made debut for gcl sox
pitch one scoreless inning with one k

Scouting Report: Bowden has an arsenal of four MLB caliber pitches: a low-90s fastball, a curve, slider and a plus changeup. Bowden is said to be a workaholic and just loves to pitch - another player who just lives and dies for baseball. Absolutely dominated high school competition in 2005

from soxprospect.com

Here's what soxprospects.com says about him:





He pitched today, but BA hasn't updated stats, so I'll post them when they do.

Here's the line for Bowden today:



No one has his updated season stats though.

Finally they have updated season stats. He is only pitching a little, my guess being because of how many innings he threw in HS.

I just realized that Raylaw alrady took him before I did, I'm gonna have this thread merged.

I didn't see anyone post it, but I thought you guys might want to see Baseball America mentioned Bowden briefly the other day. My apologies if this was already posted somewhere.



full article

This guy intrigues me, sounds very polished for a guy straight out of HS. Keep up the good work Raylaw, and Soxfan.

Superb effort by Michael Bowden today in Greenville: 5 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 9 Ks.

He's had two good starts this year and one awful one (along with one rained out after an inning), so his ERA is an unimpressive 5.79 in 14 innings, but he has 18 Ks and only 2 BBs.

Bowden is pitching out of his mind right now. He followed up his last start (9Ks in 5 shutout innings) with 10 strikeouts in 5 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and a BB.

So his last two starts: 10 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 19 Ks.

Not bad for a kid who won't turn 20 until September.

Looks like it's time for a promotion.

I'm sure they'll take it slowly with him given his age, but I'd imagine Wilmington is in his future sometime this year.

Bowden was solid again tonight but gave up a 2-run HR to spoil his line: 5 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 Ks

Season-to-date: 24 IP, 4.12 ERA, 21 hits, 4 BBs, 32 Ks, 3 HRs

I don't see a promotion until late in the season or not even this year. He barely pitched in the GCL last year. He is still very young and he needs to still get his feet wet in pro ball. No need to rush him and ruin his confidence.

Looking forward to Bowden's start tonight agains the Hickory who is not a very good team.

Bowden is 19 and will be 20 before the end of the season. If he isn't promoted, and continues to pitch well, I'd be very unhappy. There is such a thing as being cautious, but there is no reason to keep a guy in low A if he's dominating it. Maybe you keep a guy in high A a little longer, or AA longer, but low A? No, that I think is simply being overcautious.

Bowden tonight: 3.2 IP, 7 hits, 5 runs (2 ER), 1 BB, 6 Ks

Season to date: 4.23 ERA, 5 BBs and 38 Ks in 27.2 IP

odd line

Not bad for a 19 yr. in his first full pro season. The ERA is alittle high but that should come down. He really has been on an innings leash early on which is expected but that should come off in the middle of the season to see what he can really do.

Right... and the early season innings leash is a big factor. I really applaud the sox for doing this throughout the org. They probably won't promote Bowden too soon b/c of the innings plan. Id imagine they want to see him in midseason form after they've taken the shackles off(of course not all the way off, but when they're not in the early season protective mode). They probably want to see him succeed in the mid summer, in the heat when bats heat up(so many early minor league games have skewed numbers b/c of the cold) and put together a good stretch of games...

Getting pretty excited about Bowden myself

... but then again all you need is a good fastball you can locate a bit at this level...

Bowden was cruising with 4 hitless innings Wednesday night, but then things fell apart in the 5th: Two singles, a three-run HR, a walk and a single before he got a strikeout and then was removed.

His final line: 4.1 IP, 4 Hits, 3 ER, 3 BBs, 8 Ks

Season to date:
W-L: 2-2
ERA: 4.50
IP: 32
H: 32
ER: 16
BB: 8
K: 46
HR: 4

That 46-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 32 IPs is a thing of beauty.

I wouldn't look to much into the inning he fell apart. He had a big lead and I would not be surprised if he was working on some secondary pitches in that inning because of the big lead.

And I just love the numbers he has put up this year. The ERA is deceiving but in time that should come down.

Looks like the 10:30 a.m. start this morning didn't work too well for Bowden: 5 IP, 7 hits, 5 runs, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 Ks, 2-run HR

His ERA is deceiving as his K/BB ratio is very good. He just needs more experience and to build up his arm strength.

Another mixed bag for Bowden tonight against Augusta: 5 IP, 8 hits, 3 runs, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 Ks.

For the season: 4.71 ERA, 8 BBs, 54 Ks in 42 IP.

He is still young and for a guy in his first full season of pro ball that k/bb ratio is pretty damn good.

