Bowen is a ballplayer, a gamer! He's aggressive at the plate and I doubt he ever gets into the box thinking about Walks. He has very good bat to ball skills, so when he is thrown a strike, he's ripping. He was held in A until very late in 2022, and had an excellent year at A+ in 2023 - probably better than expected. This exposure in the AFL will help him in his maturity within the game, just as his exposure to off season ball in Australia did after the 2022 season. He's very good defensively, and his ability to play multiple positions makes him a favorite of this management team.
Does he make the 40? I called it a coin flip, but only 30 AB's above A+? Good chance he and Hudson Head are 2/3 of the OF in Altoona starting 2024.
I’d love to see an objective assessment of Bowen by one of the national prospect sites. Keith Law did an AFL article and didn’t mention him at all. He also commented that the AFL pitching gets worse and worse every year as no organizations are willing to commit their best pitchers.
Anyway, my gut sense is that Bowen’s performance doesn’t mean very much in the long run, but it would be good to see a national site address his performance.
Agreed. I’ve always thought AFL mattered more for the reps that were missed than anything else. Good that he’s putting up good numbers and he’s mildly interesting with his toolset, but not much beyond that.
I think in the end we have to remember that it's a very short sample size that's also a very hitter friendly league. Was looking at some random stats and the number of players with a BABIP of over .400 is insane.
So the numbers probably don't mean all that much in the long term, but that being said, I'd much rather see him put up these numbers than struggle. He has some outlying traits that are still interesting, but also all of this data ends up being such a small sample size.
The AFL probably doesn't mean much BUT extra at-bats can't be a bad thing. Whatever Bowen is, this will help him get there quicker.
In the end, his hitting in AA and AAA will be decisive. I don’t see him being added to the roster for the reasons I gave before — iffy plate discipline and he doesn’t play SS. But he’s positioned himself to play his way to the bigs, like Triolo did.
Yea at this point I don't see a reason to add him to the roster, especially if the goal was to compete in 2024. Even if they lost him, you'd imagine whoever they brought in and used that roster spot on is an established major leaguer.
Bowen is a ballplayer, a gamer! He's aggressive at the plate and I doubt he ever gets into the box thinking about Walks. He has very good bat to ball skills, so when he is thrown a strike, he's ripping. He was held in A until very late in 2022, and had an excellent year at A+ in 2023 - probably better than expected. This exposure in the AFL will help him in his maturity within the game, just as his exposure to off season ball in Australia did after the 2022 season. He's very good defensively, and his ability to play multiple positions makes him a favorite of this management team.
Does he make the 40? I called it a coin flip, but only 30 AB's above A+? Good chance he and Hudson Head are 2/3 of the OF in Altoona starting 2024.
I’d love to see an objective assessment of Bowen by one of the national prospect sites. Keith Law did an AFL article and didn’t mention him at all. He also commented that the AFL pitching gets worse and worse every year as no organizations are willing to commit their best pitchers.
Anyway, my gut sense is that Bowen’s performance doesn’t mean very much in the long run, but it would be good to see a national site address his performance.
Agreed. I’ve always thought AFL mattered more for the reps that were missed than anything else. Good that he’s putting up good numbers and he’s mildly interesting with his toolset, but not much beyond that.
didnt Oliva rip it up in Arizona a few years ago?
I'll raise you one Eric Wood breakout. ;)
Yep. Nola brought that up not too long ago in our group chat we have lol
I think in the end we have to remember that it's a very short sample size that's also a very hitter friendly league. Was looking at some random stats and the number of players with a BABIP of over .400 is insane.
So the numbers probably don't mean all that much in the long term, but that being said, I'd much rather see him put up these numbers than struggle. He has some outlying traits that are still interesting, but also all of this data ends up being such a small sample size.
The AFL probably doesn't mean much BUT extra at-bats can't be a bad thing. Whatever Bowen is, this will help him get there quicker.
In the end, his hitting in AA and AAA will be decisive. I don’t see him being added to the roster for the reasons I gave before — iffy plate discipline and he doesn’t play SS. But he’s positioned himself to play his way to the bigs, like Triolo did.
Yea at this point I don't see a reason to add him to the roster, especially if the goal was to compete in 2024. Even if they lost him, you'd imagine whoever they brought in and used that roster spot on is an established major leaguer.