Box Score Recap – 7/7/2013

Box Score Recap

I won’t hold this up any longer trying to come up with something interesting to say, aside from RIP Severino Gonzalez’ magical season.

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20130707

7-7-13 boxscores

110 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 7/7/2013”

  1. Larry Greene is like that beautiful girl in high school who is really nice to you for a few days, and makes you think you have a chance…then ignores you for the next few days like you never existed….and you just continue to let the cycle repeat itself over and over again. My optimism with him is waning.

    Nice to see Franco continue to tear the cover off the ball

    I hope Hewitt and Collier are a cautionary tale, and it looks like they are, based on the way this year’s draft was conducted.

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  2. SevGon worked from behind the whole game, was going deep into counts with most batters. He hit 94 once, he needs to buckle down a bit more once a runner gets on. Hard to blame him for being in shock, runners on base is a rare occurrence for him. On the other hand the Roof was on fire! 6 rbis, he hit the ball with authority every time up including a bomb to left, Villalobos had a nice day as well. Tocci has really great speed out of the box, he had 2 hits out of the leadoff spot including a double, he is really quick to balls in the OF too. I thought that I was watching a major league-esque bullpen explosion but Burgess pitched well for the Goose Gossage save. LGJ just looks lazy like he thinks that he is too good for the league but he is just getting torn to pieces. Tough to watch.

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    1. With Franco’s swing likely to require a major overhaul before he sees big league success, this is not surprising.

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      1. It would be interesting to know how common successful swing overhauls are. After witnessing the myriad adjustment to Dom Brown’s swing over the past three years (and the all-star results), is it too optimistic to think a swing adjustment is a relatively minor concern for a player with the physical tools Franco possesses?

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        1. Swing adjustments are risky things. Rather than overhauling his swing completely, the Phillies are more likely to try and quiet any extra movement so that he gets into his swing faster. Also they might try to tone down his aggressiveness so that he doesn’t get caught in bad position on breaking pitches

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          1. Gotta think it would require a real organizational shift (i.e. from the top down) before this team starts counseling players to tone down their aggressiveness.

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        2. In light of what I just posted from a person that knows what he’s seeing, can we put the arm bar and major swing adjustment talk to bed? It’s a non issue.

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      3. Maybe they’ll do that once he gets to a point where he’s not absolutely raking older competition.

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        1. Let’s hope not. It’s one thing to allow a player who has struggled to enjoy success; it’s another to wait to correct an evident flaw until the flaw becomes apparent in game action. If the organization agrees with the independent scouts on Franco’s swing, it should absolutely be altered now. Better Franco struggles through the adjustment at Reading than in Philadelphia in a few years.

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          1. No way. No way does a young player take instruction to change what’s been working for him. He has to experience failure in order to accept changes.

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      4. “There is no arm-bar in that swing.

        His hands move too far at the beginning which is what is creating the length in his swing, but he’s not barring.

        “Arm bar” refers to the action of the lead arm when the hitter starts his swing with his shoulders instead of his hips.

        The shoulder rotation straightens the left arm at the beginning of the swing, which causes the swing to lengthen and slow down.

        In a perfect swing, the hands only have one job other than holding the bat, they adjust to the pitch location. if you’re barring, the hands have committed before the swing starts at which point you better hope you guess right.

        Next time you’re at your son’s Little League game, watch the kids swing. They all arm bar because most of them swing bats that are too heavy, even if they start the swing with their feet or hips, they have to use their front arm to support the weight of the bat.

        Franco does move his hands to much..the bat is almost touching his helmet, then they go back and up (one direction is good, two isn’t).

        Franco’s hands are in a good spot, if he would take the angle out of them and stack them, he’d be much better off.

        But, there is no bar.

        Here’s a good tip for the Little Leaguers (other than a new bat).

        Take something they can wrap their hands around, like a broom handle or even a whiffle bat. Have them get in their stance and move their hands to the point the top hand is in front of the back shoulder. Have him (or her, sorry) pinch their shirt with the thumb and index finger and then just swing.

        Watch the fingers, making sure they have started to turn before letting go.

