Seattle Sports Insider

Can't resist this:

The mythical Lumber King:

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Dying Dynasty?Justin and G's comments dovetail right with what I have been concluding:

1. Arlington ruins pitchers

2. Safeco ruins non-extraordinary RH hitters

3. A's never have enough money

4. LAAA suffers from no particular disability

THEREFORE, Mike Scioscia waltzes into the Hall of Fame on the backs of crippled foes who have never quite woken up to what is holding them back (overstatement for effect -- Scioscia is good).

Obviously, Texas has indeed begun to stockpile pitching from within, and it is paying off.  But . . . Orel Hershiser was the pitching coach there and he made it clear -- it will always be a tough place to pitch, period.  Even for someone as dominant as Cliff Lee.

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So good to hear from original 1995 STATS AOL roto ace Justynius, that we've got to return fire off his driveby:

Don't think Franklin can quite be grouped in the same talent class as Pineda/Ackley/Smoak, but do see him with the potential for an All-Star career similar to Mike Young or Stephen Drew. Not many SS's with 20+ HR power, double digit SB's, and the ability to hit for average despite high K's and moderately low BB's.

Pineda (rated top 5 SP), Ackley (#11 on 2010 list), and Smoak (#13 on 2010 list) are all undeniable Top 25 talents. Franklin is a Top 50, maybe a Top 25. Saunders (#30 on 2010 list) and Moore (#83 on 2010 list) are definite Top 100 talents.

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...=== HQ ===

The addition of Justin Smoak, along with Dustin Ackley's confirmaton as a franchise talent, has just recently sort of blown away the last shreds of bias as to whether the phrases "Seattle Mariners" and "loaded farm system" should ever go into the same sentence.

It's worth reminding that BaseballHQ's rankings -- last winter! -- warned the baseball world that the #1 hitting farm system in all of baseball, was Seattle's.  HQ knew that before we did.

In Justynius' 12 candidates for the top 100, fully 11 of them are hitters...  We like his punch line, "Ichiro could be the weak link in 2012" ...

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G-Money did the legwork for us, going back and checking on the youngest players to overmatch the hitter-unfriendly MWL in recent years.  A sample of G's findings:

I thought so too about Bruce (that Franklin's topping of Bruce's exploits was provocative - Dr D).  I'd like to say the MWL guys I picked weren't entirely random, but there weren't a lot of guys to choose from. It's a rare feat in the last half-dozen years.  :)

Over .800 OPS in the MWL as a teen:

 

2005: Carlos Gonzalez (killing it for Colorado now as a 23 & 24 year old CF/OF)

2006: Bruce, Maybin

2007: Snider, Gerardo Parra (in the bigs at 22 in '09, not yet successful splitting time at CF/LF)

2008: Mike Moustakas (ravaging AA and AAA at 21), Andy Lambo (average in AA, same age)

2009: Jaff Decker (top 100 prospect)

The Gazoo Helmet? Nick Franklin hit his 22nd HR of the year last night, which ties the season record for the Clinton franchise -- set in 1961.

Reportedly he is the only player in the minors with 20+ HR, 20+ doubles and 20+ SB.

Unconfirmed internet reports say he is the first teenage SS to hit 20 bombs in A ball since some kid named Alex Rodriguez.  Didn't take the time to check that out, but it's possible.

The always valuable G_Money says that one reason Franklin is underestimated is that he wears an oversized "Gazoo helmet" that makes him look much smaller than he is.

Edit: with the permission of the photographer, then, I will import these pics, that give a pretty good sense of Franklin's actual physique:

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...I/O:  Bill Krueger says that Felix should throw his curve ball more.  Also, the blog-o-sphere opines that Felix' curve ball looks better and better all the time.

CRUNCH:  This is a broken light bulb on my stadium scoreboard.  I've always thought that Felix should , theoretically, be able to rack up 10+ K's a game just throwing fastballs and curves.  Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, among many others, did exactly this.  Josh Beckett, Dwight Gooden, the young Kerry Wood, etc etc etc.

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...

=== Pedro vs Felix ===

Noodling around watching Felix pitch, not trying to whine here, but I've never understood why he isn't Pedro Martinez.  Granted, Felix runs 170 ERA's.  But Pedro routinely ran them from 200 to 300.  I mean, why?

Bill James once ventured a guess as to why Pedro Martinez was a 250 ERA+ pitcher:  he did everything a little better than other pitchers.  His FB was a little crisper, his command just a little better, the curve ball just 10% sharper, etc .... and the cumulative effect was overwhelming.

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Cool Papa Bell, who won the last 20-team mixed league at DOV/SSI, sez:

I am completely unfit to be commenting on a players mechanics so while all this sounds good I really have no clue how correct it is. What I do know a little bit about is stats. And something I have discovered is that if a hitter has any sort of major league career, his ISO in the majors will be BETTER than what it was in the minors. Now, I haven't done any kind of study and it might not hold up for the guys with next to no power (like Luis Castillo and Willie Bloomquist), but from what I've seen this is a very reliable rule of thumb.

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...=== Reference Points ===

In order to zero Nick Franklin’s swing dynamics, let’s put them against the backdrop of two other great hitters.  We poked around a bit trying to find photos of lousy hitters :- ) at precisely the launch point, but they’re a little harder to find and hey, we’ve got our 23-post quota to fill.  :pinkfloyd get on with it:

If you can find a convenient photo of a mortal hitter at launch point, let me know.  It will only increase your appreciation for the Franklin pics below.

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