Article:SF Giants: Roster Overhaul Underway

The Giants called up a few of their best minor league players earlier this week, in a move that shows they are indeed ready to look towards the future. Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa and Ryan Rohlinger were all brought up prior to the Houston series, and although the Giants looked bad in the series, it was good to see the Giants finally shift gears. I just talked pretty in-depth about Pablo Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa a few posts back in the minor league report and mentioned how both were on the verge of being called up. With Bowker out of the picture, Ishikawa should get the bulk of the at-bats at first with Sandoval getting time both behind the plate and at first base. Rohlinger spent time in both Connecticut and Fresno this year and though he wasn't really tearing the cover off the ball in the minors, he has swung a steady bat all season, and really had a decent spring training before the season which put some eyes on him early. He looks to get the majority of the time at third base where he supposedly plays solid defense, but he didn't look great out there in his first series as a big leaguer.

On their way out of San Francisco is Jon Bowker, who's being optioned back to Fresno after an up and down 3 months with the bat in the big leagues. Bowker will go back down to Fresno for a few weeks to work on getting his knowledge of the strike zone back and should be back September 1st. Also sent down to Fresno was catcher Steve Holm, who has had a decent rookie season as a backup catcher and he should be back as the Giants third catcher when the rosters expend next month. The man who won't be dawning a Giants uniform again is Jose Castillo who was designated for assignment. This move was a little surprising, but in a good way. Castillo didn't have a future with this team and for a while there it looked like the Giants were seriously considering him as a piece to next years team. Castillo isn't a bad player, but he's really better suited for a bench roll, and the Giants have better options then him at the moment. The next guy that needs to be DFA'd is Tyler Walker, which would enable Sergio Romo to return to the big leagues.

Notes: The Giants are reportedly very close to signing Buster Posey, their top pick from this years draft, to a 7.5 million dollar deal. However, there has been nothing made official yet, and the deadline is at 9:30 Friday night. Most people were expecting it to come down to the deadline, so I'm not to worried, but as of now, we're 4.5 hours from the deadline....Also Tim Lincecum has declared that he will make his next scheduled start after taking a line drive off the knee in has last one. I would prefer to see Lincecum take a start off to be on the cautious side, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.