        Another thing you can do is just hold the barrel, and when you feel the hips pulling the hands let go, although it can get painful if you forget to duck.

        Front arm drills off a tee are good too, but I’m not a tee fan, so always practice with caution.

        Minor Leagues/Prospect writer at bigleaguesmag.com
        Minor League Alum, Brewers ST, AZL & AFL Ops
        by mlbprospectpulse on Jun 26, 2013 | 9:54 PM”

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        1. Its silly to think that BA would rank him out of the top 50 because of an arm bar swing that hasn’t even been confirmed yet.

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      5. In the end after years of swing adjustments, it all came down to Dom Brown changing his grip…thank you Wally.

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    1. When Franco is going from 2nd to 3rd it looks a little like he’s running in quicksand.

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    2. It looks like Franco gets extra base hits both at home and away, so his AA numbers so far are not just a product of First Energy Stadium. So far, in a very small sample size he has batted and slugged better on the road.

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  8. Franco seems a better bet than Biddle, though both are really pretty top level prospects.

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  10. Matt, or Brad, can you please oh please try and get a professional scout or two to break down Franco’s swing for us, specifically what they see right and wrong with it and then also their opinion on any required adjustments to succeed at the MLB level?

    I’ve seen 2 or 3 scouts say above average to great things about his swing, and 2 who had bad things to say about it. Rightfully, there is significant frustration on this board about this topic. If you can find something like this (which would include videos) it would be an excellent addition to the site. If I knew the scouts, I’d put something like this together myself, but I don’t.

    Thank you in advance. All this back and forth on this topic has been driving me and I’m sure several other posters crazy.

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    1. The debate will likely continue until he hits the bigs and either succeeds or fails. I’m just going to enjoy the ride for right now. Personally, I’m going with the notion that he has the bat speed to overcome an unorthodox swing. If there were a hole in his swing, he’d miss a lot of pitches, yet his K-rate for his career is 16.3 percent — 15.1 percent if you take away his 17-year-old rookie league season. That’s pretty damn good for a power hitter if you ask me.

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      1. I understand that, but far too few of us know anything about how to evaluate a swing, and there is no more contentious debate on this site right now then about Franco’s swing. This is the perfect kind of material to add to the site with a perm. link in the menu bar.

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        1. This is from Cooper’s BA Top 50 Chat:

          Jeff (Philly): I’m just not understanding how Maikel Franco’s breakout season across two levels didn’t warrant a spot on this list. Sure his swing is unconventional, but the same could be said for Taveras’. Please explain, J.J.

          J.J. Cooper: Franco’s swing isn’t just unconventional, it’s one that causes scouts concerns. Because of the way he draws the bat back to start his swing, it takes a longer path for him to get from the decision to swing to the point of contact than a normal swing. It’s worked for him, but there are scouts who worry how well that will play as he faces better pitching in the big leagues, especially when you add in that he has an arm bar as well. No scout has said anything like that about Taveras’ swing to me. Add in the concerns about whether he’s sticks at third base and he’s a good breakthrough prospect, but none of the 20+ scouts/front office execs I talked to thought he needed to be in the top 50.

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          1. I went to three of Franco’s 4 games at Trenton. He had gotten down 0-2 a few times and two of the at bats ended up with nice, line drive singles up the middle. I saw him turn on and pull a 95 mph fastball foul down third base, and he flew out on a 97 mph heater. Never once did he look overmatched, and even with two strikes he still put good wood on the ball. He also made a fantastic play where he ranged in front of the shortstop, spun around and threw out the runner at first by a half step.

            Don’t mess with the kid’s swing. Vlad Guerrero had an awful swing a lot of the time and it worked out just fine for him.

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            1. So did Ruth , Bagwell and Sheffield. Let the kid do it his way until he finds major trouble.
              BTW Tocci threw out a runner at home on a fly ball.

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          2. People are concerned he’ll stick at 3B? Since when? The book on him has always been that he’s slow, but has good instincts, soft hands, and a great arm which would allow him to stick at third.

