Add new comment

I found a few that were interesting.
The year Mike Piazza was said to gain 20 lbs is the year he was injured and put up his lowest SLG% to date. That was his last few months with the Dodgers. Interesting 1st find because I have no trouble thinking of recent Mariners who gained a bunch and got injured within months. Not going to claim a "Verducci effect"on that, but it's worth considering. Could be random though. Jason Heyward was said to have gained 20 lbs in 2010 with no severe injury that year. Brandon Inge in 2009 was said to have gained 20, saw a very slight uptick in SLG and no injury. Julio Lugo in 2009 was said to have gained between 5 and 20 lbs and got injured that spring. Paul Lo Duca going into 2004 gained about 20 lbs that showed no obvious effect. Hanley Ramirez going into 2009 having gained 25 lbs of muscle, had a steak of 3 years previous being well over.500 SLG and hadn't surpassed it since. Russell Martin in 2010, 25 lbs, minor spring injury, no real change otherwise.
These aren't necessarily comps for Franklin, just running with checking on either injury or improved SLG. From what I'm seeing, MLB regulars adding weight seems more likely to result in injury than improved SLG. Franklin is not an MLB regular, so Heyward is the only somewhat comparable in the list. It's hard to really say what effect it had on Heyward.