And Franklin can bash against righties and get most of the ABs. It lets you find Franklin a semi-soft landing if you don't trust his glove, because you have Brendan's great glove on hand for any crucial bullpen innings, and it lets you deploy a lefty pinch hitter for Brendan as well as get more than singles and outs out of the SS position at the plate.
I still expect Franklin to be traded, but if we keep him then I would love to get him on the field in that fashion and boost our OPS+ at the SS position significantly. Everyone does realize that Ryan hit .194/.277/.278/.555 last year, right? What happens if he stops getting walks? Yeesh.
For his career Brendan's not MUCH better against lefties (.661 OPS vs .618) but I would love to swap ~350 ABs at a .550-to-.620 OPS for whatever Nick Franklin could post. Nick is OPSing around .900 in his minor league career against righties. At the SS position. He could drop THREE HUNDRED POINTS and still be better than Ryan was last year.
We might want to look into letting him swing a few times for us... if it's not too much trouble.
~G
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