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People talk as if it would be unspeakably naive to call up Nick Franklin as a bench player. No. There are any number of precedents for this. Franklin-as-utility-infielder is not a bit of SSI whimsy. It is the way that many MLB stars got their beginnings.
Recent Zduriencik quotes implied that Nick Franklin looks ready, and those promotions -- Franklin, Zunino, Hultzen were the guys he named on Drayer's blog -- depend on that moment at which the major leaguers open the door. Hopefully Ryan and/or Andino will do something to justify a Franklin promotion.
Nowadays, people feel like if you bring up a valued prospect, he's got to play every day. Said who? Earl would call up the best player at Rochester and tell him, "I don't know how much you'll play." He wrote, "if the kid goes 1-for-42 you're out of a job."
Since when was there a rule against replacing the utility infielder with a hotshot 2B/SS and letting him get his feet wet, playing a coupla times a week? You lose the "rhythm" you'd like him to have. But you gain all that goodie of learning in the video room, hanging around the MLB(TM)'ers, getting a feel for pitch sequences, etc.
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Ben Zobrist learned to play in the major leagues, and it didn't exactly suppress his peak performance. He played this many games during his phase-in:
Nothing in the world says that Nick Franklin can't join the ballclub as the backup 2B/SS, and hit .224 with no power, like Zobrist did as a rook.
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The Rays have not focused on Zobrist's limitations. To them, Zobrist's ability to help at shortstop is a major part of his value to them. The fact that Zobrist owns a SS glove isn't a target of derision for their fans. It's a cause for celebration. Okay, Zobrist is a bat-first infielder. Now that we've acknowledged this, we've got the question, can he help the club?
Among all AL players, Ben Zobrist would be one of my very first choices in a pick-em-up.
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I know, I know, we're piling on. This .137 stuff is getting old, though, ain't it.
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Along with promoting Franklin's professional development and value, his bat would help a lot, even if he only hit his weight. Or at least his reported weight in ST with his all day long binge diet. It would also move the other kids along with minor league promotions. Triunfel? Sorry kid. Maybe you'll get a shot here IFF both Ryan and Andino are sent packing.
Not piling on at all, Doc.
Franklin would clearly help this team (minus the 1-42 start) from day one. Z's comment seems more like a Wedge comment, almost deferring to the interess of his veterans, rather than the interests of the team. I've learned that it is nearly part of Wedge's makeup (in that he sees the vets interests as the teams interests). It shouldn't be part of Z's. I hope I'm misreading and he's simply indicating that a move is soon to be seen.
But the Figgins-gate events with Wak demonstrated a whole lot bowing to veterans, too.
You don't get your hot young rookie NFL cornerback, or QB from Wisconsin, ready for the NFL by sticking them in the Arena Football League. Nobody in the NBA puts a top 20 prospect in the Developmental League.
James had it right. MLB is rarefied air. The Mt. Everest of the baseball world, if you will allow me. You have to let guys climb high to get used to the atmosphere up there. Climbing Mt. Rainier is a great feat, but at 14,000 ft its peak doesn't allow you to acclimate to Everest's thin air. Even Mckinley's 20,000+ ft doesn't allow you to do that.
You have to climb high to get use to climbing high.
I sense we keep waiting for Franklin to prove more, or even to prove that he's not real (which I think may be Wedge's perspective).
I know I have sounded like a broken record on this. And I"ll mix metaphors again. Wasn't it Longstreet who said he hated to go into battle with one boot off, while he waited for Pickett to come up on the 2nd day at Gettysburg?
PIckett might have helped that day. The next day was too little to late.
Call him up now. I suspect he will get more PT than Zobrist got early, but I'll take even that.
The blue line is assembling on that far ridge, we need reinforcements. Franklin will help. Now.
Make it so.
moe
By all accounts Franklin is a cocky dude who assumes he'll be starting a HOF career once he hits the majors. So whether he comes up to the big leagues to eat some crow and have his flaws exposed, or he becomes a ROY candidate because he's finally gets to start working on his real life goals, you want him up here.
