| By Chris Crawford |  | By 07-03-2010 |
As the Seattle Mariners announced their first three picks during the 2009 MLB Draft, a bevy of emotions came from the fanbase, and some analysts alike. Dustin Ackley was going to be the No. 2 overall selection, and it was almost unanimously applauded. Steven Baron was rumored to be the selection at 33 for a few weeks -- and the move was almost as collectively panned. Somewhere in the middle was the club's in-between pick -- shortstop Nick Franklin, a prep infielder from Lake Brantley High School in Florida.
The pick surprised most, as some believed the M's left better talents on the board. So far, there's not much evidence that such a thing occurred.
Since that selection and his subsequent signing, Franklin has put up some gaudy numbers -- particularly this year for Class A Clinton -- with an OPS of .875 and 32 extra-base hits in the pitcher-friendly Midwest League. These numbers have made Franklin a bit of a household name among prospect-watchers, and justifiably so. But the 19-year old has had a few issues this season as well. Let's take a closer look at the positives and negatives, and whether Franklin, in his first full season of pro ball, is ready for a promotion.
It seems fairly obvious that the positives include the pop he's shown this season -- the power numbers the switch hitter has put up this year have been extremely impressive, particularly as a left-hander (.577 SLG). Franklin also graded out as an above-average runner out of high-school and he has shown to be more than able to assert himself on the base-paths (11 stolen bases in 14 attempts, six triples). He's displayed an acceptable eye from the left-side as well, walking once per 14 plate appearances -- it's not Dustin Ackley, but it's not Denny Almonte, either.
Even with a less-than-steller June. Franklin still ranks in the top five among shortstops in Class-A ball in homers, triples, and slugging percentage. That's pretty impressive for someone entering their fifth month of professional baseball without being aided by the environment.
Franklin's ability to drive the ball -- not only with some authority but out of the ball-park -- was not considered one of his strengths in high school, and while the numbers are inspiring there are serious doubts that it will remain a focal part of his game.
Franklin has above-average bat speed, but does not have a swing that is necessarily conducive to power, as he has a tendency to glide. His hands also have a tendency to pull towards the pitcher early in the process which leads the bat and backside to pull through, thus the potential problems hitting for power long term. This flaw hasn't hurt him in Clinton but will severely hamper any power development as he advances if it's not fixed. But it is fixable.
There are a few other barbs in the armor, particularly when it comes to his splits. Versus right-handed pitching, Franklin has an OPS of .946. Versus left-handers, where Franklin turns around and bats from the right side, that drops to .678. Not an awful mark, but something to consider.
At home, his OPS of .977 buries his road OPS of .767. Clinton isn't an extreme hitters ballpark, but it does show that there may be something to the numbers when they drop so significantly.
We haven't touched on the defense yet -- and the errors are a concern -- but Franklin does possess good footwork, an above-average throwing arm and good natural instincts. The miscues show some possible mental-mistakes where Franklin may be rushing throws or trying to do too much. There were some who believed Franklin may have to move to second-base, and if he stays error-prone at short, that will become a genuine possibility.
Most scouts, however, and the Mariners player development staff, still see an above-average shortstop in the years to come.
Despite the negatives we have to give Franklin a lot of credit. He's just 19 and has had a heck of a season that earned him a spot on the circuit's all-star team, and he might be the second-best non-pitching prospect in the league.
Should Franklin be promoted to High Desert soon -- which may or may not take place � he'd be the third youngest shortstop in any of the three Advanced-A leagues and the youngest player in the California League until L.A. Angels outfielder Mike Trout sees the same promotion.
One NL West scout opines that promoting a player like Franklin -- young for the level he's already in and during his first full season since being drafted -- can be a risky proposition. "The Cal League is more experienced this season than in years past. The arms are a little more polished even though they probably lack some upside overall. Even in a hitter's league, that's a risk many teams prefer not to take, and it can erase the momentum he's built at the lower level."
