Madison Bumgarner May Provide Push for Big Club

Despite taking two out of three games from the lowly Washington Nationals, the Giants were nearly swept in a four-game series by the Mets.

Even though the Giants still find themselves a game over .500, their current roster is not going to be able to catch the Dodgers. Despite Manny Ramirez being suspended for 50 games, the Giants are not going to be able to surpass their hated rivals without a significant upgrade.

Unless the Giants' No. 5 starter Jonathan Sanchez turns his season around in the next couple of starts, San Francisco ought to look into calling up 19-year-old phenom Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner is currently ranked ninth on Baseball America's top 100 prospects and for good reason. Last season Bumgarner finished with the lowest era in all of minor league baseball, posting an astonishing 1.46 era in 141-and-two-thirds innings while he recorded 15 wins and 164 strikeouts, which is a 7.8/1 k/bb ratio.

Unlike Sanchez' wildness, which has seen him average seven walks per nine innings this season, Bumgarner has averaged just 1.8 walks per nine innings while spending time at both class A San Jose and AA Connecticut.

So far this season, Bumgarner has started out just as stellar, if not better than his numbers from last year.

With both San Jose and Connecticut, Bumgarner has thrown 36-and-one-third innings, putting up a minuscule ERA of 1.24 while allowing just 28 hits. He has struck out 34 batters while walking only seven.

Overall, Bumgarner has gone 5-1 in the minors this season, but at AA Connecticut alone, he has a 2-0 record in 12 innings pitched and an EERA of 0.75 while walking only three and striking out 11.

Baseball America has estimated Bumgarner's arrival to the MLB to come in 2010, which is only a season away. But if he keeps pitching the way he has been lately, the Giants may be forced to call him up in 2009.

With the current state of the Giants being a strong pitching staff and an anemic offense, San Francisco was not predicted to be in the hunt for playoff baseball this season.

However, Manny Ramirez' suspension has given Giants fans hope of their team being able to compete for the division title. But about 10 games into "Man-Rams'" suspension, the Giants have made up hardly any ground as San Francisco has gone 6-5 since the suspension while the Dodgers have gone 5-5.

The obvious scenario that would enable the Giants to catch the Dodgers is if San Francisco makes a huge midseason trade to acquire a premiere middle-of-the-lineup hitter.

But in order to get such a player, the Giants would have to part ways with at least two of their marquee prospects. San Francisco would have to give up the rights to players such as Angel Villalona, Conor Gillaspie, Buster Posey, Tim Alderson, Nick Noonan, and the center piece of this article, Madison Bumgarner.

However, it seems quite clear that the majority of the Giants faithful and GM Brian Sabean would like to avoid trading any of their grade A prospects.

If the Giants are not willing to trade away any of their prime prospects, then the next best move is to try and improve the big club internally by bringing up Bumgarner.

The majority of fans will disagree, stating that it is too early to bring Bumgarner up because he is only 19 and is in his second season in the minor leagues.

To the contrary, the Giants brought up Matt Cain when he was just 20 year old and Tim Lincecum when he was 22.

Both Cain and Lincecum experienced some minor difficulties when they were first called up. Cain started out just 3-6 in his first 14 career starts and Lincecum was rocked for five earned runs in just four-and-one-third innings in his MLB debut.

The difference between Cain/Lincecum and Bumgarner is that both Cain and Lincecum were supposed to be "the guy." Both came up with the expectations of carrying a ball club that was currently in a string of a losing seasons. However, calling up Bumgarner at some point this season would be a completely different scenario.

Coming in as the fifth starter, the pressure would be minimized and the Giants have a combination of Barry Zito, Randy Johnson, and pitching coach Dave Righetti (all left-handed pitchers) available to help mentor the young lefty.

With such quality coaching from both Righetti and support from the rest of the staff, Bumgarner should be able continue the success he has had in the minor leagues, at the big league level.

If Bumgarner were to struggle in his first couple of starts, there would be no harm in sending him back down. But if he continues his dominance at the big league level, then the Giants would clearly have the best rotation in all of baseball.

This would be significant as currently the Giants are considered to have one of the best rotations in baseball, but not the best.

Currently, the Giants have three starters all pitching relatively well, which would be Lincecum, Cain, and Barry Zito. However, Randy Johnson and Jonathan Sanchez have not been producing nearly enough quality outings.

So far this season the Giants are currently 5-9 in games started by either Johnson or Sanchez. And in return, the Giants are 14-9 in games started by Lincecum, Cain, or Zito.

A jump from four games under .500, to five games over .500.

Now the Giants are specifically just 4-4 in starts by Randy Johnson, which is pretty much what they can expect from a 45-year-old starter.

But what if the Big Unit suffers an injury that forces him to miss an extended amount of time?

What if Barry Zito returns to the funk he was in during his first two years as a Giant?

What if Sanchez never harnesses his control?

For as talented as the Giants rotation seems, it can quite easily fall apart. Hence, even though the Giants starting pitching has carried them to a 19-18 record so far this season, it would be a lot to ask of this current rotation to keep that up all season long.

Bringing up Bumgarner and either putting Sanchez in the bullpen as long relief or sending him to AAA may prove to be the boost the Giants need to catch the Dodgers.

With a potential rotation of Lincecum, Johnson, Cain, Zito, and Bumgarner, the Giants would have one of the most stacked rotations the game has ever seen. And with that, the pitching may be enough to overcompensate for the anemic offense, and be able to beat out the Dodgers for the division.

But if Sanchez continues his poor pitching as of late, and the Giants don't decide to either bring up their phenom in Bumgarner or make a midseason trade, it will be their sixth straight season without making the postseason.