John Bowker will get the start in right field for the San Francisco Giants after leading the team in home runs and RBI during spring training. Bowker hit .312 in 77 at bats with six home runs and 23 RBI. With the Giants short on power in the line up, it will be interesting to see how much time Bowker gets.
He made drastic improvement in his pitch recognition at Triple-A last season with 74 walks and 64 strikeouts after going 41 and 103 the previous season in Double-A. He has a lifetime minor league batting average of .301 so he can hit, it is a matter if he can carry over his patience at the plate to the major leagues now. He finished spring training with 10 walks and 11 strikeouts. I grabbed him in a couple of my deep leagues where I needed some power this past weekend.
We saw what happened when Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers finally discovered some plate discipline. Not that Bowker has the power of Cruz, but I think he is definitely worth a pick up from the waiver wire if the Giants are going to stick with him for more than a few weeks.
Seth Smith got the start for the Colorado Rockies and hit second today over Dexter Fowler. Smith hit .352 in spring with 12 RBI while Fowler hit only .229. I had Smith projected for around 375 at bats this year and I love his bat for average and power.
We saw a similar situation in Cincinnati where Dusty Baker gave the start to Chris Dickerson over Drew Stubbs in center field. Dickerson hit .288 with two home runs and four stolen bases in spring compared to Stubbs at .300, five home runs and three steals. I don’t think it is going to be a strict platoon, but if it was, that would be bad news for Stubbs owners with him being the right-handed hitter.
The talk of Matt Kemp being the second hitter in the batting order did not carry over into the regular season as the Los Angeles Dodgers have Russell Martin hitting second and Kemp hitting fifth.
Mike Jacobs filling in for the injured Daniel Murphy got slotted as the clean up hitter in the New York Mets line up with Jason Bay hitting fifth.
Gary Matthews Jr. got the start in center field over Angel Pagan and hit sixth for the Mets.
