TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Saturday, June 11, 2005

The Curious Cases of J. Franco and J. Franco

Tonight I am puzzling over the odd longevity of the two J. Francos still toiling away, Julio and John.

Julio continues as super pinch hitter and part-time first baseman for the Atlanta Braves. Julio has had a very odd series of periods of exile occasionally bordering on the diasporic. In 1995, as a free agent during the strike, Franco signed in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines. He hit 10 homers and had 145 hits and a .306 average in the curtailed JL season. He came back to the majors for three more seasons, with the Cleveland team and the Brewers, and managed to hit .322 as a 37-year-old. In 1998 he again couldn't find employment and went back to Chiba Lotte, where he smacked 18 homers, another 141 hits, and hit .290. His career JL OBP ws .389. IN 1999 he signed with the D-Rays at age 40 and had one at-bat all year, and was "loaned" to the Mexico City Tigres by the Devil Rays (stashing him as some kind of insurance, I think). In 2000 he couldn't get a better offer than the Samsung team in the Korean League, where he had 22 HR, 110 RBI, and 157 hits in only 132 games playing against uneven competition -- at the age of 41. In 2001 he went back to the Tigres for another 110 games and 178 hits, and then was "traded" to the Braves in September, where he got another 27 hits in 25 games. Since then, he's more or less stayed put, signing a series of one-year deals with the Braves while much of the roster changed around him. He's also played in the Domincan Winter league off and on , where he's accumulated 267 hits against the usual four-A level of competition.

Through this writing, he's hit 2578 major league hits, 286 in the JL, 316 in the Mexican Leagues, 157 in the Korean League (for whatever that's worth, plus that 267 in the Dominican. Not even counting his 600+ minor league hits. He's put on sixteen different professional uniforms in 11 leagues. He's played in 2165 major league games and at least 700 in other international leagues, not counting the minors, in six countries.

And yes, sports fans, you have it right. That's 4122 professional hits and counting. And if he does hang on for four more years, he might actually make a stab at 3000 major league hits, although this seems a little dubious at present. He's a three-time all-star and was MVP of the 1990 game. He's won five Silver Slugger awards as the top batter at his position (four times at 2B, once at DH, which is kind of a booby prize if you ask me), and won a batting title in 1991 at the tender age of 32. his career batting average just dipped below .300 this year by a few thousandths of a point.

He's said he wants to play until he's 50, and if I'm doing my math correctly, now that he's eligible for the major league pension (he's one year older than the required age of 45), he actually could make more money by retiring from baseball. This is a guy who loves to play ball; perhaps nobody this side of Bill Lee or Rickey Henderson seems to want to play as long as possible more. His first professional game was in 1978.

Now I know that Franco's numbers aren't quite Hall of Fame, nor was he ever really known as a dominant player. He's not even a strong candidate for "Stars in Their Time" here at TDA, yet I have this strong feeling he deserves some kind of recognition for the unique breadth of experience he's had in the sport. If our sport's Hall of Fame were internationalized the way Hockey and Basketball were (and we had, say, Sadaharu Oh in the Hall, where he belongs), we might be able to give Julio some extra credit and slide him on in, in the "Other Achievements" category. Love of the Game ought to count for something.

Then let us turn to the other Franco, John, now 44. He's pitched only 8 2/3 innings thus far for the Astros as a lefty specialist, where he's been so-so thus far. All in all he has 1239 major league innings pitched -- in 1109 games. He's done all his work in the bigs, after some college ball and just over 300 minor league innings. He did miss an entire season, 2002, to injury.

John has an absurdly low 2.84 ERA accumulated during years as a closer and set-up man followed by his slow twilight as a lefty specialist. That's just out of the all-time top 100 in career ERA, but in the top 10 of the post-war period (Pedro Martinez, Whitey Ford, Sandy Koufax, and the late Dan Quisenberry are ahead of him) He has 424 saves, second all-time, although Trevor Hoffman may well pass him this year. He is a four-time all-star and two-time recipient of Reliever of the Year. He's never had as many as 40 saves in a year and was used as part of closers-by-committee for several years in the middle of his run. He is second on the all-time games pitched list, behind Jesse Orosco (he's about 150 games behind Orosco and is unlikely to catch him.)

It's really hard to call Franco a dominant player. He's got just over 960 career Ks, for about 7 per 9 IP, which is respectable but not blurring. He did win the Rolaids award twice, but my recollection is he never brought about the kind of awe from batters that Rivera, Gagne, or Hoffman in their primes have. He has a perfectly respectable post-season record from 1999 and 2000 appearances with the Mets (2-0, 1 save, 1.88 ERA - 15 games and 14 innings), yet has the unhappy distinction of having been traded from the Reds just before their 1990 juggernaut and to the Mets just after their terrific 1986 team, and thus wasn't really associated with a great winning effort.

Like Julio, it's a sort of underwhelming record with a lot of eccentricities to it caused by his being a lefty and a one-inning-or-less man over his career. Yet one would also hope that John's career is remembered as well, if for nothing else, for his tenacity.

