Mariners 8 .....
Gnolls.com go paleo on the Twinkies' menu

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gnolls.com is a hilarious diet site.  Die biting the throat, babe.  And the American League isn't having a lot of luck hunting down and exterminating the M's little imps.

The M's had 8 RBI on Thursday.  That's a lotta RBI.  They came from:

  • Nick Franklin, rookie 2B (three of 'em)
  • Brad Miller, rookie SS 
  • Mike Zunino, rookie C
  • Ackley
  • The backup catcher

Actually Franklin, Miller and Zunino aren't really rookies.  They need like fifty more AB's each to qualify as rookies, don't they?  Some of those guys could be rookies NEXT year if they left the building before it was too late.

.

Officer Nick

Glad they came up with an, um, Nick-Name that conveys respect.  

They had evidently been trying to twist his arm to lose the Great Gazoo helmet .... 

... but Nick has obviously been countering with the facial expression he gives the effervescent Jen Mueller, that look a motorcycle cop gives you when you kid him about the four basic food groups, Glazed - Frosted - Maple - Pink. 

 Works for me.

..........

After the game, Officer Nick protested that his 3-run bomb had come on a reactive swing.  He said the same after his last tater.  Both times, he was right.  Here's the video from Thursday night. There was no load whatsoever -- he read the pitch, swung late, but cleared the deep right-center fence with just the flip swing.  How many times have you seen Justin Smoak load up, leave the ball 15 feet short of that fence, and grimace at the park as he trotted back to the dugout?

It was 402 feet to the power alley.  You remember Ichiro could load up and swat an HR, provided that he decided to do so before the pitch.  What do you do with a guy Ichiro's size who can go long on a reactive swing?!

  • Based on Franklin's current pace, you would expect him to hit 26.4 homers per season.
  • Based on Franklin's size, you would expect him to hit 6 home runs per season.
  • Based on Franklin's 2013 home run distances, you would expect him to hit 26.4 homers per season.  Roughly.

We're in love with bullet lists and tables today, so let's keep 'em coming.  

GOLDEN SLEDGEHAMMER AWARDS, 2013 SEATTLE MARINERS

Player # HR Avg Distance
Morales 15 401.9
Morse 11 394.8
OFFICER NICK 8 394.1
Bay 11 387.8
Rauuuul 24 386.1
Seager 16 380.6

At this point, I gotta see one of Gordon's famous historical lists.  I unnerstan' that there have only been 20 second basemen who hit lefty and who hit decently (or something like that).

Now I want to know how many guys Nick Franklin's size, in today's game, can hit legit home runs off reactive swings.  Is there anybody else?  Jimmy Rollins, is he the same size as Officer Nick?  I think Dustin Pedroia is bigger.  And I'm pretty sure those are the only two guys.

.............

At .265/.333/.459 and with his EYE ratio, Franklin has been ALREADY a swappable hitting comp for Kendrys Morales (.339 OBP, .463 SLG).  At the moment, he's also been loosely comparable to Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, Mike Napoli and Kyle Seager.  The M's ain't on a winning streak for nuttin', honey.

Which also leaves the intriguing question:  will Franklin be any good --- > after he's not purely reactive?  This isn't a Cuban "see ball, hit ball" hitter we're talking about.  This is a thoughtful hitter.

Hold up your hand if you think Nick Franklin is UNLIKELY to become Jimmy Rollins.  Or maybe that's a little modest?

Be Afraid,

Dr D

Blog: 

Comments

1

How about Jason Kipnis. Bats left, plays 2B, checks in at 5'-11" 185 lb., and is currently running a 0.295/0.377/0.515 slash line for the Indians. He came up a little older than Nick, but has been a full time regular since September of 2011 (age 24). I tried to check out the swings with some MLB video. Got to say, Kipnis looks a lot bigger, especially from the waist down. Didn't get anything worth reporting from the video (couldn't find a side view to check if Kipnis has the aggressive weight transfer that Franklin has. They seem to have some similarities in the hand load though they start with quite different hand positions, but I am a novice at best).

2
blissedj's picture

and I'm not getting it? Is this in reference to the Gazoo helmet making him look smaller than he his? Franklin listed height is 6' 1". Maybe that's way off and I've been under the wrong assumption for several years. Nick has about 5 inches on both Rollins and Pedroia. His height is one reason I have liked him for his position. Same as I think it helps give Brad Miller (6' 2") a potential long term production edge over Jurickson Profar. Longer arms to whip that bat around with extra leverage.
I don't know for fact that either Miller or Franklin have longer than average arms but wouldn't surprise me if they did. Maybe it's a "thing" like the Seahawks wanting guys with large hands.

3

Long arms make it harder to get around on inside pitches and make it easier for things to go wrong in your swing.  Short levers keep it simple.  See Kyle Seager for an example.
Long levers are good for power though, you're right.  So's batspeed. So's squaring up a ball.
Nick is all hands and wrists, which is another way to increase the ball's speed off the bat head without having the longest levers around. It creates that torsion on the bat that makes the ball jump as the head is whipped through the zone. He's got a wonderful swing from the LH side that gives him the arc and batspeed to hit balls out of the park even one-handed.  Johnny Damon used to do the one-handed swing like that.  Can't think of a lot of others in recent times who one-handed balls out of the park (well, there was always Junior who could also do it with a blindfold on, but he was a bigger man). You can only do that when you KNOW you're squaring the ball up and are using your hands as a guide to whip the ball into the bat and not power the bat itself through the zone. Junior used to talk about batspeed and his big butt doing all the work - never lifted a weight in his life. Franklin has no big butt to speak of, so it's all coordination and timing with him.
Smoak throws every ounce of muscle he has into the ball and it dies on the warning track.  Nick throws the bat at the ball in a reactive swing and Jedi-powers it over the wall.  It's funny to me - you can SEE his release hand "encourage" the ball to go where he aimed it.  "Fly over there, little white ball, keep carrying... good ball." *cue the 4-base jog*
Nick's power isn't going away. His hand-eye coordination when it comes to making a 180 pound body provide the power of a 220 pound one is extreme. It's why I was in favor of Nick dropping the switch-hitting thing: how likely is it that one man can have that much coordination from both sides of the plate?  Just let him see more pitches as a lefty against lefties and let his freakish wrist-guiding technique do the rest.
But Nick's stuck with it, and his swing from the right side is coming around.  It'll never be what his lefty swing is, but it doesn't have to be for him to be amazingly successful.  IMO, it's the extra crouch that's getting it done for him.  He didn't crouch that much in the past, but it's allowed him to get in the same frame of reference from both sides of the plate and sting the ball from the right side in a way he didn't always do before.  Prior to gaining Crouch Power his righty swing was three-hop-grounder-back-to-the-pitcher lifeless.  It ain't that now.    Give it some reps over the next few years and he could get surprisingly good with it.
That's the best thing about Nick: this is not his peak.  He's gonna get better.
Hold on for that ride. :-)
~G

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