Nick Franklin, SS

Don t drop it, meat, I got scouts to de-press=== Big Three Dept. ===

Again Zduriencik is asked about talent in the organization, and again he pushes three low-minors hitters out there, those being Carlos Triunfel, Alex Liddi and Nick Franklin.*

Slow news day, we know, and it isn't like Capt Jack named them 1-2-3.  And today he left Franklin off the list.  Still ...

...........

A top-100 came out this week, was it Baseball America's? and they got it right:  Ackley, then Triunfel, then Saunders in their top 100.  Dropping Triunfel out of baseball's top 100, much less the M's own top three or four prospects, is little more than "out of sight, out of mind."

M's fans can hype back up about Triunfel ... oh, wait, they will, as soon as Triunfel plays a month in 2010.  We remember a scout talking about Triunfel at age 17:  "It's like watching a 10-year-old gearshift onto the highway and blow by other cars.  He just shouldn't be able to do the things he's doing," or somesuch.

..........

Tom McNamara, who is director of M's amateur talent or some title like that ... well, Zduriencik tossed the ball to McNamara to run the drafts.  McNamara discussed Nick Franklin on a recent KIRO hot stove radio show.

McNamara revealed that after the M's took Dustin Ackley, their intention was to grab a pitcher with the #27 overall in the first round. 

Except that "between our first and second picks (in the first round) there were something like 17 or 18 pitchers taken.  So we said, do you want the 18th best pitcher here, or do you want one of the best few hitters here," or somesuch.  The clear message was that the M's thought that Franklin tumbled a long ways to get to #27 overall.

McNamara said that one of the first things he looks for, if he is going to spend a very high pick on a 17-year-old, is that he wants to see the kind of confidence that will carry him into competition with much older players.  Franklin, says he, has that in spades...

Big Man On Campus type, tall wiry-strong switch hitting SS.  Read that as, Franklin has the kind of swagger that sets him apart.

Listening to the crusty McNamara show excitement about Franklin, you can see where the national pundits are putting Franklin in the Triunfel class.

Carlos Triunfel the Sequel, I guess.

...........

Franklin got a taste of low-A Everett, at 18, and in six games had 8 hits, three of them for extra bases, against only two strikeouts.   As you can see from this roster, at Everett the players are 21-24 years old.

I was curious as to why the John Sickels types have Franklin so high, at only 18.  But listening to McNamara on him, it's clear that the M's regard him a solid 1st-round-caliber talent as a teenager in high school.

Okay by me,

Dr D