I don't think anyone thinks he has the personality to crumble when he falters. So that's not really an issue. Maybe he he comes up here and bats .300/.400/.500 and is insufferable and arrogant. I'll take that, thanks... let the clubhouse haze him, and let him help the M's get a tougher disposition.
. . . to bring up Franklin. You have a roster spot - Andino's - a right-handed hitting shortstop hitting nothing and a left-handed hitting second basement who you've begun to platoon. What would you possibly do with a switch-hitting mediocre fielding middle infielder who hits the crap out of the ball.?
It's almost perverse that they refuse to bring him up.
From the few accounts I've read, it almost seems like he's got a little bit of a Bryce Harper personality. It's been a really, really long time since we've had a young player with that attitude. Would LOVE to see that dynamic added to the club.
Franklin has been quoted that team chemistry has been a big key in his continued success in the Mariner organization.
This sounds like a team leader who has also said he wishes they would promote everyone on the current team. I hope they bring him up to haze the MLB guys!
Actually, franklin sounds like the pied piper to me. He wins where ever he goes.
While I agree with everyone here that they need to call him up, I don't agree that time at AAA is wasted in terms of development. I think people forget sometimes that AAA is basically the second highest level of professional baseball in the entire world. The level of skill at AAA is probably equivalent to the bottom one-third to one-half of a typical major league roster. Most of the players at that level have 5 years or more of professional experience and some significant number of them have major league time on their resumes. Players at this level aren't slouches. They know how to play the game. For hitters, I imagine the biggest difference is that at AAA, you won't run into quite as many pitchers with true ML-quality out pitches, since those pitchers will tend to be on the fast track to the major leagues. But the pitchers at this level do understand the science of pitching, how to sequence their pitches, how to attack hitters, how to make adjustments throughout the game, how to mentally handle situations like runners on late in the game with the score tied, and how to keep going after a big inning. It's still an elite level of play. I think Dustin Ackley and Justin Smoak, for instance, would clearly have benefited from more time at that level.
But I agree that they should bring him up. He's shown enough to warrant the call-up and it's likely that his presence on the team will be an improvement. Honestly, how could he not be? Also, he has significantly more plate appearances in the minors than Ackley or Smoak had when they were called up. As of today, he has 1,716 PA's. Ackley only logged 918 and Smoak has 855 minor league PA's for his career, including his stint at Tacoma last summer. So, the argument that he's being rushed doesn't really hold water.
The one about the MiLB PA's! Well played!
This discussion probably wouldn't even be happening if Ryan and Andino were playing well. Their degree of failure is so great, and it contrasts so dramatically with the AAA success of Franklin (and Triunfel!) that it is only logical to discuss what seems obvious. How much longer will the team wait, until we're out of it in May or June, and prospects are safely past super-2?
M's,
I think Franklin's performance has much to do with it, as well. If Andino and Ryan had hit like last year, I would still push for Franklin.
Glad Lou never heard that one. He'd have used it once a week for 30 years...
The M's org itself likes Raul Ibanez personalities, detests arrogance ... but in the last several years they've loosened up on the high-maintenance guys, the Milton Bradleys and Erik Bedards.
Now that you guys mention it, I'm not sure how much that applies to pure rookies. Mike Carp certainly had a thumb on the scale against him. Any thoughts as to whether it's THIS factor that is repressing Franklin? They're waiting for him to "get it" as to knowing his place?
Could easily be that they just want more seasoning. But there could also be a prejudice of some type working. Wonder if it is that they don't fancy his personality as being EXACTLY what they're looking for.
I didn't realize that either GLS.
Including 750 PA's in the high minors, four different leagues' worth of pitchers in AA/AAA. He's had a full minors career.
It was good while it lasted, but Ryan looks finished as a regular at this point. Big believer in Franklin.
I'm not sure what we are waiting to see. Too many walks? Well, the way the umps are calling it these days against the M's, I can see the hesitancy. If the King gets no respect, this raw rookie won't either.
