Who is San Francisco's Ishikawa?

Travis Ishikawa is a first baseman. Ishikawa was born in Federal Way, WA. Ishikawa batted .254 with 16 HR and 64 RBI between A San Jose and A Hagerstown last year. [Link - MinorLeagueBaseball.com]

His career is not bad, from what I read by John Brooks. Then is he Japanese?

He's Japanese-American, born and raised in the US.

According to The Baseball Cube, after almost 1,000 ABs in A ball, he seems to be developing a little power, but at the cost of increased strikeouts (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

Middling "prospect" at best. AA this year will be the big test for him.

I live in Hagerstown and saw Travis here last year. Good attitude guy and will hit for more power in AA. The park here is a detriment to power hitters.

Travis is rated by Baseball America as the 10th best prospect in the Giant organization.

Travis Ishikawa will open the season up in A San Jose. [Link - San Jose Giants' roster]

- I live in Hagerstown and saw Travis here last year. Good attitude guy and will hit for more power in AA. The park here is a detriment to power hitters.

Well, park effects in Hagerstown notwithstanding, he still hasn't shown the power you'd like to see from a first baseman. Of course, I can't remember the last power-hitting first baseman the Giants had. Will Clark hit 35 in 1987, but he wasn't really a power hitter.

The power stroke is the last tool to develop, but Ishikawa's ISO's have been under .200. He's still young, but I'm not convinced. It's even money he'll be better than JR Phillips!

Ishikawa is in single-A, but he's a possible first baseman of the future. Baseball America says people compare him to John Olerud, in that he's got a good swing and good defensive skills. He's expected to develop great power but isn't there yet (hence his assignment to single-A). Part of the equation, apparently, is that he needs to be more consistently aggressive at the plate. Indecision and timidity led to a low batting average last year, but he started breaking through late in the season. (I'm paraphrasing all of this from Baseball America.)

As mentioned above, he's Japanese-American, a native of the Seattle area. Ishikawa was drafted in 2002 and was thought to be a 2nd-rounder, but he told teams he'd go to college if he didn't get a huge bonus. That left him undrafted 'til the 21st round, but the Giants picked him up and gave him that bonus, nearly $1 million. We'll see if it was worth it.