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Highly-skilled players who jump to the harder league will often not see their numbers drop at all...as is the case when players go from AAA to the big leagues.  You see a player's established level of performance in the minors and he gets up to the big leagues and hits about the same once the adjustment period is done...more often than you'd expect.  As I said...the bigger the dog...the less difference it makes to him how small the other dogs are...he's going to kill them in a fight either way.
Also, players who rely on very basic skills (high CT%, speed, good defense, etc) and not on things that require perfect pitch recognition (power hitting, for example) are more likely to transition without much of a dent.
My point is that Ryan Franklin is *EXACLY* the type of player I'd expect to do way better against the NL.  Mediocre AL talent relying on guile and pitch mix...he's the kind of pitcher who would run a 2 ERA and a 7 K/BB in AAA and a 2.5 K/BB and a 5 ERA in the AL.  It makes sense that his results should be much improved in the NL.  He's the kind of player that benefits most from weaker competition.