They Might Be Giants: May 18

"They Might Be Giants" is a new feature in which we pick the best performance by a Giants' position player prospect and pitching prospect from the previous week.

Position Player: Roger Kieschnick, OF
Age: 22
Level: High-A, San Jose
Baseball America Ranking: 14
Week Stats: .462/.481/.769, 3 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB
Season Stats: .345/.387/.540, 21 R, 6 2B, 3 3B, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 9 BB, 3 SB

It was a close call between Kieschnick and Jesus Guzman, who put up an impressive .483/.516/.690 line at Fresno, and may be seeing the big leagues soon, but I went with Kieschnick because of the home runs. Kieschnick was a bright spot for San Jose, whose prospect-heavy lineup has gone cold the past few weeks. The Giants' system is relatively short on outfield prospects and power, so it would great if Kieschnick, a third-round pick in 2008, could keep it up.

Pitcher: Madison Bumgarner
Age: 20
Level: Double-A, Connecticut
BA Ranking: 1 (9 in MLB)
Week Stats: 2-0, 12 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 11 SO, 0 HR, 0.75 ERA, 0.92 WHIP
Season Stats: 5-1, 1.24 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 36.1 IP, 28 H, 7 BB, 34 SO, 0 HR

I have a feeling this might need to be renamed the MadBum Award by season's end. It's said that the jump from High-A to Double-A is the toughest for a prospect, and Bumgarner handled it with ease this week. He was effective if not dominant in his first start for Connecticut May 11, allowing one earned run over six innings, but allowing seven hits and only striking out two. He was more like his old self on Sunday, throwing six shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out nine. Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus may have put it best in this piece today: "Whenever I would write about the Giants having the most terrifying rotation in the game, I usually attached the arrival year of 2011 to it; that may prove to be too conservative an estimate."