Doc, I swear to the baseball gods, after that first pitch I thought "Pete Rose used to crouch into a pitch like that!" I kid you not. Pinky swear.
Remembering that it has been nearly 30 years since Pete Rose took a MLB pitch and that some guys may not have ever seen him play, I'll remind us all that he was more than "Charlie Hustle" and a slightly oily character. For much of his career he was a lock to rap out nearly 60 x-base hits in an year. Early in his career he went north of 14 homers three times. As he matured he just whacked out 40 doubles+, nearly year after year.
I have no clue if Franklin is anything like that. But he did look like Rose for one pitch that he took. He has that going for him.
I didn't notice the smoothness with the glove on that first ball until they showed the replay from behind. "Wait, wait, wait....hug." He looked like a guy cradling his daughter as she bounded toward him. Or at least how I hoped I looked when my daughters used to do that.
Go kid. Give us a roping gapper tonight and the keys to the city might be yours!
moe
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This isn't analysis, isn't written for colleague blog authors, or for submission in a future job interview. It's a baseball chat. Here's what I saw in two innings.
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Defense
Franklin's first inning in the field, a lefty batter struck an infield-practice three-hopper right at him. Franklin's movements were as Japanese-aiki as any second baseman's I've seen lately.
He moved to the ball with both hands, including his throwing hand, right at his CG. He leaned over, forming a sort of audio scoop for the ball. As the ball got there, he used the "soft hands," by which we mean that his hands decelerate the ball pillow-like into his belly button.
In Japan they speak of "ki" personality, of flavor, of an impression. Dr. D spends a lot of time watching it. Franklin's "ki" was welcoming, friendly. His first game in a triple-decker stadium and he enjoyed taking the ground ball.
The throw was just very subtly "yipped" at the very finish, betraying a trace of subconscious nerves.
A second grounder was hit right at him. Same thing. He absorbed the ball like a friendly amoeba. Dustin Ackley is a fine second baseman, but his "ki" is confrontational. He attacks the ball, angrily refusing to let it past him, and doesn't have the same softness to his movements. Ackley wants to win the game and then take his day off and go hunting. Franklin's "ki" is that of a guy who wants to use his day off to play baseball. Hey, can we get a game here?
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On ROOT Sports there was a graphic emphasizing that Franklin had started 23 games at second base and 15 games at shortstop. For those who just joined us, this is the Mariners' way of telling us not to dismiss Franklin's play at SS. For my own part of it, I am sick to the gut of sabermetricians who assure us that every new baseball player down the line will have to move to an easier position. How would they be in any position to know? I don't know whether Nick Franklin can play shortstop, and I doubt any other blogger knows, either.
If Franklin winds up in a Ben Zobrist career, that will be fine by me. But maybe he's as good at shortstop as Derek Jeter is. I dunno.
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Hitting
As Franklin watched the first (96 MPH) fastball go by, he used the same aiki "welcoming" personality. He crouched, comfortably, and enveloped the incoming energy. He watched the ball go by, watched it hit the catcher's mitt, and then stared at the ball in the catcher's mitt. You know who used to do that? Pete Rose. Another dirt dog who loved the actual baseball.
We don't say that Franklin is Mike Trout, or that he has quick reflexes, or can tell a ball from a strike, or that he has upper-deck power. We say only that an aiki sensei would approve of his SUBCONSCIOUS state-of-mind at the plate.
Ken Griffey used to be friends with the baseball, you know, the ball itself. Omar Vizquel was. Nick Franklin is that way.
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On TV, they made a lot of the idea that Franklin had to be terrified in his first AB. As they were saying that, I thought, huh. That's weird. He's mouthing his giant plug of tobacco, and picking at the tar on his bat, in a pretty relaxed way.
And then he handled five pitches in a decidedly non-jittery way:
Bruce Lee used to speak of "half positions" defensively, if your opponent threw a long fake. That was the way with Franklin's bat on pitches 2 and 4. He read the pitches -- 95 MPH fastballs -- and was ready to fire; if he'd swung he'd have pulled the ball. But as the ball reached the halfway point, he read "ball" and easily held up.
Taking a 95 fastball [two inches low], and then taking a 95 fastball [three inches high], you'll have to explain to me how being jittery leads to that.
Franklin let the fifth pitch go by, waited for the call, and then headed down to first base like it was another game in the PCL. I'm just cracking peanuts and talking baseball here.
...........
PCL pitchers were too smart to throw Franklin a strike. The first ML pitcher to go at him was very picky also -- remember, the score in this game was 9-0 at the time, and the next batter (Jason Bay) received three "challenge" fastballs from Ross.
The question in my mind is: What happens when somebody challenges Nick Franklin?
If Franklin punishes those first ten challenge pitches, we could have something pretty sweet on our hands. It's more likely that he won't. But if he drives them, watch out. The kid can control a strike zone...