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    2. Its been discussed in detail. Franco has longer arms. So although his had hand position is far back (to generate more power) his arm does not ‘arm bar’ because his arms are long enough that he maintains bend thru his swing. His weight transfer is excellent.

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  11. If anyone has ESPN insider Keith Law has a write up about Franco today, I could only see some of it.

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    1. you dont need to read his stuff, he never played the game – just ask a normal fan at one of franco’s games

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  12. damn, Law is not a fan of Franco, to put it mildly. Hate’s the approach, defense, and pitch recognition to name a few. Did comment that when his hips are turning for the pitch the power is an easy 65-70

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    1. Here is Law’s comment on pitch recognition:”His approach, however, is a disaster right now — not only does he struggle to recognize off-speed stuff, especially changeups, but he’s only interested in pitches he can crush, making no adjustments to where the pitch is located or to its type.”

      Here is Longenhagen’s from last week: “What I was most pleased with, however, was how early he seemed to be identifying balls and strikes out of the pitchers’ hands. He was taking anything thrown off the plate with ease. ”

      Gotta love it.

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      1. different strokes for different folks. Longenhagen said he’s most confident in Franco’s ability to adjust over Law/Parks.

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      2. “he’s only interested in pitches he can crush”

        God forbid.

        These two reports again illustrate that scouts are going to see what they want to see. We won’t know if Franco’s swing will hold up against big league pitching until he gets there — hopefully sooner than later. I’ll say this though: A player with a gigantic flaw in his swing should not get better as he progresses up the ladder. Just saying.

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        2. the guy is giving an honest scouting opinion. It stinks to hear, but it’s not the end all be all. Franco may just be one of those rare cases that may have to adjust at the ML level. Still happy that Law has an opinion, albeit not one Franco/Phils farm followers want to hear.

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          1. Like my previous post said, we won’t know whether Franco will handle big league pitching until he gets there.

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        3. As long as he’s not taking a lot of called strike threes, it seems a good thing to be only interested in pitches he can crush.

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      4. I hate to be downer, I’m as depressed about these poor reviews of Franco from national prospect writers as anyone, but I will say: Law worked in a major league front office and has been doing this for years. Longenhagen, though seemingly reasonably knowledgeable, is a 20-something kid who is looking for a job as a professional scout. Between the two, I’m trusting Law’s judgment. Which, frankly, sucks. I’m depressed. Time for bed.

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    2. Just remember that Keith Law is one of the thousands of “experts” out there. This is not to knock him but his opinion has as much merit as the others do. Maybe Franco had a bad game after all it was 8-0 after two innings.

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    3. Yeah, remember that this report is based on one game. Maybe he just wasn’t picking up the ball from that particular starter. If he consistently had such a terrible approach and pitch recognition, I don’t think it would be possible to have the success he’s had.

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    4. I read the article and was shocked really. Law absolutely destroys him. Crushes him over and over again. You would think the guy is 26 in A ball striking out a lot based on the writeup. His comments are way, way over the top.

      “Only swings at pitches he can crush”…WTF is he supposed to do? Swing at pitches he can’t drive? I friggin wish all of the Phillies did this. That has to be the dumbest comment I have ever read about a prospect. You see one game of a guy who is OPS’ing 1.000 and complain that he is waiting on pitches to crush? Huh?

      “Approach is a disaster”…that is way, way exaggerated.
      To put this in perspective, Miguel Sano is striking out 36% of his ABs. Franco is 4%. I am not saying that Franco has a perfect swing. But we have all seen prospects with “disaster” approaches. It shows up quickly.

      “At third, he’s a below-average defender, with heavy feet and slow reactions to go with a plus arm, better than he was when he first came into the system but unlikely to ever be a neutral (average) defender at that position.” No mention of his soft hands that so many scouts have said. Haven’t heard “slow reactions” either from scouts. “Unlikely to ever be a neutral defender.” It just seems so over the top.

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      1. Law is obviously smart, but as a human he’s still biased. He often makes snarky comments about the Phils FO, and I think his opinion of them may have bled over to Franco, especially since it appears he’s completely ignored Maikel’s actual production.

