Buster Posey Alert and Other Striving Grizzlies

Buster Posey has hit three doubles and two home runs in his last four games for the AAA Fresno Grizzlies.  The only knock on his performance there so far this year was his lack of power, so we should be hearing a lot in the press this week about when the Giants are going to call him up.

Fresno’s top hitter so far this year is veteran minor leaguer Joe Borchard.  He’s hitting .356 with five HRs and a 1.086 OPS.

Borchard was a tremendous college athlete at Stanford, and the White Sox selected him with the 12th pick of the 2000 Draft.  However, like a lot of great athletes, he really wasn’t that much of a baseball player, and he hasn’t had much of a Major League career.

He’s 31 this year, but with John Bowker continuing to struggle in San Francisco, there’s a real possibility that Borchard will get his first Major League service time since 2007 this season.

Ryan Rohlinger is hitting .333 with a .948 OPS, but he’s got no place to play in San Francisco unless Pablo Sandoval gets hurt.

Among the pitchers, 27-year-old minor league veteran Eric Hacker is off to a tremendous start.  He’s now 5-0 with a 1.63 ERA and a line of 27.2 innings pitched, 22 hits, five walks allowed, and 31 Ks.  You can’t do much better than that in the Pacific Coast League, and there’s a good chance that Hacker will eventually replace Todd Wellemeyer as the Giants’ fifth starter if both continue to pitch the way they have so far in 2010.

Veteran reliever Denny Bautista has a 2.19 ERA with great ratios and six saves as the Grizzlies closer.  Steve Edlefsen has a 1.62 ERA with good ratios as the bullpen’s work-horse.

After two starts that were so bad that a lot of people, including myself, thought that he might have a bum arm, Madison Bumgarner has had three strong starts and reduced his ERA down to 5.25.  Finally, Osiris Matos has a 2.77 ERA in relief with a strikeout for each inning pitched.