The gopher ball seems to be Bowden's problem with .99/9. Greenville is somewhat liable to the long ball, with a 3-year HR PF of 1.07. However, all of his other peripherals are solid:

K/BB: 54/8 (6.75:1)
K/9: 11.57
G/F (prior to last start): 49/31 (1.58)
LD% (prior to last start): 11/91 (12%)

He seems to have gotten a little unlucky with a 16.1% of his FBs (prior to last night's game) leaving the yard (league average, at least in the bigs, is around 11-12%, and it isn't really a skill)

He's got a 2.82 FIP (using 3.2 as league factor) for the season, so it seems like he's been hurt by bad defense.

I don't know if this is true, but if xFIP (FIP with a normalized HR/FB, and I assumed 11.5% to be lgAVG) = FIP*((lgHR/FB)/HR/FB)), Bowden's comes out to a sparkling 2.01.

Great stuff. Not sure about some of the league conversion factors you're using, but the basic point is the same. That K/BB is insane.

Now, I don't know what goes into the league-specific factor, but since it's usually around 3.2, that's what I used for calculating Bowden's. However, it could be way off. Unfortunately, THT doesn't list a definition for xFIP.

Bowden had a nice start tonight

W, 5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 0 HR 7/1 GB/FB

IP: 47
BB: 8
K: 61

SWEET!

Bowden is now at:

11.7 K/9
1.5 BB/9

that's pretty damn impressive as well.

I don't know what's wrong with Bowden -- he walked a guy tonight.

5 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 BB, 3 Ks

That gets his ERA under 4 for the year (3.98) and brings his totals to 9 BBs and 64 Ks in 52 IP.

With Lester, Hansen and Delcarmen all in the big leagues, the 19-year-old Bowden is probably Boston's top pitching prospect right now, just a shade ahead of Greenville teammate Clay Buchholz. Both are having terrific seasons, but Buchholz is two years older.

Tonight, Bowden pitched 5 scoreless innings against Lexington, allowing just 1 hit and 1 BB, while striking out 5. That lowers his ERA for June to a sterling 1.29.

For the season, he's 4-4 with a 3.31 ERA and an insane K-BB total of 78-15 in 68 IP.

Bowden continues to chug along for Low-A Greenville. Another superb performance tonight against Savannah: 5 IP, 4 hits, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 6 Ks.

For the season, he's 7-4 with a 3.07 ERA and 101 Ks in 89 IP.

Some of his key rates:

K/9: 10.3
BB/9: 2.0
K/BB: 5.0
HR/9: 0.82
WHIP: 1.08

That's the stuff of top prospects.

Exactly. This kid is a stud. Our next top pitching prospect. Kinda reminds me of Mussina when he was coming up......thanks for the update HBM!

Ellsbury and Bowden......our system has two new studs now that Paps/Lester/Hansen are up in the bigs.

I'd also like to add (reflected through the 17th):

1.66 G/F
16.6 LD%
19.8 IFFB%
Greenville had a 1.07 PF from '03-'05.

Thanks for the bump HBM. Love this kid.

8 groundouts, 1 flyout tonight.

Awesome. As you probably already know, the MiL splits do total BIP, not just outs, although I imagine there's not much variation in outs vs. non-outs anyways.

Ho hum....another day at the office for Bowden as he is moving towards being an untouchable prospect.

Oh yeah, that's actually an extremely important distinction. It's really kinda silly to only count the outs for the g/f ratio. The numbers you cited are much more telling. But all I can get from the milb.com boxscore is GO/FO, so I threw that in there, especially since 8-1 looked so nice.

Not a great outing for Bowden tonight as he took the loss against Lake County: 5 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks

For the season: 3.43 ERA, 111-27 strikeout-walk total in 97 IP.

I am absolutely, positively, 100% in love with this kid.

And I've never seen him pitch.

But his numbers are consistently filthy

Still have to be happy with the 6/1 K/BB ratio.

And that is in basically all 5 innings stints as well.

Michael Bowden has been promoted to Wilmington to start on Saturday against Lynchburg. I got the info from a source close to the Blue Rocks. Saturday is Bowden's turn in the rotation and as of right now no starter is listed on the Wilmington game notes.

WOW as luck would have it I am taking my family camping in that area and we are already planning on going to that game....I am stoked on this and will report next Monday when I get back. I think this kid is going to be a big part of the redsox future.

Is this going to be a spot start for them..I do the play-by-play for the Drive..We only do home games but I'm usually up on the moves..Haven't heard about that...

I got this from a source last night with connections to the sox. Wilmington has not listed their starter for Saturday which is when Bowden's turn comes up. I assume it is not a spot start and that he will be up in Wilmington for the rest of the year.

It's official now. The Blue Rocks note have Bowden starting tomorrow night and Matt Goodson has been placed on the DL.