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        1. I go by what Bill Conlin said back in 2010…he was the best prospect in the org not named Domonic Brown. Say what you want about Conlin and his character…..but he knew baseball and players.

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          1. who cares man? Ruben Amaro was an MLB player and you think he’s a good talent evaluator? Means nothing.

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  13. Can someone explain how a player with a long swing and no pitch recognition strike out less than 15% of the time and OPS near 1.000? Must be one lucky fellow.

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      1. Except other ‘highly rated’ prospects are striking out against the lousy secondary stuff at a higher rate.

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        1. Agree with Nik. Rich that is a terrible explanation. The point is, we have seen many prospects with flawed approaches and big holes in their swing. But very few put up the results he does.

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          1. Is that really true? Howard put up great numbers in the minors and for several years in the bigs, despite a big hole in his recognition/swing/approach to the low/outside bendy stuff. Just in recent years, we’ve seen this from both Rizzotti and Ruf at AA. I’m a believer in Franco, but guys who can rake in AA with flaws in their hitting are hardly novelties.

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            1. You are using Howard who absolutely dominated the majors for several years as an example of a ‘bad’ player to played well in AA?

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            3. I think a big difference between Franco and those guys is age … Ruf was 26, Rizzotti was 24-25 (can’t remember), even Howard was mid-twenties. I also don’t think Ruf or Rizzotti had what could be considered a hole in their swings, though I could be misremembering. As for Howard’s swing, let’s not forget that even in the minors, he probably struck out twice as much as Franco does.

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            4. as to Ruf’s swing, a few scouts said that he has something of an upper-cut in his swing that may be exploitable at the major league level. so there were flaws mentioned

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            6. Yes that was high. If it was a bell curve for power hitters and their strike-out rates you’d have Pujols near the start of “Good”, Prince Fielder would be maybe halfway between Good and Average and Ryan Howard be very close to the end and near “bad”. To put his minor league K% in perspective. Mark Reynolds is an extremely free swinger. Mark Reynolds owns a career 23.3 K% in the minors.

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        2. I am agnostic on the question and certainly Law could be wrong. Other scouts have come to different conclusions. But this is a bad counter argument.

          Let’s separate ourselves from the current controversy. More generally, it is true – certainly true – that there is no one to one, linear relationship between minor league performance and major league performance. Part of that is age/level, not relevant here, but part of that also is that some flaws (in swings, approach, whatever) are less exploitable by minor league pitchers than they are by major league pitchers. As a GENERAL proposition, we KNOW that this is true. It is true, for example, of players who have a particular problem with good breaking pitches.

          And there is a good reason for this. Major league pitchers, with generally a better repertoire of pitches, and better command, are better able to exploit holes in a player’s approach. So let’s compare two players,. Player A simply crushes certain types of pitches, while having a real problem with other types of pitches. Player B doesn’t have a real hole in his swing, but also doesn’t have a pitch he absolutely crushes. It is certainly possible that player A will be better against inferior pitching, but player B better against superior pitching.

          And that’s what some scouts are saying about Franco, that he is player A. They may be wrong, but simply saying “no, no, his numbers (K rates in this case) are too good” doesn’t refute the argument.” (Not to mention that the absurdly low AA K rate means even less because of SS.)

          This is a subset a of a common problem around here, the “numbers don’t lie” argument from non-SABR guys. Yeah, sometimes they do lie. Hopefully not in this case, but the idea, common around here, that negative scouting reports should be dismissed out of hand when they are (seemingly) contradicted by performance is a fallacy.

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        3. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is not just a dispute about K rates. If indeed the swing is problematic (again, I don’t have a personal opinion on that one way or the other), he may have a much more difficult time generating power against major league pitching than he does against minor league pitching.

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  15. The other thing Law says is that Quinn’s move to CF is now inevitable, but he still has a higher ceiling than Franco.

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    1. Nothing new….many posters have been saying that for weeks now….and some have said it is too early based on ‘value positioning’

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      1. I think the Phillies know this. Crawford may have been the BPA, but if they thought Quinn is the SS of the future they could have looked in another direction.