...........
Hisashi Iwakuma, in my mind, completely made up for Doug Fister. The Nick Franklin pick was 99 kinds of gutsy, and it was based on the idea that Nick Franklin is friends with the baseball. ... if Franklin pays off, that will cover for a multitude of sins. They've had more than their share of bad luck, and I'm starting to feel sorry for them about that. They deserve to have Nick Franklin pull off a ROY splash.
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Comments
I was there yesterday and agree with everything you say. I was right on the 3rd base line and the 3rd pitch, the slider, he took a looonnnggg look at. It was good to see. I would imagine that the natural tendency is to jump out and hit the first thing that looks good in your first MLB at bat.
For some reason I also remember him being more straight up in his stance. Maybe he has reworked things slightly. Franklin got a lot of slack for his "Chick Fil A" diet in the offseason, but he still looks smallish and lean. Although it is hard to tell because his uniform is about 3 sizes too big. Kids these days....
The Mariners are due for some luck. Here's hoping that Franklin hits right out of the gate, and both Montero and Ackley tear up AAA for several months and come up in September with something to prove.
I just liked the way he threw the ball after outs. IIRC Morse made a putout in the corner, Franklin got the throw back in from him, and Franklin turned and fired it back to the infield with an ease and grace and just a little flair. Just really fluid and kind of joyous.
And his comments before the game, about playing 2nd base - he feels like it's taking a night off, because of how easy it is compared to short. He wasn't too cocky, just saying that the throws are much more difficult from short.
Really like what I've seen from him, so far.
Where he would get into his batting stance, curl for power... and then relax and step out of his batting stance when the ball was halfway to home? "Eh, not a strike." Now Ackley just watches it in even when he knows it's a strike, paralyzed, but back then he would assault the pitches in the zone and didn't care one bit about those not in the zone.
That's how Franklin is getting. If you think it's fun watching him work a walk with a guy painting the corners, it's 10x more fun when he takes the bat off his shoulder and the ball screams into the gap to get away from it.
Watching them play D is a very different experience, though. I've been saying for a couple of years now that Franklin looks like a complete natural at 2B and has to stretch himself to play SS. I don't mind that. I'd like him to play SS. But if 2B is where he lands then he's kinda overqualified for the position. Being a tweener SS/2B makes you a plus 2B.
Ackley has somehow made himself into a plus 2B while scooting after grounders on his knees and chest, smothering everything hit near 1B, and generally making up for his lack of polish at the position in amazing ways.
Franklin will make it all look easy out there at second. He's also very chatty around the infield, likes to talk to the pitchers, and seems to dearly delight in every second spent around the diamond.
He seems to turn double plays more smoothly than Triunfel does when their positions are reversed. I'm curious to see him take a feed from Ryan - I'm sure his half of the DP won't look like Ackley pegging a leg in the ground and daring the runner to spike him in it or break his leg while he fires to first.
Ackley is gonna need not to get Wally Pipped. Remember your swing down there in Tacoma, kid. I love ya, but time and roster positions wait for no man. Let's see if Franklin can do at the plate what Ackley did when he first came up - and then keep doing it.
~G
You were immediately struck that his at bats were a combination of relaxation coupled with bad intentions. The dude was confident but not cocky, loaded with innate talent and baseball sense, and I particularly remember that he showed surprising power, to the point that it was not unusual to see comments here like, "With some experience that guy could hit 30 homers."
His devolution as a hitter has been so deflating. Initially I got the feeling that for the first time since the retirement of Edgar and Olerud we finally had another born hitter, not necessarily A-Rod, Edgar or Griffey but a true-blue thoroughbred bat.
Kendrys Morales is of that ilk, and he's starting to show it again.
First of all I believe Ackley will have (at least) some good MLB seasons ahead. But currently he is broken, if your car has indicator light on showing there is an issue with your engine - yeah you can run on it for a little while but don't do it for months or you may just added to the cost of your repairs.
When Ackley was first called up, he started off hot but if my memory serves me right his numbers began to tail off as he continued to play into August and September.
Last year his numbers were poor (yes, some will point to his 2.5 WAR in his defense). But I would guess that his positive WAR is almost solely on defense. Ackley was not signed to be a slick fielding - defense first - baseball player. The entire purpose of putting him at 2nd base is to have a player who is offensive minded at a position where you usually. (Additionally, it's not like Ackley is inexpensive, playing for the minimum - he was signed to a major league contract after being drafted)
I know last year was the year to play the youngsters so they could all grow and get a year of valuable experience under them to hopefully jumpstart the rebuilding process. But Ackley struggled the entire year, and come to find at the end of the year we come to find that he has a gimpy ankle and needs surgery. In my opinion last year was actually a lost year for Dustin, because not only did he not develop as a player but he also lost confidence in his ability. I say that because he no longer trusted his swing, as evident by his offseason program where he drastically reworked it such that he lost all effectiveness (this was evident in both his spring and early season performance).
