FanHouse John Bowker

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Team desperately needing a bat in the middle of the order. It's too bad money is so tight right now, because the Giants could certainly use a certain eccentric slugger in the middle of their order. They still aren't altogether out of the running for Manny Ramirez, but I believe he's staying put in Los Angeles. Too bad they wasted all that money on Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand.

The Detroit Tigers six-game win streak came to an end last night in San Francisco when John Bowker welcomed Fernando Rodney back to the bigs with a three-run homer to give the Giants the win, but that doesn't mean every streak in Detroit died on Monday night. Marcus Thames took Tim Lincecum deep in his first two at-bats thanks to a hanging curveball and a belt-high changeup, making Monday the fourth game in a row that Thames has gone deep.

Still, that's not the streak I'm talking about. Since June 7th, Thames has gone 7-for-29 (.241) which is very much in line with his .257 average on the season. Of course, his slugging percentage since June 7th is .966 because all seven of those hits have been home runs.

No singles. No doubles. No triples. All Mr. Thames has done lately is plant balls in the seats.

Now what I'm trying to figure out is, how impressive is this? Is it even impressive at all? I kind of has to be doesn't it? Sure he's not hitting well overall, but when he does he's really making it count. He says he's never been on a streak like this, and his manager Jim Leyland says he's never seen anything quite like it either.

Though it could just be that all Thames is good for is hitting home runs, as while this seven-hit streak is rather odd, it's not exactly anything new for Marcus. After all, he only has 29 hits on the season and 12 of those have been home runs.

We've long known that Brian Sabean subscribes to the theory that you can't trust anyone under 30 but it's a bit disheartening to see that his views are coloring the local scribes as well. The San Francisco Giants, scuffling along at 20-31 today, refuse to play anyone with a future that might include the next decent team by the bay. That should be something they catch hell for but, alas, it's not to be.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle thinks that he's discovered a conundrum at play with the Giants roster. It centers on the continued existence of Randy Winn, Ray Durham and Rich Aurilla in the everyday lineup.
I'll bite. Because they aren't playing all that well.

Schulman uses their May numbers to "prove" his point but when you take both months of the season into account, it's not looking quite so smart. Winn has the highest OPS at 773 and gets on base at a good clip which is okay unless you're a corner outfielder who should provide power as well. He'd be a much more defensible choice if the Giants didn't have Nate Schierholtz slugging .503 in AAA.