Comments on: Ryan Franklin 2.0

By: marc w

marc w — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:59:56 +0000

Terry – interesting BP data, thanks. Eyeballing it, that’d be a FIP in the low to mid 4s, something like that. A touch better than Buehrle’s 2007, worse than Buehrle’s 2008. Is that…. bad?

“why is he a better choice for the 25 man roster then the other arms fighting for spots?”

I think he’d be best served by starting off in Tacoma and working on his deception, frankly. If he’s got a future, I think it has to be as a starter – again, the Jimenez situation is an unhappy parallel.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:47:29 +0000

There are better things, like winning games.

By: TheImmortalAzcue

TheImmortalAzcue — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:17:06 +0000

I liked watching Franklin pitch. He worked fast and threw strikes. Most of the time his games were entertaining and brisk. There are worse things..

By: terry

terry — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:17:03 +0000

Here’s the mighty Jakubauskas’ minor league equivalents for his Tacoma peripherals courtesy of BP:

K/9: 5.5; BB/9: 2.3

Here’s his career minor league BIP tendencies:

GB: 48.4%; LD: 17.1%; FB: 32.2%.

Given he has options, why is he a better choice for the 25 man roster then the other arms fighting for spots?

By: marc w

marc w — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:33:23 +0000

So if Ryan Franklin had listened to you, he could’ve been Chris Jakubauskas beta version 0.1?

Eh. I still say Jak’s more like a righty version of Jimenez. Like Cesar, Jakubauskas could give you league average performance in a long role or something similar, and like Cesar, he’s just not suited to a Sean Green/specialist role – which is too bad, because there are some jobs for the taking in this pen.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:08:51 +0000

I don’t think anyone was recording pitch type data back then, but – and let me put on my cranky old man persona for a second – I watched a lot of Franklin in those years, and the change-up was his best pitch. Yes, he threw a bunch of different ones, and he’s always thrown his fastball/slider more than anything else, but his change-up was the only thing he had that even resembled an above average pitch.

By: Kazinski

Kazinski — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:04:33 +0000

I’m not sure I understand what the problem would be having a Ryan Franklin type in the bullpen. When the starter is laboring in the 5th inning and Wakamatsu is looking down at the bullpen wondering who can come in and throw strikes for about 3 innings and keep the M’s in the game, then a control guy without an out pitch is probably a lot better option than a strikeout pitcher that walks a lot of guys.

I’ve seen a lot of guys with decent control but no volocity or an outpitch be valuable role players on winning teams. If we have somebody else in the pen that can come in and throw strikes for 2-3 innings when we need it like RRS, Silva or Wash, well so be it, but I’m not real comfortable with 3-4 high K, high BB clones in the bullpen for middle relief.

By: marc w

marc w — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:19:48 +0000

Derek,

Fangraphs goes back to ’05, when he threw sliders over 20% of his pitches. Yes, he threw more changes then, but it was still nowhere close to the number of sliders – he also threw a curve ball somewhat frequently.

I’d love to see what he threw when he first came up; I’m pretty sure it was 50% FB and 10% each of 5 other, not-too-effective pitches. Do you know where I can find those data?

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:08:08 +0000

Was his best pitch. Was. Look at Franklin’s pitch selection compared to when he first came up on, say, Fangraphs, he’s replaced the change with a splitter. Or at least that’s what BIS says. I didn’t see him last year. He could be constructing balloon animals out there for all I know.

By: marc w

marc w — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:00:18 +0000

“I actually had six hours in the pool of when youâ€™d show up to defend him, Marc. ”

Ha! So who won, then?

“Hereâ€™s Franklinâ€™s 2000 season – the one that got him to the majors. ”

2000 was Franklin’s FOURTH crack at the PCL. He’d pitched hundreds of innings in Tacoma at that point. I’m sure he could put up a similar line if he got yet another shot at the circuit, but I’m not convinced it matters. In his FIRST try, he K’d 5.9 per 9, walked 2.4 and gave up 1.1 HRs.

“You know who else had a mediocre fastball and whose best pitch was a change-up? Ryan Franklin.”

Ryan Franklin had a best pitch? His value, or potential, in the heady days of 2000-2001 was the fact that he threw *every* pitch. No stuff? Sure, but he throws *5* pitches for strikes! He’s working on a combination slider/screwball!
Finally, if the change is Franklin’s best pitch, why don’t we put Cardinal fans out of their misery and tell the man. He threw change-ups on 1% of his pitches last year. He’s a FB/Slider guy, and has been for a long, long time.
This shows up in his peripherals versus lefties and righties. In his career, he’s got an almost 3:1 K:BB ratio versus righties. Against lefties, it’s only 1.25:1.
Contrast that with Jakubauskas who had a 5:1 ratio verus *lefties* last year. I’m not saying that’s Jak’s true talent level, but it seems to indicate a different type of pitcher. Could be better, could be worse, but *different*. He may NOT be as good. But I think we need to look at a different set of comps, and in any event, it’s pretty hard to find apples-to-apples comparisons for a guy who converted to pitching so late and spent so long in the indie leagues.