Just when things seem to be going right for Maikel Franco, the Phillies third baseman falls off the wagon again and leaves everything still in the air.
The Phillies blew another lead Tuesday night on their way to a 10-9 loss to the Mariners. In fact, they led by four twice in the game, but both times the Mariners closed the deficit.
Part of the reason why the Mariners were able to tie the game up for the second time was due to Maikel Franco. With runners on the corners and two men out, Franco made a costly fielding error – already his fifth this season – that allowed a run to score and kept the inning alive. One more run scored in the next at-bat, allowing the Mariners to bring the game within one.
Franco had a chance later on with the game tied to give Philadelphia another lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Franco had the opportunity to give the team the lead and then some. Instead, Franco hit a short fly ball to right field and Daniel Nava was easily doubled up trying to score.
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That at-bat capped off a weak night for Franco as he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. His plate discipline has suffered in the last two weeks, as he has a 21.1% strikeout rate since April 26, which is below-average.
Altogether, Franco’s stat line for the season is anything from impressive. Through 31 games, he has a .208/.281/.358 slash line with a 69 wRC+ (100 is average).
While Franco is second on the team with five home runs, his -0.2 fWAR is the worst among the team’s hitters. Upon first glance, Franco seems to be struggling once again.
However, the sabermetrically-inclined say that Franco is actually on the rise. Ryan Romano of Beyond the Box Score wrote an intriguing piece on Franco, noting how his plate discipline and exit velocity have both gotten better this season. Romano says that we should be excited about the strides Franco is making this season:
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"It’s always tempting to stop at a player’s stat line and stop there. Franco’s batting .200? He must not be a very good hitter! The underlying metrics, though, can tell us something different — in this case, that Franco isn’t struggling, but is in fact excelling. At age 24, he’s finally having the breakout year Philadelphia was hoping for."
While it is good that the stats show Franco improving, it has yet to show up in games. Even manager Pete Mackanin had to accept the fact that Franco is struggling currently: [quote via Matt Slocum of the Press of Atlanitc City]
"“I think he’s a little down right now,” Mackanin said of Franco. “He knows he’s not playing his best. I’ll probably give him a day off (Wednesday) to think about it and regroup. he looks a little confused.”"
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The numbers tell us that Franco should be hitting but his performance on the field is still poor. We just can’t seem to figure out if he is improving or not. Hopefully the front office can make sense of his performance because Franco is just confusing to watch.