It's one of those odd coincidences that they're still both playing, close to the same age, and who knows, maybe they'll face one another one more time. They both seem to be on the verge of release, especially John, and I don't know that there are any more stops for either of them. Yet I wouldn't bet on it, either.

posted by The Crank 8:54 PM

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

BASEBALL BITS

Let's take a look at a few of the teams in Major League Baseball as we are into the third month of the 2005 season. What have we seen so far and what can we expect to see.

AL EAST

Baltimore- The Orioles continue to play very solid baseball. Before the season started you would have been hard pressed to name any Orioles pitchers not named Sidney Ponson and the only reason you would have remembered Ponson's name so easily was because of his off season troubles with the law. Be honest now, before this season began had you heard of Brian Roberts?

Boston- The Red Sox have not been spectacular this season but they are hanging around near the top of the division. Expect GM Theo Epstein to go out and improve his team before or at the trade deadline just like he did last season. The Sox should be in the hunt right until the end.

New York- The Yankees in no way, shape or form resemble a team that is heading for the playoffs. Randy Johnson is not the same pitcher he was a year ago. Brian Cashman will more than likely be shown the door at the end of the season if the Yankees don't see the post season. With a 200 million dollar payroll this should be a much better baseball team.

Toronto- The Blue Jays are proving that it isn't wise for a small market team with payroll restrictions to have one player making so much money and having to cut corners in other areas of the team. The Jays passed on Carlos Delgado and are having a solid but slightly inconsistent season after a disastrous 2004. Roy Halladay might once again be the best pitcher on the planet.

AL CENTRAL

Chicago- It's the second week of June and the White Sox are the best team in baseball. The emergence of John Garland as a dominant pitcher along with Mark Buehrle and Freddy Garcia and an effective bullpen make the Sox tough to beat on most nights. "Hawk" Harrelson is as giddy as ever up in the Sox broadcast booth and his "He Gone" saying is as annoying as ever. Many are expecting a collapse, but this is a solid team that is going to make sure that the Minnesota Twins are not wrapping up the division early as in previous years.

Cleveland- It has been a disappointing season thus far for the Indians as they were expecting to compete at the top of the division from the start of the season. Their pitching has been excellent including their bullpen which was a disaster last season. It is the bats that have gone cold and in one season the Indians have gone from having one of the most explosive offenses in baseball to being one of the weakest. They have two regulars (Aaron Boone and Casey Blake) batting under .200 and Victor Martinez is having a horrible season.

Detroit- The Tigers spent an awful lot of money in the off season to have what looks like a .500 team at best. It looks like the All Star game at Comerica will be the highlight of the season in Motown.

Minnesota- Still the class of the Central division. The Twins finally have some competition in the Central this season with the White Sox playing at a torrid pace. It looks like a two team race and it should be a dandy.

AL WEST

Los Angeles- This once mighty division now boasts only two good baseball teams and the Angels are one of them. Vlad Guerrero is on the shelf but the Angels have enough talent to run away with this division if they get on a roll. Is anybody getting used to calling them the Los Angeles Angels ( of Anaheim) yet?

Seattle- The Mariners spent over 100 million dollars in the off season on two huge bats in Richie Sexason and Adrian Beltre and they still can't hit. Every time I tuned into a Dodgers game last season Beltre was doing something great. That has not been the case thus far. "Everyday" Eddie Guardado is back and healthy and many teams will be calling about his availability at the trade deadline. The quick fix has failed in Seattle as there is still plenty of work to do.

Oakland- Do A's fans still believe in the genius of Billy Beane? Beane dealt Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson in the off season and the A's find themselves at the bottom of the division. This is still a solid organization that has plenty of talent. The days of A's dominance might be over but they will be a factor in this division more often than not in the next few seasons.

Texas- Would Roger Clemens consider a trade to the Rangers or is he content to finish his career with the Astros who offer Clemens and every other pitcher on the Astros staff very little run support. If the Rangers stay in the hunt and Clemens is willing, then John Hart must make this happen even if it costs him a couple of good prospects. This is a no brainer but it is going to take Clemens approval to make it happen.


NL EAST

Atlanta- It seems like every season there are more and more predictions that the Braves reign at the top of the NL East is going to end and every season they are right back at the top. Bobby Cox is the best manager in the game and Leo Mazzone is the best pitching coach. It's hard to believe that they have only cashed it in once but their thirteen consecutive division titles is still an impressive feat. The Braves have their hands full in what is now the most competitive division in baseball.

Florida- This team is loaded on paper but is playing only a few games over .500. Dontrelle Willis is chasing a Cy Young award but the Marlins are hoping that is not the only trophy to come the Marlins way this season. I still believe this team has the talent to run away with the division if they can get on any kind of a roll.

New York- Pedro Martinez has proven he is worth every penny. Most people thought Pedro was at best a 7 inning pitcher but he has gone the distance twice this season and has an impressive record of 7-1 and a 2.45 ERA. For a player who was touted as the best player in baseball, Carlos Beltran has yet to live up to that billing in Queens.

