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The knock on Franklin was power.  He didn't have as much as his peers heading into his senior year.  He's competitive as all getout and a dirt-dog sort of player, and every showcase he played - against fellow draftees and with wood - he was one of the best players on the field.  And when he got on a pro field with a bunch of college-graduate pitchers (instead of high-school-attending ones) he STILL was one of the players to watch, which is what is changing minds.
 
Franklin isn't someone you have to worry about mentally.  He's got the head to be a great ballplayer and a team leader at a young age (think Tulowitzki, who I still wish we had).  He was scrawny as all getout until he decided not to play baseball 12 months a year and take a couple of months to lift weights in the summer before his senior year.  Now he's only sorta scrawny.  *laughs*  When some power showed up, though. it caught a lot of talent evaluators off guard and changed his projections in some minds.
 
I wasn't sold on Nick until people in Everett started telling me how much of a BALLPLAYER he was.  He eats, sleeps and breathes baseball.  He grew up in Florida and played it non-stop.  He's got a foreign player's zeal for the game.  It's not his hobby, it's his dream.  Maybe he tops out as Bloomie - baseball projections are such dicey things.  But his coach puts him between Felipe Lopez and Rickie Weeks - two OTHER first rounders he coached - and potentially as a better blend of attributes.
 
Both of those guys have been a stage or two above the Bloomquist level.  Franklin isn't a fast-twitch mega-athlete, but I don't see anything out of bounds in viewing him as a Rich Aurilia level "smart" ballplayer who has a Varitek / Biggio demeanor out there. 
 
I'd take that.  It's better than what we traded prospects and paid several million for at that spot on the big club right now. 
 
Lookin forward to watching him progress and seeing if he can turn his "no one quality that stands out, just has a solid all-around game" scouting profile into "has several above average tools and the heart of a champion" skillset.
~G