Once Franklin's story was told to the scout -- the makeup, work ethic and understanding of the game -- he replied "well, that's the kind of kid you have to consider in a different light. If he struggles badly and is overmatched will he bounce back or could it set him back some?"
Prospect Insider has learned that there is no present plan to promote Franklin just yet, but that move could be coming as early as this month, and there's already an open spot in High Desert with the recent trade of Juan Diaz to Cleveland.
It's important to note that Franklin has work to do, but there's definitely a lot of promise and reason early on in his path to the big leagues to believe that Franklin was good value at No. 27 last June.
Here is some video of Franklin from this past spring.
nick-franklin-may-earn-promotion-soon
Comments
The following 40 comment(s) for this article are shown below:
| 1. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-03-2010 13:02:58 I remember how pissed some of the PI commenters were when we made this draft pick... It just goes to show you that maybe the professional scouts really know what they're doing... Not liking the pick is one thing, but people were really, really angry. |
| 2. By: Chris Crawford on 07-03-2010 14:54:09 People were angry, and then when the Baron pick came through -- it become insane. |
| 3. By: FWBrodie on 07-03-2010 15:47:36 Franklin has really become one of the funnest prospects to follow. Its refreshing to see legit middle-infield talent on the farm. Off Topic: Hey Jason, just wanted to throw an idea out there for you. I was thinking it would be interesting to read a comparative piece on some of the "Jacks" around the league (Montero, Davis, Smoak, Alonso, etc.). I know a few of these guys would be pretty difficult if not impossible to pry away, but it would still be cool to see how they all compare from a scouting prospective since they're pretty much exactly what Zduriencik should be/ is looking for. |
| 4. By: FWBrodie on 07-03-2010 15:51:22 Damnit, I meant perspective not prospective. |
| 5. By: randallball on 07-03-2010 16:09:13 Been watching a lot of YouTube on M's prospects throughout the season, and you can definitely see the bat speed with Franklin. Hopefully he can continue to succeed and continue to develop into a nice ML MIF down the road. But I hope they don't promote him - let him get a full successful seson in Clinton. |
| 6. By: rjfrik on 07-03-2010 16:20:37 If I remember right I don't think people were too angry at the Franklin pick. I think a lot of people were curious about the pick and then Jason explained to everyone that it was a decent selection at the time as long as we didn't take Baron with the next pick. Well we took Baron and then everyone started their plans to burn Safeco to the ground. I being one of those people. We needed a SS and a Franklin was one of the best on the board, the big problem, as Chris said, was the Baron pick. Anyways, Go Franklin! I love watching him succeed. |
| 7. By: Juan Valdez on 07-03-2010 17:00:23 So far, Baron has shown absolutely no ability to hit. If I remember correctly, that was the rap on him when they made the pick - incredible athlete, no question he'd be able to handle the position defensively, but big questions about the bat. If I have any of that wrong, please feel free to correct me. |
| 8. By: rocketdawg31 on 07-03-2010 17:12:38 Yeah, as most of you long-time PIers might remember, I was livid about the Baron pick. Then when they signed him for the money that they did? Me was ready to destroy windows with chucked baseballs. I didn't love the Franklin pick, I remember my thoughts being "Okay, a signability pick on a late-rising talent that they think is worth it- leaves more money to sign Rex Brothers or another standout arm at #33!!" Then when Baron was taken, I was like "We blew it. Completely and utterly blew it. We may have Ackley, but we need more than him...and we blew it." It's very nice to see Nick Franklin doing so well that a guy like Diaz (with some possible upside) was expendable. But I doubt I'll ever like that Baron pick. Juan Valdez, you're basically spot-on. I don't know about Baron being regarded as a premium athlete, but everybody was enamored with his defensive skills for a prep catcher. |