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  16. Keith Law got his Franco comments trimmed by the editor so it left out “Horrible human being. Should never be allowed to have a pet. He dogsat for me and left my dog locked in a basement for the entire weekend with no food or water.”

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  17. Completely random, but you should see some of the complaining and concern about Singleton with Houston fans and he’s the No.1 first baseman on the updated top 50.

    Among some of the comments I’ve seen today…

    “Singleton has been struggling as well. 8 hits in his last 40 ab with 20 strikeouts with 0 HRs.”

    “I know someone that watched him recently that said his body has gotten worse. May just be because he wasn’t playing in games for a while, but he’s got to be careful it doesn’t get out of control.”

    “He has definitely ballooned. The guy looks soft. I’ve watched nearly every Redhawks game since he came off suspension. Very worried about Singleton at this point. Not what you wanted to see from him coming off his suspension for being a stoner.”

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      1. I kinda look at it another way. When I see prospects the Phillies developed/drafted/signed who were looked at as future impact players fail after leaving the team it begins to make question just how good the farm system actually is. If Domonic Brown hadn’t excelled this year you’d really question what to make of things. Brown, Michael Taylor, and Kyle Drabek were the top-3 gems in the system and top-25 guys around baseball. The latter two have flamed out big time.

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    2. I looked up his stats the other day just to see how he is adjusting to AAA and was completely surprised by how awful he has been doing (SSS).

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  18. Crawford figuring out this Professional Baseball thing pretty quickly. 9 base hits the last 3 games. A hit in every game he has played.

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  19. our system is alot more clear now; 2 blue chips in biddle and franco.

    lot of interesting guys to remain patient on:
    Tocci, Quinn, Crawford, Cozens, Green, Gueller, Watson, Altherr, Dugan, hell Severino

    disappointed we didn’t get to see alot of Morgan this year.

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  20. Franco’s criticism makes me root for him that much harder. Based solely on his stats/age/level this year Franco should be one of the top 10 prospects in all of baseball. You can knock him down a peg for questions about his swing but he’s putting up little league numbers against pitchers with years more experience. Until someone can tell me EXACTLY why Maike won’t succeed against major league pitching I won’t buy the criticism. I’ll accept “he can’t keep this up” or even “he’s not an elite bat” but they’re acting like he’ll never become an average player.

    At his current rate, or even if he cools considerably but settles into a sustainable pace, how long until he begins to challenge Asche? Nothing against Aschey, who should become a serviceable, average major league 3rd baseman, but we’d all agree Franco’s ceiling is much higher. Unlike Asche, Franco’s bat could be elite and make an immediate impact on the lineup. Being several years younger and outperforming what Asche recently did in Reading, the momentum of Franco’s progress could have him knocking on Asche’s door by mid 2014, just as he’s settling in the hot corner at CBP. Its a nice problem to have, but something to consider in the long-term plans, at a time when multiple deals could be in the works.

    Asche was our top position prospect only a few months ago and has maintained the progress that got him to that point. If he’s only going to replace Michael Young’s placekeeper role as a bridge to the long-term 3B solution, maybe he should factor into one of the upcoming deals. Adding Asche could sweeten the pot in a deal, getting a prospect otherwise off the table.

    I strongly believe Rube should approach this deadline with the trademark aggressiveness that got him into trouble. Instead of auctioning our players to the top bidder, he should target and aggressively pursue specific young players; be a “buyer” of young talent, by “selling” our aging assets. Taking such an approach would prevent opposing GMs from forcing him to settle for another Pence-for-Joseph “best we could get” deal. There is not a single deal that needs to be made if the return is not deemed adequate. Ruiz and the Youngs wouldn’t fetch enough, Utley can resign for 2-3 years or net us a high draft pick, while Papelbon, Rollins and Lee will have less money left on their contracts after this season. With money already coming off the books, we don’t need to shed salary.