Philadelphia- The Phillies have put together a nice stretch of baseball in the past couple of weeks and find themselves right back in the thick of things in the division race. If the Phillies do not make it to the post season in 2005 expect both Ed Wade and Charlie Manuel to be shown the door. When the Phillies signed Jim Thome before the start of the 2003 season they were expected to be a force in the NL East and that has not happened.

Washington- The nation's capital inherited a pretty good baseball team and it would not be surprising to see this team playing baseball in October, only adding insult to injury for Expos fans of old.

NL CENTRAL

Chicago- The Cubs appeared to be buried early but they have climbed back above .500 and seem to be the only real threat to the Cardinals dominance of the division. They still do not have enough to overtake the Cardinals who should get another chance at a World Series run this fall.

Houston- Is this really the same team that went on a second half roll last season and made the playoffs as the NL wildcard team? The Astros offense is horrible and has wasted more than one good pitching performance By Astros starters.

St. Louis- The Cardinals are head and shoulders above every other team in the division. It's hard to find a weak spot on their roster and they should be the first team wrapping up a division title later this season.

Milwaukee and Pittsburgh- Both of these teams have to be given some credit for getting the most for their buck. The Brewers and Pirates are at the bottom of major league baseball in terms of payroll but their records don't reflect that. If new Brewers owner Mark Attanasio fulfills his promise to spend more money on the team they could be a force in the coming years. A highly touted minor league system at least gives the Brewers hope for the future.

NL WEST

Arizona- An off season spending splurge has the Diamondbacks right back at the top of the NL West. Is it possible for a team that lost 111 games a year ago to return to post season play so quickly? A mediocre division makes that more than possible. Bob Melvin has proven that good thing happen to nice guys as he has found himself in a nice situation in the desert.

Los Angeles- After a torrid start the Dodgers have cooled. Paul DePodesta continues to mold this team as his own and it remains to be seen what the Dodgers will be willing to do at the trade deadline if they are still in the hunt for the division or if they are still in the wildcard race.

San Diego- After an extremely slow start the Padres went on a tear but have cooled off as of late. Still, the Padres appear to have the most talent in the division and it will be interesting to see what happens upon Sandy Alderson's arrival.

San Francisco- Things have gone horribly wrong for the Giants this season and the team appears to be headed for a losing season. They should have learned from the Seattle Mariners what can go wrong when you hang on to veterans for too long. Brian Sabean is a smart man but not smart enough to right this ship without some sort of rebuild.

posted by Dean Swanton 8:04 PM

Another Talent of the Golden Age Passes

Today brings news of the untimely death of Anne Bancroft, the oscar-, tony-, and emmy-award winning actress who is, of course, best known for her role as Marian Foley in the 1953 film "The Kid from Left Field". In one of her earliest film roles, Bancroft played the secretary for the owner of the "Bisons" baseball club, a St. Louis Browns-like club that stinks and plays before a mostly empty park (LA's Wrigley Field, later to be made more familiar to fans of "Home Run Derby".) Despite it being described in various sources as a comedy, the movie is more of a drama in the vein of the Wallace Beery-Jackie Cooper 1930s movies, featuring a single-parent loser father trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his pre-adolescent, still-wants-to-believe son. The father in this case is played by Dan Dailey in the role of Cooper, a washed up big league player who can find no better job that to sell peanuts at the ballpark. He is an incredibly bitter and acerbic man, and he lets everybody know he could run the club a lot better than the incumbent manager; nobody listens. Cooper's kid, Christy, is played by Billy Chapin (the kid in the magnificently gothic and expressionistic "Night of the Hunter") with wide-eted awe in the Jackie Cooper vein. The kid knows ball from hanging out at the park and of course mostly from his old man. Ray Collins (the villainous Boss Gettys in Citizen Kane) plays team owner Fred F. Whacker, a publicity stunt-loving huckster modeled more or less on Bill Veeck. (Veeck had just been forced out of ownership of the Browns by the other owners on the heels of such stunts as batting Little Person Eddie Gaedel in 1951 and giving flashcards to the home crowd to let them manage' a game by vote.)

Bancroft's business-like persona masks a sentimentality, and she is convinced Christy knows the game as well as any grown-up, and introduces him to Whacker. To make a tried and true plot line shorter than usual, the kid becomes the team's manager -- but is fronting for his bitter peanut-hawking dad. Romantic complications ensue as a sideplot.

For all the Horatio Alger storylines inherent in this plot, the movie reads -- and is photograped -- a lot starker than one might think. Bancroft's gift for playing the sophisticated ice queen, on the verge of melting, is clearly evident already in her early 20s.

Despite the modest success of the movie, Bancroft never again made a baseball movie. Go figure. She was later featured in somewhat more obscure movies, "The Graduate", "The Miracle Worker", and "The Turning Point", but I reget to report they were not about a prospect in the Cape league, Dr. James Andrews, or a mid-season 9th-inning comeback as the titles might suggest.

posted by The Crank 1:03 PM