| 9. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-03-2010 17:35:09 There were a f-bombs dropped with the Franklin pick, but the real anger came with Baron. Here's the draft thread, I had fun re-reading it, maybe some of you will as well. Frankling comments start at 127. http://prospectinsider.com/view/with-the-no.-2-pick,-the-seattle-mariners-select.../ |
| 10. By: dawgncarolina on 07-03-2010 18:02:23 I remember rjfrik bashing, I mean absolutely ripping, the Franklin pick as recently as March. We got into it because he dismissed BA's positive opinion on Franklin as simply Glassey being a mouthpiece for USSM, which was ridiculous. Nice to see that tune has changed. I don't know of anyone who liked the Baron pick. |
| 11. By: StandinPat on 07-03-2010 18:37:56 Loving/Hating the player and Loving/Hating the pick are two separate things. Just because you liked Franklin or the fact that he is doing well now, doesn't suddenly make it a good pick if you could have easily grabbed a better talent in that sport AND Franklin later. |
| 12. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-03-2010 18:52:41 There was a mention that some people didnt think Franklin would've been there at 33, and I'm glad the M's didn't wait to find out. |
| 13. By: rocketdawg31 on 07-03-2010 18:56:48 I remember rjfrik bashing, I mean absolutely ripping, the Franklin pick as recently as March. We got into it because he dismissed BA's positive opinion on Franklin as simply Glassey being a mouthpiece for USSM, which was ridiculous. Oh, I remember rjfrik's reaction. Heh,heh,heh. If I was ready to throw baseballs out of closed windows, he was ready to rip away doors from hinges! That post-thread was fun to re-visit. Funny how things work...Paxton is one signature away from being Mariner property, and Scheppers could be a conceivable part of a package deal away from Texas, if we deal with them. Not necessarily likely, but conceivable. |
| 14. By: SethGrandpa on 07-03-2010 19:01:14 So what's the MLB comp. on him? I know it's dumb to do these things (especially this early), but it's also fun. From what I'm reading, does a J.J. Hardy comp. sound about right? Yes, no, maybe? |
| 15. By: Chris Crawford on 07-03-2010 19:42:04 A good comp is probably a better Adam Kennedy, his floor is probably Adam Kennedy now. |
| 16. By: rjfrik on 07-03-2010 22:48:58 "I remember rjfrik bashing, I mean absolutely ripping, the Franklin pick as recently as March. We got into it because he dismissed BA's positive opinion on Franklin as simply Glassey being a mouthpiece for USSM, which was ridiculous." "Oh, I remember rjfrik's reaction. Heh,heh,heh. If I was ready to throw baseballs out of closed windows, he was ready to rip away doors from hinges! " Hey guys. Dawg I didn't remember ever bashing Franklin and dismissing BA's opinion. I don't even subscribe to BA and never read any of their stuff. I think you must be confusing me with someone else. I went back through the thread as well and here is my post immediately after the Franklin pick. And the only post I even talk about Franklin. As Jason said in that thread, Franklin wasn't the problem it was where he was drafted at the time. And after drafting him I was scared as shit that they were going to draft the Baron kid and they did. 143. By: rjfrik on 06-09-2009 19:20:04 you got to be kidding me. Im sure we could of got Franklin at 33. Why not grab Scheppers there. Now Boston or NY are going to take him. We better not take Baron at 33 or I'm going to be pissed off. |
| 17. By: The Great Pumpkin on 07-03-2010 23:19:44 I'm with you rjfrik, you didnt over-react too much, at least not in that thread, Crusty Juggler, Gustafson, and Blowgun7 were probably the worst offenders, Gustafson actually "quit following this team" because of the Franklin pick... That looks a little silly now. :) |
| 18. By: rocketdawg31 on 07-03-2010 23:41:44 Whoops. COULD be a case of mistaken identity, all right. My bad. I do know I was pretty mad myself... |
| 19. By: rocketdawg31 on 07-03-2010 23:43:37 Sorry,rjfrik. Cerebral flatulence! |
| 20. By: Gustafson on 07-04-2010 00:19:43 Well That's embarrassing! Hah. I admit to being an idiot for saying that!! |
| 21. By: 200tang on 07-04-2010 07:02:08 Quick promotion question : Judging solely by statistics, it seems like Seager has nothing left to learn at A+ so I'm wondering if it's realistic that the same day Ackley gets called up to AAA, could we see Seager move to AA and take his spot? And to go even further, do you think this could coincide within a week or two of Franklin being promoted to A+? |
