Bowden making a surge

[Dojji]

Michael Bowden's put some decent starts in a row to bounce back from a rough April and May.

 

His season numbers aren't yet good, but he has gotten his ERA down to 4.39, if he puts another couple solid starts together over the next couple weeks he could get it below 4, which considering his tough start to the season is fairly remarkable.

 

He's gotta pretty much not struggle from here on out, but Bowden could be a factor as a potential callup by the All-Star Break if he keeps this string of great starts going, which also means he'll reaffirm his stock as a possible trade piece at the deadline -- a definite good thing considering the fact that we probably will need to make some kind of deadline move this year.

 

Just for the record, the decision by soxprospects.com to drop Bowden all the way to #21 because of two bad months was short-sighted and reactionary, and reflects poorly on that website, especially when Lars Anderson, after 2 straight years of upper-level mediocricy, is squarely at #2.

[Dipre]

Prospect rankings are as much a matter of projection as performance, the fact that the 20X All-Star is struggling in 142 AB's in AAA hasn't been enough to drop his stock, because not only is AAA a new level for him, but his projections remain as high as ever. Bowden, on the other hand, is getting his ass kicked at a level he's repeating, and his ceiling is reported as a back of the rotation starter.

 

Now which of the guys in the top 20 would you place below Bowden?

 

http://www.soxprospects.com/

 

Because i'd keep all of them except maybe Tazawa above Bowden, and that's because he's coming off TJS.

[jacksonianmarch]

Dojji, Bowden's stuff took a pretty serious hit last yr. The guy who came up to the bigs last yr was not a top prospect, but more of a AAAA caliber pitcher. If he regained his stuff, then dropping him was premature. But based on his early performance, he probably didnt.

[ORS]

It's been reported that the organization attempted to smooth out his mechanics this spring, and the results were awful. He returned to his natural mechanics about 5 starts ago, and the results have been good. Don't know how that translates to his MLB potential, but his early performance this year shouldn't be used to gauge his stuff as it relates to how he's throwing the ball now. A change was made. The future will tell us what that means to his overall potential as an MLB ball player.

[jacksonianmarch]

Any word on his stuff, ORS? When he came up to the bigs last yr, his stuff was markedly worse than what it was the yr prior.

[ORS]

Don't know about how his stuff has looked, and I won't pretend to.