=== Rising Line Drives ===
We noted already that Franklin hits lots of fly balls, yet with very few infield popups. For example, in June he hit 46% fly balls and only 2% popups, from both sides. And 26% line drives.
For the season, his ratio is 44% fly balls and 5% popups. Which is, of course, the opposite of what the pitcher is trying to make happen. Pitchers lower their on-field ERA's by inducing ground balls, not fly balls. And they do want to get as many infield pops as they can.
Go through the Fangraphs batted-ball-type leaders and find the [FB% guys] who [do not hit popups]. In general, you'll find the guys who square the ball up with rising swings.
These are extremely dangerous hitters. Evan Longoria is one of these (the best one of these). Paul Konerko, Nick Swisher, Adam Dunn, and Russell Branyan have this skill set -- and it is because they swing upward, yet catch the ball slightly on the top half of it.
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You might ask, don't all hitters swing up? Why don't all hitters do this -- 45% flyballs and 5% popups? For one thing, it's a batspeed issue. If the pitcher drives one in there 2 feet deeper than you were ready for, and you snap the bat around to defend the strike zone, you wind up catching the bottom half of the ball.
Any hitter will tell you. "The key to hitting Stephen Strasburg's heater? Get on top of the ball."
So Nick Franklin's popup % tells you, right then and there, that he is VERY quick with the bat. I mean, come on. No way he has figured out, at his age, what's coming. He's got to be surprised all the time. And yet here he is, always getting the bat over everything?
Any batter can take an uppercut. The problem is that you'll top it or sky it.
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The eye confirms. Run round the net and catch the Franklin vids. Despite his power stroke, he's very quick to the ball.
You wonder what scouts are talking about, when they say a kid's special? Here's what they mean. A kid with (A) a longer swing who is (B) quicker to the ball. Y'feel me? It's just talent.
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We had a good amigo come on and state that he was Franklin's HS coach. That Franklin had hit six different balls, in HS, over the batter's eye in CF, 410 feet away.
Mays and Aaron only weighed 180. They had wrists.
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=== Don't Know What This Has To Do With Anything, But Just Thought I'd Mention It Dept. ===
Bill James, asked by the Sox his opinion as to Adrian Beltre, advised the Sox to sign him at that $$$. But not to expect big things with the bat, just due to the fact that he was moving to Fenway.
Bill studied AB's fly ball trajectories and calculated that his fly balls would be off the Monster, not over it.
As we now know, the actual principle that mattered was [relaxing into your swing]. Life is complicated.
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Point here? Don't worry about the shape of Franklin's swing in Safeco, one way or the other. The principle that matters is: we need good hitters.
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Franklin's big night
Good looks at Franklin's swing, starting low and finishing high. Franklin's double down the firstbase line seems to accelerate as it hits the dirt!
The quiet load, upright and relaxed stance, and high finish reminds me of Jim Edmonds.
Franklin gets some serious rpm on his batted balls. Looking forward to watching those linedrives bite through the thick sea air at the Safe >:-)
As far as topspin, the GB rate isn't super high .... however, the infield popup rate is absurdly low...
Doesn't finish with the bat low, either, in Kennedy style...
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He genuinely seems to have a DiMaggio swing, very slight uphill plane all the way around the circle, and hits the top half of the ball...
A prettier swing than his, they do not make. Goldstein, in the pay area of the BP M's top 11, credits Franklin with "shocking power".
At the 0:38 point of your video, Pops, you can visibly see Franklin blow out as he smashes the HR...
It's axiomatic in aikido that you want to exhale for power. There was a period, late in Cal Ripken's career, when ARod was coaching Ripken to "blow the ball out of the ballpark" and you could see Ripken trying to puff as he swung.
And why were his scouting reports so vanilla? Is it because he's scrawny?
As y'probably know, he not only fell to #27, but the M's were mercilessly excoriated for considering him a 1st-rounder at any slot.
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Here is the 2009 MLB.com profile.
The gist is: won't do anything well, but will do everything okay, so could give you a shot at a Bloomquist.
Sounds like the responses to Miller this year?
This is Miller's swing:
And here is Franklin's (with some annoying music):
Franklin has batspeed that Miller doesn't have. His swing arc and hand position are more capable of power.
It's not that I don't think Miller can succeed - I absolutely think he can. But he's gonna have to either modify his swing or find some Ackley bat-speed to clear a lot of walls, which makes him a middle IF in my opinion - two positions we should have locked up with Franklin and Ackley.
So I kinda have Miller in the 3B shuffle at the moment, pending the outcome of Miller's full season wood-bat experiences and introduction to the Ms workout regimen. This should be a fun year to watch and see what Brad can do.
Craig Counsell has hung around the league for 16 years with a similar swing to Brad's and a highly suspect stat line, at exactly the positions Brad will be competing at. Brad doesn't have to be a monster to have a good career - but I'd love it if we were talking about him and his potential next year the way we talk about Franklin's.
~G