down on the farm who can produce numbers that would put them in the middle of the list. Basically, young hitters come down to Panda, Lewis, Posey, Garko and a bunch of guys who wouldn’t start on 75% of the teams in MLB. I’d like to see the top 4 guys play almost every day, platoon Velez and Torres (not even close to a youngster anymore), and find a couple of utility guys to fill out platoon spots and injury holes. Ronnie Belliard might be a good option for the Giants, regardless of his production in Washington. He murders lefties and is so-so at multiple defensive positions. He’d be a lot cheaper than Chone Figgins, although he obviously doesn’t have the same tool set. I’d be surprised to see the offense improve much, but I don’t think it has to improve by leaps and bounds. They need guys to get on base, add a little bit of speed on the basepaths (not so much SB, but the ability to go from 1st to 3rd on a long single was sorely lacking on the 2009 Giants – likewise the ability go from 2nd to home). The Giants need a gap hitting team, not a bunch of home run hitters. Although, I’d take the home run hitters if they were cheap, which they rarely are (Ibanez and Dunn were there for the taking last year but Sabes said nyet).

Here we go yo
Here we go yo
So what’s tha what’s tha what’s tha
Scenario?

(lol… Bochy 2010 introduction song)

Wee haz no powa!!!

I would say of those players, I am the least confident in velez. Unfortunately, it sounds like he could very well get more at bats than anyone else on this list.

Bowker, Garko, Schierholtz, and Ishikawa make my list. I don’t consider Lewis that much of a prospect anymore; he’s gotten plenty of playing time and you pretty much know what you’re getting with him (decent OBP/AVG, occasional dingers, scary “OMG HE’S NOT GONNA CATCH THAT phew he did” defense). Velez has a role as a super-utility guy, but it’s harder to find time for a guy not good enough to start and not good enough to be a defensive replacement and not good enough to be a pinch runner. He won’t be around in a few years.

Bowker’s pretty much proven he can slug; there’s not much more for him in AAA and he really needs a starting job. Garko has proven himself at the ML level, but of course he’s a platoon player in Bochy’s crazed head. Schierholtz has good value as a CF now, and good value as a corner OF if he can find out how to lay off or hit that inside breaking pitch. Ishikawa occasionally shows flashes of good power and has a great glove; if he develops that power and turns into a 20 HR guy (which I think he could; 9 HR in 326 AB last year, and most of those came in the middle of the year when he found his stroke), that plus his defense could make him somewhat valuable.

He was raking before he hit the wall in Atlanta. After that, his swing changed. As some noted, he started swinging with his hands more than his hips, which cut his ability to make contact. The swings at HBP’s will haunt him forever, but he’s a lot better than people give him credit for.

I don’t like the idea to put him in center, though. He adds so much value in right field that I think it actually hurts his individual value to put him there. Sure, it makes more room for a Bowker or a Lewis, but neither will do what he can in the most difficult corner outfield in the league, and in center I doubt Nate will be the threat to get outfield assists the same way.

If they all were to get 550 at bats next year, this is what I predict their stats would look like:

Bowker: .272 AVG, 22 HRs, 74 RBI, 4 SB, .332 OBP
Schierholtz: .276 AVG, 16 HRs, 65 RBI, 7 SB, .324 OBP
Velez: .265 AVG, 6 HR, 48 RBI, 33 SB, .323 OBP
Lewis: .258 AVG, 10 HR, 55 RBI, 24 SB, .311 OBP
Ishikawa: .281 AVG, 20 HR, 77 RBI, 3 SB, .344 OBP