I still think he is having some issues with his ankle or he doesn’t have confidence that the repairs will hold up because he only has attempted 1 stolen base the entire season.
Instead of taking the time off last season to ensure Dustin was in the proper physical condition to perform at a high level, they let him struggle and now it looks like it will take a lot more work to correct what’s wrong.
My real issue is not with Ackley but with Z’s handling of this entire affair. My concern is that Z feels that his success may too be closely tied to these young players immediate success at the major league level.
When Ackley was first called up, he started off hot but if my memory serves me right his numbers began to tail off as he continued to play into August and September.
Last year his numbers were poor (yes, some will point to his 2.5 WAR in his defense). But I would guess that this WAR is almost solely on defense. Ackley was not signed as a slick fielding - defense first - baseball player. The entire purpose of putting him at 2nd base is to have a player who is offensive minded at a position where you usually
Year 1 with the kids: "Hey look, Ackley came up and is hitting like gangbusters. Smoak has been busted up so his line isn't reflective, but when he started the year healthy and before family tragedy, he was the best hitter on the team. And that Seager kid is better than we thought. We probably have the makings of something."
Year 2: "Hmm. That's a lot of struggling going on. Well, not so much Seager or Saunders, but everyone else. Maybe we should have listened to Wedge and gotten some vets in here to hold up the middle of the order. Somebody make a memo: this offseason, get vets. That'll help the kids."
Year 3 (through May): "The vets are performing perfectly, but the kids still suck. Well, not Seager and Saunders (who are those guys and where did they come from anyway?) but the others are all looking pretty whack. Okay, send Montero down and get him off of Catcher so he can focus on hitting. Send Ack too, we have that Franklin kid to replace him with. Removing pressure didn't help, so now we need to make tthe environmental change. PS - somebody call Boras and let me know if he's still laughing when we ask about a Morales extension..."
~G
If Franklin does roughly what Ackley did in year one at the Major League level do the Mariners attempt to move Ackley off of his "tough" defensive position into something less strenuous? The Mariners don't exactly have a clear cut answer in left field right now. Also, with Guti and Saunders, you can't really count on center field either.
I know that Ackley has much more value at 2nd than he does in Left, but if he can hit .300/.380/.XXX in left (with probably average to above average defense), isn't that a net positive? Especially for this team as it is set up right now?
I guess the M's will not have much of an answer until they see what Franklin does the rest of the year and what Ackley does down in AAA until September.
We need to catch a game sometime and come up with a Rose and ... PGA pro? for every Nick Franklin out there :- )
Hm. Who's Nick Franklin? Seve Ballesteros? Palmer maybe?
Ackley is a plus (significantly plus, apparently) second baseman. We might move him to center (he's plenty fast enough to play there, and used to before he blew his arm out), but he's not going to left. And since we just spent 3 years teaching him to be a plus 2B it's very unlikely he'd move. Some other orgs might move him. We're not likely to be one of them.
So if Franklin succeeds and Ackley gets better, one of them has to go.
~G
When we first broke down his swing, 2011 or whatever, he was upright and majestic, like DiMaggio.
Now he's "crouching into the pitch," like Mo' Dawg put it ... Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson, more subtly Barry Bonds. Rose always used to say that he could SEE better out of a crouch, having his face as close to the ball as possible. Like looking down the gun barrel of the ball's trajectory.
Really enjoy your 'puts Jon. :- ) :daps:
Thanks GL.
Yeah, you can tell when a player enjoys being out there -- and if we can tell, you think the guys on the bench can? ... IIRC, Gordon and Jay discussed this aspect of Franklin the day he was drafted.
Willie Bloomquist had it also. That NPB shortstop we had last year. It's not an absolute, but it's a plus.
I'm quite sure the M's don't usually get as good. Although it's probably true that some of their guys have more robust experience.
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The point about "stretching" to make throws is an important one. SS's have to make OFF-BALANCE throws QUICKLY and get a lot of pace on the ball. Very possibly Nick Franklin doesn't have that. There are ML shortstops who don't, but still.
Supposing G ... that Franklin sticks at 2B ... what's his range like there, do you know?
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"Smothering" the ball is exactly the right term, isn't it? It's admirable in his own way. If Ackley were a soldier he'd be a CMH winner.
Ben Crenshaw was smooooooooooth. He was in love with the game, too. Wanted to play, play, play. "36 holes today...or 54?"
Sounds like, from what everybody says, there is some of that in Franklin . They are both slightish-build type guys who could ride the ball, as well.
But Nick's classic (lefty) swing (from the vids I've seen) has to be compared to a guy like Tom Weiskopf. His swing was one for the ages........