    In fact, I’d approach the “taking on salary” issue with the same aggressive posture. Since free agency has virtually ceased to be a viable way to build a team, contracts of traded players should be perceived as investments in young talent. Since those contracts are already sunk costs and there’s virtually no other way to acquire premium young talent, offering to cover large contracts of star players should be a selling point in trade negotiations.
    Remember how Rube threw in Travis D’Arnaud in exchange for $8-10 million, then bragged about how he shrewdly covered the cost difference of Doc’s contract with a minor leaguer? We’ve been accumulating young catchers ever since, and now, Ruiz’s contract is up and D’Arnaud is MLB ready as the top catching prospect in baseball. Covering a substantial portion of Lee’s (or Papelbon’s) contract could enable smaller market contending clubs to get post-season tested, expensive veteran pitching they otherwise could never attract or afford. Increasing the number of interested teams would substantially increase the offers, perhaps forcing other interested parties to include premium prospects, Surely the Pirates would have to sacrifice Taillon/Cole+ for Cliff Lee+tens of millions, raising the base asking price for other teams.

    Obviously, the point is to eventually get better even if it makes us worse this year. We shouldn’t focus on trading our players, but rather trading FOR players we can pencil in our lineup in 2014 or 2015.

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    1. When Maikel Franco is inducted at Cooperstown in 2038 Phillies fans can use their holographic phone/pda displays to show a 3d hologram of a metal bar.

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    2. “We shouldn’t focus on trading our players, but rather trading FOR players we can pencil in our lineup in 2014 or 2015.”

      Now, I DO think that’s a better way to frame the issue. But …

      Let’s set aside for the moment differing expectations regarding the trade value our veterans. It’s the “2014 or 2015” aspect of this that I wonder about. Now, sure, we WANT that to happen, no doubt. But do even the optimists among us really believe that our veterans are going to get us high upside players that close to the majors? Well, Art does. (No offense intended – he does!) Does anyone else?

      Now, that doesn’t end the discussion. Guys like Pederson & Castellanos (IMO the best possible near major league talent that might be available) could help the team. And I’ve emphasized the importance of not becoming the Marlins, even for a couple of years. But IMO, whatever return we do/can get, I’d prefer higher upside guys that are a little further away. Average position players have real value, but the real need for the next contending team is a couple of stars. We may not get those at all for our current veterans; we certainly aren’t getting major league ready potential stars.

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  21. And whatever happened to the shortstops that draw walks! They are becoming extinct-dinosuers.

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    1. What happened to ANYONE who takes walks. Well since the GM doesn’t value them, you probably will not see them here. The home of the one run homer.

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  22. Law and Cooper are giving their Honest Opinion. But the opinion on Franco is why they are writers and not scouts. If you look @ the List most of the guys are High $ guys and 1rd picks Or guys who have had Success for 2 or 3 years in a row(Polanco, Tavares, Singleton). They will do the Moonwalk by this time next year when Franco is in the big league. I can see it now “franco has made adjustments to his swing and aproach” but it will be the same swing and aproach he has now. In Latin America when a Player is Signed they are Investigated(For Age Fraud) and the result can be A)Age and/or Identity Confirmed B) Age and/or Identity Not Confimed or C) Age and/or Idenity Inconclusive. Franco is A. Not a knock on Sano but he was C. MLB can aprove the Contract @ the teams own risk because they cant prove if he is or is not who he says he is. The twins took the risk but it would not surprise me 5 years down the road Sano will get extorted or something will come out. Many teams stayed away from Sano for this reason. Anyway I hope they dont rank him in the top 100. Carlos Ruiz was never a top 500 prospect. Same can be said for Edwin Encarnacion, Nelson Cruz, Jose Bautista, Placido Polanco. Franco will be the Phillies 3rd Baseman till 2025. with about 5 allstar games under his belt.

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    1. “only swings @ pitches he can Crush”. Sounds like a great aproach unless you have 2 strikes on you. Any one who has ever played little league knows that.

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      1. Actually it is a terrible approach and brings about bad habits. The amount of those pitches goes down drastically from AA to the majors. What Law is referring to is not having the approach to take where a pitch is and go with it. It is something that all good hitters have to eventually do or the league will adjust to them (imagine just once that Howard would go the other way). The only look to crush things approach ends in Mark Reynolds or AAAA type player

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        1. Actually there are a lot power guys who do just that. The Adam Dunn/Ryan Howard’s of this world look for their pitch to hit, and swing and miss a lot. Is Franco a power guy? This year so far he is.

