Player: Maikel
Franco
Position: 3B
Listed Height/Weight:
6-1, 180
Bats/Throws: R/R
Hometown: Azua,
Dominican Republic
Acquired: Signed
by the Phillies on January 13, 2010
Background/Stats: Lauded
for his power potential, Franco garnered a $100,000 signing bonus from the
Philadelphia Phillies in January 2010.
According to Baseball America, many teams were scared away after Franco
turned in an abhorrent 7.7 second 60-yard dash time, but well-respected
international supervisor Sal Agostinelli saw past the poor foot speed and
believed in Franco’s other tools and potential. In 2010, Franco reported to the
Phillies’ Gulf Coast League team in Clearwater and hit .222/.292/.330 in 194
at-bats as a 17-year-old. In 2011, the
Phillies sent Franco to Williamsport, their short-season affiliate in the New
York-Penn League before a brief stint with their full-season affiliate in the
South Atlantic League, the Lakewood Blue Claws. Franco only managed a meager
.123/149/.200 in just 65 at-bats with Lakewood, and he was reassigned to
Williamsport, where he finished the 2011 season. While Franco’s struggles in Low-A were to be
expected given his youth and inexperience (only 18 at the time), the results at
Williamsport painted a much prettier portrait of the player. Franco hit
.287/.367/.411 in 202 at-bats for the club. In 2012, Franco broke the spring
with the Lakewood Blue Claws, as the Phillies felt that he would be able to
handle the transition to full-season ball in the South Atlantic League. Statistically speaking Franco’s 2012 was a
tremendous success. He spent the majority of the season as a 19-year-old in a
league in which the average
(median) age is 22 and hit .280/.336/.439 and began to tap into some of his
power with 32 2B and 14 HR. However, it
was truly a tale of two halves, as Franco hit .207/.269/.338 before the Sally
All-Star Break and a whopping .346/.395/.530 after the break.
Clearly, Franco had a breakthrough second-half and his late
season surge will probably allow the Phillies to start him in High-A next
season. With that being said, I was able
to see Franco in game action during my time in North Carolina and the youngster
clearly still has issues that need addressing.
Firsthand
Observations: I had the opportunity to see Franco and the Lakewood Blue
Claws play a doubleheader against the Hickory Crawdads while on assignment for
my internship with Baseball America. As I mentioned above, Franco really came
into his own during the second half of the season, and given the fact that I
watched Franco play on July 22nd (post All-Star break), one would
expect Franco to have put on a show. I mean he finished the month with a
.327/.389/.496 line. However, my fellow
intern and I both came away from the two games unimpressed with Franco. Obviously, it would be foolish to draw too
much from one day’s worth of game action, but there were some red flags.
First, was the body. Now, Franco is not a “bad-body” type of
player, but he looked heavier than his listed 180 pounds (I’d say about
190-195) with some baby fat. His
6-foot-1 frame leaves little room for further projection. He also looked a bit sloppy in the field with
his actions, struggling to field balls cleanly and explode into a good throwing
position. All in all, he looked very
sluggish and disinterested in the field.
One positive, however, is his arm strength which would easily grade out
at plus (60) and perhaps plus-plus (70).
As I mentioned in the background section, Franco is clearly
not a threat on the basepaths.
Unfortunately, I either did not either clock his home-first splits or
forgot to record them, as I don’t have anything on his foot-speed in my
notes. Regardless, one should safely be
able to assume that his speed is below-average at best.
Third basemen and any corner position player make their
living with the lumber. Franco’s strong showing in 2012 as a 19-year-old should
not be discredited. Obviously he was able to adjust to the environment and
level of pitching in the second half to put up some solid numbers. However, in the two games that I saw him,
Franco went 1-for-6 with 2 K, and I can’t remember him barreling a ball. While the results weren’t particularly
impressive, I was also not a fan of the process. I felt that Franco started with his hands to
close to his head and body. As the
pitcher got into his windup and prepared to release the ball, Franco began a
lengthy load process in which his hands went down, up, and down again. All of this movement and noise led to an
extremely lengthy swing. One could see the potential for outlandish power if
solid contact were made, but the elongated swing path really seemed to hinder
any chance for barreling half-way decent pitches. Over the course of the double header Franco
was caught out front-footed numerous times and he did not show the ability to
adequately diagnose breaking pitches out of the hand.
Far too many times I feel that people try to isolate a flaw
within the hitting process. It is easy and convenient to say that X causes Y,
and I am tempted to trace Franco’s problems with his setup and noisy trigger. However, it should be remembered that I only
saw Franco in six at-bats. Perhaps he
was just feeling the grind from playing every day in his first full season and
was lackadaisical with his attention to detail.
Maybe he was not prepared to play because of the weather forecast (was
supposed to rain yet again) or was not particularly thrilled of the idea of
playing a double header in 95 degree heat.
Going Forward:
Franco will most likely begin the 2013 season in the Florida State League,
where I hope to be able see him again. The
power potential is impressive, but I’m not sure how much it will play at the
next level given his current propensity to get pull-happy, front-footed, and be
lengthy in his swing. If there is one thing that did surprise me in going back
to do research for this portrait, it is that Franco only struck out in 14.4% of
his plate appearances. Given what I saw I was expecting it to be much
higher. With that being said, while the
results/statistics from his 2012 campaign are encouraging, I personally would
not be willing to bet on a lengthy MLB career (feel free to bash me in the comments). However, since he is so young,
many of his issues and flaws can still be addressed over the coming two or
three years, and it will be interesting to see how Franco adjusts to quality
breaking balls.
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