The Phillies have at least held internal discussions about giving third baseman Maikel Franco some time at Triple-A, manager Pete Mackanin told reporters including Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Though nothing has been decided, and Mackanin was non-committal, that’s certainly a notable development. Franco, 24, has long been viewed as a building block for the Phils. But he took a step back last year after an excellent 2015 season, and currently owns a disappointing .209/.268/.349 slash through 190 plate appearances in the current campaign.
Here’s more from around the National League:
- It’s still not clear just when righty Carter Capps will make his Padres debut. As Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports on Twitter, skipper Andy Green indicated that the reliever “drew mixed reviews” for his work on the bump yesterday. He’s scheduled to throw against live hitters in another controlled scenario on Friday. Capps, who missed all of 2016 due to Tommy John surgery, has struggled in eight rehab appearances thus far.
- The Reds have optioned righty Robert Stephenson to Triple-A, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. He’ll be replaced by fellow right-hander Jackson Stephens. Things have not gone as hoped for the former first round draft pick. Through 24 2/3 innings in 13 appearances, he carries an 8.03 ERA. Stephenson has been knocked around for 33 hits (including seven long balls) while recording 27 strikeouts against 16 walks. It remains to be seen whether he’ll return to starting upon his return to the minors.
- With several starters nearing returns, the Mets may again have a bit of extra rotation depth. That will likely force righty Robert Gsellman to the pen — and possibly, into quite a prominent role there. As Kevin Kernan of the New York Post writes, some within the Mets organization believe Gsellman’s stuff and attitude make him a good fit for the closer’s role. Addison Reed is currently filling in for the injured Jeurys Familia in the ninth.
Send Herrera too. Two peas in a pod right now! Both have options. Both are playing with zero confidence right now. The body language is blatantly horrible for both. They look lost.
Herrera has taken some of the ugliest swings I’ve seen this year.
Franco looks lost, but Herrera seems like he doesn’t care with his lack of hustle.
The thing that I don’t think the young Phillies players understand is that you need to make contact to hit homeruns. Ichiro Suzuki is considered one of the greatest players of all time. He barely hits any homeruns. Even a .280 batting average with 3 homeruns is much better than a .220 batting average with 20 homeruns. Hitting a homerun makes you seem good for a minute, but at the end of the game would you rather go 1 for 4 with a homerun or go 3 for 4 with 2 singles and a double?
Have you done the math to figure out whether .220 with 20 bombs is worse than .280 with 3 bombs? There are several scenarios the first player is a more productive hitter.
It’s impossible to say which scenario is absolutely more efficient, but it’s the same argument that striking out doesn’t make a difference because “an out’s an out”. Baseball is a team sport, it is not played in a vacuum, and your actions affect and are affected by your teammates. So in most cases a guy who puts the ball in play more, who gets more hits, reaches base more—which advances already on base runners as well—is more likely to positively impact his team’s performance than the guy who hits .220, regardless of how many home runs he hits (providing OBP is similar).
Most would say 1-4 with the dinger. Unfortunately it’s part of the three true outcomes philosophy that’s flooded the sport!
OPS gets a player paid, not batting average.
Well the homer is a guaranteed run.
3 for 4 means nothing if a. You dont get runs or b. Dont get an rbi. Just a wasted base hit. Hits dont win games runs do.
^^^^^^^wise man.
Ichiro is a home run machine in BP. If you ever get the chance to see him, check it out. He goes to all sides of the field.
Capps will probably have to redevelop his delivery
Hop and skip will never be again
MLB targeted him
That won’t matter if he can’t return to form. If Capps keeps having bad outing after bad outing he won’t even come back up to the big leagues to make that delivery even matter.
Trying to rediscover his delivery with the new rules can be an issue to why he isn’t putting the ball in the right spot
Granted this is the pcl where the ball flys
Finding his stride while getting into his form is the keys
I don’t think it’s too much of a problem yet, especially since some guys take longer to get back from TJ surgery compared to others. If Capps doesn’t start improving soon though, then there’s a problem.
MLB needs to make their scheduling more balanced. Teams playing 18 times makes no sense, Scap inter league and have teams play each other more.
They play their division rivals
Back when there were East and west and no central they played more teams
Of course during this time the braves and reds plays in the west
I kind of like inter league play. It makes baseball a little more interesting with the other leagues rules
It is fun to watch, but it’s also a little unfair for the NL, when they are visiting an AL team.
The AL already has a DH in place, and typically it’s someone they’ve invested a good bit of money into. While, the NL teams are basically using one of their bench pieces to act as a temporary DH, or they are using that spot to give one of their veterans a day out from the field.
Then again, I suppose the same could be said for the AL, when they visit a NL team. Typically one of their best hitters has to sit or play in the field, because the DH isn’t used.
But I think it moreso hurts the NL teams, because the days of a David Ortiz type, guys who can only hit and cannot field, those days are fading away pretty quickly. So, the AL teams are just forced to shuffle their lineup a little bit, while their pitchers generally look forward to actually getting the chance to hit…Not that their enthusiasm really helps them any, but still…lol
But what if Stephenson doesn’t like tripe? I mean, tripe-a isn’t for everyone.
It is a staple in pho.
Fixed.
How much did Padres waste on Capps?
He’s not making much this year, less than a million bucks. Some guys just don’t ever recover from TJ. Carson Smith looks like another one. The surgery has like an 85% success rate. Some guys have to be part of that 15%.