But, think about this: As a 20 year old, Jim Palmer started 30 games and pitched 208 innings. He walked 91 batters and K'd 147. That's pretty close to what Taijuan will likely give you, ratio-wise - in fewer innings. Palmer was pretty much the #2 starter (if not #1) for that WS championship team, barely behind McNally's 213 innings. Nobody is asking Taijuan to become our 1,2, or even 3 starter. But limit his innings, get his feet wet, and let Furbush and Noesi pick up after him if he goes a mere 4-5 innings. Why are we waiting for Brett Saberhagen here (36 BBs in 158 innings as a 20 year old)? I'll take Palmer. Just take a Strasburg approach and limit his innings so we hopefully don't have shoulder problems like Palmer did for the next two years (before becoming the dominant AL right hander for a decade). But this kid is pretty special right now and he's coasting in AA.
My guess is we are going to wait until we are clearly out of the pennant race before we play these superior young players of ours. I think that is a mistake. If we are going to stay in this pennant chase, I think we are going to have to find ourselves a little more upside - like Earl did with Palmer in '66.
Boy, that was a young team - the '66 O's. Boog was 24, Davey Johnson, 23, Blefary and Blair were 22. Ace McNally was 23, and #3 starter Wally Bunker was 21. So you had a rotation that featured a 1-2-3 of ages 23, 20, and 21. Somehow, all those kids won themselves a World Series. But they didn't do it refining their game in Rochester.
I don't know why they have him at AA, quite honestly. At least move him up to Tacoma. I read yesterday on mlbtr that Bonderman's opt-out date is June 1, so the plan may be to move Walker up at that point.
Had no idea they were that young, Rick. Great point. Of course what you also get when winning with that many kids is a decade of contention/dominance.
that they don't really believe Franklin can handle the MLB level and are still hoping to use him as trade bait? They did have quite a bit of time to evaluate him in Spring Training. Are they afraid that bringing him up could expose him and lessen his value? Barring that, I'm at a loss as to why he's not already there.
That is a full compliment of PA's-I don't get where people are saying Franklin cannot play SS in the Show-what he has shown is fine Range and fewer errors then Triunfel-his arm seems sufficent-what have I missed?
Remember they have a full 40-man roster to manage.
Franklin isn't on it.
Sure, you can DFA Andino to get him on there, but, for one thing, they consider Andino an MLB player and probably want something of value back for him if they can get it.
But more importantly Andino is one of the few "expendable" guys on it right now. They have to figure out how to get Josh Kinney back on it as well (he doesn't take up a spot while on the 60-day DL but he will need one when they activate him). According to Drayer they really want Kinney for a pen role that they don't view Noesi, Beavan, etc. as a good fit for.
Do you give up on Beavan? Catricala? I'd nominate Francisco Martinez, but I don't know if they're ready to declare defeat there or not.
If you play the Andino DFA to get Franklin to the majors, then you've "burned" that one when Kinney comes back. Whereas, with Triunfel already on the 40-man, you could DFA Andino, put Tri in that spot and then use the spot for Kinney.
All I'm saying is there's more to it than just "dump Andino, bring up Franklin."
At the very least, I would /cosign that these issues could (and should) affect the TIMING of Franklin's promotion. You don't want to throw away resources in order to change an arrival date by a week.
Martinez is 22. He's in AA again. Hit .227 with 2 homers there last year. .187 with zero HR's this year. As a 20 year old in '11, while in AA (that makes three years) he did hit .289 over a full season with 10 homers.
Beyond that, he had a good Venezuelan Summer League, way back in '08, as a 17 year old. That's what he's hanging his hat on. I think we're hanging his hat on the fact that we dearly want something more of value for Fister. If we lost him, to improve a team for 120 games, it would be well worth it. Unless we get an injury, we've always got 40-man issues with Franklin. We can't avoid them, unless I don't see something. We're kidding ourselves if we think we're going to get much for Andino, anyway. Just trade him out for 120 games of Franklin.