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          1. But Dunn does something that Franco does not, he walked at a prodigious rate. Howard has watched himself decline to a player with negative worth as his walk rate plummeted and his weaknesses exposed. Howard had 80 raw power, which is at least a grade above Franco’s. It is certainly a player type. I actually don’t agree with the assessment by Law, and actually fear Franco turning more into this guy http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=vitter002jos who makes a ton of contact but doesn’t know what pitches he should be making contact with.

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        2. @ the end of the Day the Ball has to come over the plate. Franco has the ability to put the Bat head on the Ball. Julio Franco, Tony Batista, Roberto Clemente( would open up Big time) all had unconventional aproaches. Spoke to an Astros Scout. All he had to say was ” Franco is The Real Deal”. But go ahead and listen to these writers. Time will tell

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          1. You do realize that all of the writers have a ton of scout sources right? The swing is unconventional so there is going to be very divided opinions on it, that doesn’t mean people are wrong in their assessments. Brown destroyed the minors and it took 2 years of swing adjustments to make him a big league success.

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            1. Hey Matt, I have nothing against these writers and am just venting. I know they talk to scouts as well but when they talk about a player with such a strong conviction on how he cant make adjustments,this means either you really trust the scouts that are talking to you or you saw the player yourself and feel that way. Ive seen Franco with my own eyes since I live in Tampa and watch some minor league spring training and clearwater and GCL games.

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        3. about 7or 8 of francos HR’s are to right field. So go ahead and remove that comment before other people read it

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        4. Howard used to hit a ton of opposite field home runs , however I just chalked it up to being late , now when he is late its not even close

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      2. Spoke to 3 diffrent Pro Scouts 1 of them a Phillies scout said” Sano is a good prospect but I wouldnt trade our guy for him(meaning Franco)” . 2nd scout Said “Best impact bat Ive seen in the minors this year” 3rd scout ” Reminds me of Kevin Kousmanoff offensivley in the Eastern League in 2006 although Franco is much younger then Kevin was” Kousmanoff had good years in the MLB 07,08,09.

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        1. Chris is 100% right that these guys will NOT admit they were wrong even if Franco becomes an All Star and they will 1000000000000% say ‘He completely changed his swing” even if he hasnt.

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    2. You know…the age thing….when I think about it, does it really matter one or two years off the actual age for DR or Ven players, AFTER the guy makes . I look at ss Miguel Tijeada (sp) of A’s fame. He was exposed after many all-star selections. And there have been others.

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  23. Interesting comparison:

    Mitch Walding:
    0.41 BB/K, .075 ISO, .335 BABIP

    Carlos Tocci:
    0.4 BB/K, .051 ISO, .270 BABIP

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  24. “You play in that double-A league, you can play in the major leagues”…Sarge Matthews, 8 July 2013, 830PM.
    You gotta love Sarge.

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    1. I hate railing against Sarge because he seems like a decent, upstanding, good-natured man who does his best, but I swear he must be the single worst television announcer I have ever heard – and it is not easy being worse than the King of Pomposity, Chris Wheeler. 90 percent of what Sarge says is content free, the other ten percent is just flat out incorrect. If you don’t believe me, try this test, for a few games, instead of tuning him out, actually listen to what he is saying and you will be dumbfounded (he really says things like “oftentimes the team with best hitting is the most feared and usually wins, as well” – of course, this quote is fabricated, but the things he says are literally that silly, and I wish I were exaggerating, but I’m not).

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  25. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll take a less athletic guy with an ‘arm-bar’ swing who rakes over an athletic ‘toolsy’ type who cant hit worth a crap.

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    1. Of course. But that really isn’t the question. You want a player, particulary a player with Franco’s potential, to live up to his abilities. If there is a swing issue, and I am not saying there is or isn’t, it should be fixed so that he can live up to his potential and possibly be an even better player for it.

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