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Here is the video.  

Lots of GREAT comments in the shout box, which we won't cut-and-paste.  Two things that surprised Dr. D:

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One-Hand Finish

In his first game, I thought the followthrough indicated a semi-pepper swing, as it does for 95% of batters who take such a swing, top hand off at the 1B foul line.  I figured that Franklin was getting his bearings, sensibly enough, as Ichiro did when joining the league.

Um, NO.

Michael Saunders takes the top hand off, and not because he's decelerating.  George Brett did, obviously, as First Disciple of the Charley Lau school.  Frank Thomas did.

Specifically we are talking about taking the top hand off very early.  Thomas took it off real early.  Brett, not so much.  Saunders, quite early.  Mo' Dawg, chime in here?

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It's a little tricky to get Huge Torque when you lose your top hand so fast.  Tricky, not impossible.  Saunders has the unique long levers, which makes him different.

So:  why can Franklin hit a 3-iron over the CF fence, top hand off EARLY, being as small as he is?  Like Ichiro, he simply has more leverage than his peers do.  This is like saying Dwayne Wade jumps (jumped) higher than his peers do.  It's a very high bar, and a few players clear it.  SSI has deconstructed Nick Franklin's torque many times.

Saunders, and Brett, and Thomas, have/had EXPLOSIVE torque at the area directly over home plate.

The issue isn't how often Nick Franklin is going to swing one-handed.  The issue is, why can he hit a CF home run when he does do it.  Other guys can't.  It goes to the question of the SHAPE of his TORQUE.

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KBIZLT

The other part of it:  we hadn't realized just how long Franklin keeps his bat in the zone.

Again, this is what Kyle Seager does, and we're not referring to a slow bat.  We're talking about a bat on which the plane of the swing, and the angle of the bat, align with the trajectory of the pitch.  

RockiesJeff, a very good high school coach, speaks in terms of "hitting the inside half of the ball."  Pulling your hands in does many things ... it concedes a certain amount of Mike Morse power on the outside fastball. Big guys love to extend their arms.  But in return, the batter gets his barrel to the ball more often, and to more parts of the zone.  RockiesJeff can expand on it...

What is the opposite of "greedy"?  Pulling your hands in, going after the inside half of the ball, is the polar opposite of greedy.  If you go after the outside half of the ball, you are "surrounding" it, in an attempt to throw it over the fence.

But!  Given the lack of greed in their swing shapes, Seager and Franklin are free to lower their weight, drive off the big toe, and really let the bat fly.

Doubles City.  Edgar "Senor Dobles" Martinez was this way:  remember all those inside-out doubles down the 1B line?  Gordon immediately slammed the Derek Jeter comp.  If you just joined us, Derek Jeter is the post-1970 icon for inside-out swings.

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Keep Weight Underside

One of aikido's Four Golden Rules.  You ever watch Seager actually bounce his weight down in the batter's box, as if pounding a railroad spike into the dirt?  Franklin also keeps his weight underside.

Dr. D is not slow to talk about a blue-chipper's UP scenario, as you realize.  :- )

But I did not know that Franklin could hit a CF home run one-handed, and I did not realize that he keeps the bat in the zone like he does.  His OBP and EYE, his torque, that I did know about.  Add in these next two things and you've really got something.

Should we take an audience poll?  Do these two factors make Nick Franklin an SSI Best Bet?  I'll think about it overnight.  Get a little help here?

Cheers,

Dr D