| 22. By: mauricewilliamsiii on 07-04-2010 15:48:01 I don't want to be a buzzkill and I love Prospect Insider but I'd like to suggest you guys remove the BP advertising. What that company has done is an act of eco-terrorism beyond any the world has ever seen. If a platform in the North Sea had experienced a blowout I know it would have been plugged with explosives within days, but BP still wants to recover and sell that oil so the disaster continues. You guys are better than that and I would like to politely plead with you to please remove BP's advertising and propaganda from your site. |
| 23. By: 200tang on 07-04-2010 15:52:19 @mauricewilliamsii - I don't see any BP advertising and my guess is that whatever you're seeing is likely not being selected by the PI admins. |
| 24. By: Lailoken on 07-04-2010 17:51:26 Totally agree maurice. If the advertising contract has an opt out for even a slight fee I couldn't agree more with the moral stance of dropping BP's ads from any site. The ad says "we will make this right." Yeah, sure, uh huh. I think I'll click on that never ever, ever. |
| 25. By: baseballman on 07-04-2010 18:27:26 Guys who cares about BP, this post is about Franklin. If it bothers you that much send a private message to JAC or Chris, dont ruin the post. Back to the real topic, whis is Franklin, I thought that there was prob better talent available at the time we picked Franklin, but like JAC said, he heard that Franklin might not last until 33. As much as I hated the Baron pick, I can understand to a point because the budget was blown on Ackley. Doesnt mean I have to like that pik, but I can somewhat understand. Franklin is turning into a real up and comer with the legit shot to be our future SS in the bigs, which is awesome because its such a tough position to fill and so important. Its so hard to come by ML capable SS, so the fact that we possibly have one in the making puts us in a very good position. Its been great watchin this kid through the season (or at least checkin out his stats) and I forward to keepin an eye on him til I can see him in person at Tacoma. |
| 26. By: griggs on 07-04-2010 21:18:25 Take out the BP ad and you loose revenue for PI. This means more out of pocket expenses for Jason and less motivation and time to work on the site. Keep your mouth shut and don't ruin it for other people. |
| 27. By: Juan Valdez on 07-04-2010 21:25:52 The Franklin pick I think is interesting because it seems like it could be a case where a team spent a little more time evaluating the player and came to a better understanding of his true potential. The possibility that one other team was seriously interested and might have taken him before pick #33 seems to lend credence to that theory. The Baron pick, on the other hand, remains a mystery. Ultimately, if a guy can't hit, that's pretty much it. If they wanted to make sure they didn't overspend at that spot, why not just grab one of those projectable high school pitcher types? |
| 28. By: Blowgun7 on 07-04-2010 21:53:39 Good lord, Pineda is untouchable tonight |
| 29. By: littlelinny6 on 07-04-2010 22:00:18 Speaking of that game, is Halman becoming the ultimate three true outcome player? Used to be two outcome but now he walks once in a while. |
| 30. By: Blowgun7 on 07-04-2010 22:04:18 I'm really impressed with Halman. Just torched a double on a two strike pitch to the opposite field. He's had a ridiculous start to this month. The K's are still bad, but not as bad as I thought they would be, and he's slugging the heck out of the ball. |
| 31. By: rjfrik on 07-04-2010 23:57:47 Griggs a banner ad cost no more then 100-200$ a month depending on the site and how much traffic it has on it. I used to pay for a banner ad on a site for my company and it cost 100$ and it was a site similar to this. I'm sure that a number of companies could step in to take BP's place. And if not I would much rather take a collection from fellow PI subscribers to cover the cost of the ad. I honestly don't know how you could side with a company like that, political party aside. That company is worse then AIDS. And I mean that sincerely. I have friends with HIV and trust me BP is far worse then having that disease. They blatantly have not fixed that oil spill because of their greed, and that is just a flat out crime against humanity. They have single handedly ruined an entire ocean and it's life, they killed 11 good hearted men when they knew of the dangers of the oil rig and didn't inform the men working on it because they were so greedy for oil and they single handedly ruined millions of peoples lives from the south. 20 billion dollar punishment, geez that isn't even a fraction of enough money to cover the cost both monetarily and environmentally. They should be charged 200 billion dollars, which would make them go bankrupt and be non existent. They should never be allowed to operate again. You really cannot be obtuse about this matter, it makes you look like a bigot. Sorry not to be talking about baseball but this issue is like racism, it should never be tolerated under no circumstances. |
