John Bowker: The Man, the Myth, the Conundrum

In order to fill a power void, the Giants recently brought up breakout AA guy John Bowker to serve as a pinch hit specialist role. This move was taken with some skepticism, as Nate Schierholtz seemed to be more polished for the Pinch Hitter/5th Outfielder role, but Bowker came nonetheless-and he brought a lot of pop. He's already raked 3 home runs and a triple in 22 at bats, with 9 RBIs. The Giants are thrilled with his early success, and even started him at 1st Base recently in order to harness his hot streak.

"Bye Bye Bowker," as he was called in a recent Giants telecast, wasn't predicted to do much of anything this year. The Baseball Prospectus 2008 almanac, which gives predictions for over 1600 players, barely mentions Bowker. All they wrote was that he found his bat again at AA after struggling in A ball since 2004, but that "He's an inferior version of Schierholtz, and unlikely to build on his progress."

So what do you do with a guy like John Bowker? Ride the lightning until it stops? Conventional wisdom says he can't keep this up forever--he never even played a game in AAA ball. At the same time, the Giants need to cultivate their young players if they want any hope of success down the road.

In my opinion, the Giants should ride the Bowker Train as long as it keeps going. Sure, Bowker will cool down eventually; pitchers will figure him out and he'll stop getting good wood on the ball. At that point, I think the Giants will probably make a switch between him and Schierholtz. Schierholtz will hopefully have learned some better plate discipline down in AAA, and Bowker can refine himself a little more. I just can't imagine he's a finished product at this point since we have a small sample size of him being good. If he doesn't drop hard though, and merely levels off to being league average, then start him in the outfield. This team needs pop, and he's young.