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This isn't analysis, isn't written for colleague blog authors, or for submission in a future job interview.  It's a baseball chat.  Here's what I saw in two innings.

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Defense

Franklin's first inning in the field, a lefty batter struck an infield-practice three-hopper right at him.  Franklin's movements were as Japanese-aiki as any second baseman's I've seen lately.

He moved to the ball with both hands, including his throwing hand, right at his CG.  He leaned over, forming a sort of audio scoop for the ball.  As the ball got there, he used the "soft hands," by which we mean that his hands decelerate the ball pillow-like into his belly button.  

In Japan they speak of "ki" personality, of flavor, of an impression.  Dr. D spends a lot of time watching it.  Franklin's "ki" was welcoming, friendly.  His first game in a triple-decker stadium and he enjoyed taking the ground ball.

The throw was just very subtly "yipped" at the very finish, betraying a trace of subconscious nerves.

A second grounder was hit right at him.  Same thing.  He absorbed the ball like a friendly amoeba.  Dustin Ackley is a fine second baseman, but his "ki" is confrontational.  He attacks the ball, angrily refusing to let it past him, and doesn't have the same softness to his movements.  Ackley wants to win the game and then take his day off and go hunting.  Franklin's "ki" is that of a guy who wants to use his day off to play baseball.  Hey, can we get a game here?

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On ROOT Sports there was a graphic emphasizing that Franklin had started 23 games at second base and 15 games at shortstop.  For those who just joined us, this is the Mariners' way of telling us not to dismiss Franklin's play at SS.  For my own part of it, I am sick to the gut of sabermetricians who assure us that every new baseball player down the line will have to move to an easier position.  How would they be in any position to know?  I don't know whether Nick Franklin can play shortstop, and I doubt any other blogger knows, either.

If Franklin winds up in a Ben Zobrist career, that will be fine by me.  But maybe he's as good at shortstop as Derek Jeter is.  I dunno.

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Hitting

As Franklin watched the first (96 MPH) fastball go by, he used the same aiki "welcoming" personality.  He crouched, comfortably, and enveloped the incoming energy.  He watched the ball go by, watched it hit the catcher's mitt, and then stared at the ball in the catcher's mitt.  You know who used to do that?  Pete Rose.  Another dirt dog who loved the actual baseball.

We don't say that Franklin is Mike Trout, or that he has quick reflexes, or can tell a ball from a strike, or that he has upper-deck power.  We say only that an aiki sensei would approve of his SUBCONSCIOUS state-of-mind at the plate.

Ken Griffey used to be friends with the baseball, you know, the ball itself.  Omar Vizquel was.  Nick Franklin is that way.

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On TV, they made a lot of the idea that Franklin had to be terrified in his first AB.  As they were saying that, I thought, huh.  That's weird.  He's mouthing his giant plug of tobacco, and picking at the tar on his bat, in a pretty relaxed way.

And then he handled five pitches in a decidedly non-jittery way:

Bruce Lee used to speak of "half positions" defensively, if your opponent threw a long fake.  That was the way with Franklin's bat on pitches 2 and 4.  He read the pitches -- 95 MPH fastballs -- and was ready to fire; if he'd swung he'd have pulled the ball.  But as the ball reached the halfway point, he read "ball" and easily held up.

Taking a 95 fastball [two inches low], and then taking a 95 fastball [three inches high], you'll have to explain to me how being jittery leads to that.

Franklin let the fifth pitch go by, waited for the call, and then headed down to first base like it was another game in the PCL.  I'm just cracking peanuts and talking baseball here.

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PCL pitchers were too smart to throw Franklin a strike.  The first ML pitcher to go at him was very picky also -- remember, the score in this game was 9-0 at the time, and the next batter (Jason Bay) received three "challenge" fastballs from Ross.

The question in my mind is:  What happens when somebody challenges Nick Franklin?

If Franklin punishes those first ten challenge pitches, we could have something pretty sweet on our hands.  It's more likely that he won't. But if he drives them, watch out.  The kid can control a strike zone...

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Hisashi Iwakuma, in my mind, completely made up for Doug Fister.  The Nick Franklin pick was 99 kinds of gutsy, and it was based on the idea that Nick Franklin is friends with the baseball.  ... if Franklin pays off, that will cover for a multitude of sins.  They've had more than their share of bad luck, and I'm starting to feel sorry for them about that.  They deserve to have Nick Franklin pull off a ROY splash.

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