| 32. By: Jackson on 07-05-2010 00:46:26 What's with all the hate for Baseball Prospectus? |
| 33. By: Gustafson on 07-05-2010 01:05:42 Equating what he said to bigotry and racism, based on huffingtonpost.com conspiracy theories about the most idiotic thing I've seen in years. Maybe ever |
| 34. By: mauricewilliamsiii on 07-05-2010 01:15:29 Sorry but I have to chime in once more. What BP did makes 9/11 and Pearl Harbor look timid. It is terrorism plain and simple. The environmental effects of this will last for not dozens not hundreds but thousands of years. Especially in the marshlands of the Louisiana Bayou. And that is without the Hurricane that is sure to hit the spill area sometime this summer and make this catastrophe even worse. We should all care about this, but we should especially care about it on a day like today. That is the last you will hear from me on the subject. |
| 35. By: Juan Valdez on 07-05-2010 01:34:24 Back on to Beisbol. I have a question/request for Jason or Chris or both. A few stories came out during spring training about the Mariners' new conditioning program. They apparently signed a 3-year contract with this Marcus Elliot fellow to implement his theories on improving rotational power, or something to that effect. I'm curious what the impact has been so far, especially in the minor leagues. One big part of this involved getting rid of most of the weights, which I personally think is stupid, but since there are many, many things I've been wrong about in the past, I am open to whatever the results may be. At any rate, my request is for some follow-up on this story. I'm curious what the acceptance level has been among coaches and athletes and any anecdotal information about results. I say "anecdotal" because I'm assuming that real results will have to be measured over a longer period of time. But, all the same, the athletes themselves should have some opinions at this point. |
| 36. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-05-2010 03:51:13 Regarding the BP thing... I thought about it, and then I reconsidered. PI is making money off them, albeit very little relatively speaking. But their "propaganda" NEEDS to be spread as far and as often as can possibly be spread. If people here were falling for it, that would be one thing. But by allowing BP's ads here, we aren't supporting BP. Personally, the Churchills have stopped buying gas from their stations, not that such a protest makes a bit of difference to them in the long run, but I'm sure as hell not going to support them. Having said that, I believe the BP ad rotation has expired anyway. |
| 37. By: Jason A. Churchill on 07-05-2010 03:52:42 Juan, I haven't asked about that much, since it's not directly related to what we do here, but it's something I think we can cover here a bit. Perhaps we can get such info from the source himself. We'll see what we can do. |
| 38. By: rjfrik on 07-05-2010 09:40:15 We've stopped buying gas from them as well Jason. Good for you. Any signings (Internationally) coming in this week? |
| 39. By: Juan Valdez on 07-05-2010 14:28:36 Thanks Jason. I realize it isn't precisely what you do here, but given that the Mariners put it out there early in the year as something they were rolling out across the organization, I figured it might be something you guys would have an interest in following up on. |
| 40. By: vertigoman on 07-05-2010 14:41:42 Well, if you're not buying BP the CHurchills and the rest should also stop buying Arco, Castrol and refrain from shopping at AM/PM's. All are owned by BP. Worth noting that the largest source of Petroleum in the US is controlled, run and operated by BP. THat is the Alaskan Pipeline. You'd really just have to stop buying American gas to boycott BP. But, we should all stop buying gas anyways so there's that. Go Franklin! |
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