Franchy Cordero recalled to the major league team

TheYellowDart5

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Good to see Franchy hasn't forgotten how to destroy hanging breaking balls.

The big thing to keep an eye on will be strikeouts and walks. So far he's punched out seven times in 28 PA, which is a tad under his rate last year in Triple-A (28%), but obviously it's early yet. Only two walks in that time frame is less than ideal. Swing and contact rates are some of the first things to stabilize in stat lines, usually around 50–100 PA, so getting those numbers for Franchy will tell us a good amount. If he's making genuine progress there, that's exciting.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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Didn't he crush it in AAA last year too and then once again struggle at the MLB level, just a little less than previously? Maybe this is who he is.
 

Van Everyman

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Speaking of which, I'm so sad I haven't been able to find a YT of that Wily Mo homer into the Monster Seats where he put a dent into them and almost decapitated a guy.
 

WheresDewey

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WMP hung in the bigs because of his contract. If the Sox could have seasoned him in AAA, there's a chance he might have figured it out. They certainly would have demoted him if it was feasible.

Here's hoping Franchy is actually putting it all together and not just a AAAA all-star. He'll get his chance if he keeps clobbering the ball and JBJ or Arroyo don't step up.

/edit for grammar
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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This is unkind to WMP, and I'm not just saying that as a long-time apologist. Between 04-06 when wily was ages 22-24 he at least slashed 270/322/504.

I mean, he didn't have any real position in the field, but if you're going to give me a guy who's that young, with that kind of power and posted an ops around 830 in a near 300 game sample, he absolutely deserved to be in the big leagues. Clearly, that was his peak, but that's a ML-caliber bat for that time period.

Franchy at age 27 can't sniff Wily's jock as far as I'm concerned (not that that sounds like an enticing venture for him). I'm still willing to give Franchy an opportunity if he continues to mash in AAA, but Fitzgerald is probably a more interesting option IMO.
 

WheresDewey

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There's no insult to WMP in my post. He had awesome talent when he connected with a baseball. But he needed time to work on his pitch selection, swing and misses and fielding. He didn't get that playing time with the big league club, and he couldn't be optioned to the minors without being exposed to waivers and likely claimed by a team intrigued by his awesome potential. As a Sox fan, I regret he didn't get the best chance to realize his potential.
 

Otis Foster

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Speaking of which, I'm so sad I haven't been able to find a YT of that Wily Mo homer into the Monster Seats where he put a dent into them and almost decapitated a guy.
That guy was a good friend of mine. He got like a 10 second video clip standing next to the Monster wall, pointing to where WMP's rocket struck.
 

Rovin Romine

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Good to see Franchy hasn't forgotten how to destroy hanging breaking balls.

The big thing to keep an eye on will be strikeouts and walks. So far he's punched out seven times in 28 PA, which is a tad under his rate last year in Triple-A (28%), but obviously it's early yet. Only two walks in that time frame is less than ideal. Swing and contact rates are some of the first things to stabilize in stat lines, usually around 50–100 PA, so getting those numbers for Franchy will tell us a good amount. If he's making genuine progress there, that's exciting.
The power question for Franchy is settled; it's legit. The rest of the suite of batting skills is still up in the air.

And as long as we're on SSSm as of this morning: Fitzgerald's OPS is 2.122, and Duran's 1.000. Casas is a measly .606.

I'm just hoping whoever they call up for help this year is more competent than last's year's bunch.
 

Manuel Aristides

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Making his 9th career MLB start at 1B tonight, all of a sudden, after 3 such starts in Worcester this year. They must have liked what they saw? I appreciate that they need to do something about 1B but, smacks of desperation a bit... If he gets hurt the Blake Swihart memories will come swirling back.
 

chawson

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Cordero came up through the minors as a shortstop and is one of the more athletic players on the team. He’s no sure bet to work out great at first base, but it’s less of a stretch than, say, Schwarber (to say nothing of Arroyo in right).

The narrative today may be about Dalbec but I think Franchy could cut more into JBJ’s playing time going forward. I don’t think they’re ready to declare Dalbec a short-side platoon player just yet.
 

strek1

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Making his 9th career MLB start at 1B tonight, all of a sudden, after 3 such starts in Worcester this year. They must have liked what they saw? I appreciate that they need to do something about 1B but, smacks of desperation a bit... If he gets hurt the Blake Swihart memories will come swirling back.
First of all, what's wrong with admitting desperation? And if he gets hurt it will be nothing like Swihart. Swihart was still a prime prospect when he got hurt in LF. Cordero is a reclamation project at this point.
 

Over Guapo Grande

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And Swihart didn't really start catching until he was drafted. So it isn't like putting a career LF behind the plate (Yes, I still have memories of the Greenwell game).
 

Harry Hooper

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Heard his first AB on the radio yesterday. The booth thought he had clouted a homer off the bat, but the 2022 baseball died short of the wall.
 
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BaseballJones

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So clearly slight changes in the ball can have a massive impact on HR totals. It has me rethinking the steroid era a little. How much of that HR crazy era was due to steroids and how much was maybe due to a juiced ball?
 

Lose Remerswaal

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So clearly slight changes in the ball can have a massive impact on HR totals. It has me rethinking the steroid era a little. How much of that HR crazy era was due to steroids and how much was maybe due to a juiced ball?
The three years with the highest HR totals were 2017, 2019, and 2021, so I don’t think it was steroids overall
 

Ganthem

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Heard his first AB on the radio yesterday. The booth thought he had clouted a homer off the bat, but the 2022 baseball died short of the wall.
If the ball is doctored to the point that it is killing homers, I am surprised the players aren't livid and the union is not getting involved. Are the balls being used strictly a MLB thing and the Union doesn't get a say? Why didn't the baseball come up in the last CBA?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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If the ball is doctored to the point that it is killing homers, I am surprised the players aren't livid and the union is not getting involved. Are the balls being used strictly a MLB thing and the Union doesn't get a say? Why didn't the baseball come up in the last CBA?
MLB owns the company that makes the baseballs, so yeah, it's entirely their thing. Not sure why the MLBPA would have a beef. Sure HRs might be down, but if they're down across the board then the player hitting the most should still get paid accordingly whether his total is 45 or 25.
 

bosox188

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MLB owns the company that makes the baseballs, so yeah, it's entirely their thing. Not sure why the MLBPA would have a beef. Sure HRs might be down, but if they're down across the board then the player hitting the most should still get paid accordingly whether his total is 45 or 25.
There's also the fact that around half of the MLBPA will be comprised of pitchers, who might be fine with a less HR-prone ball. Though there are some pitchers like Chris Bassitt who have made complaints of the balls being inconsistent, for whatever that's worth.
 

Harry Hooper

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There are anecdotal reports that at least some of the baseballs are denting easily and have to be tossed from play rather quickly.
 

sean1562

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I remember somebody claiming that MLB would mess with the balls depending on what the next FA class looked like. The FA class of 2023 has more big time position players than big time pitchers.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31599594/new-york-mets-pete-alonso-posits-mlb-manipulates-baseball-based-free-agent-class

The biggest concern is MLB manipulates the baseball year in and year out depending on free-agency class, or guys being in an advanced part of their arbitration," Alonso said during a videoconference with reporters.
Asked in a follow-up question if the idea of MLB manipulating baseballs based on free-agent class is something players "talk about and believe in," Alonso replied, "Oh no, that's a fact."
He continued: "In 2019, there was a huge class of free-agent pitchers and then that's quote-unquote 'the juiced balls,' and then 2020 was a strange year with the COVID season. But now that we're back to playing in a regular season with a ton of shortstops or position players that are going to be paid a lot of money like high-caliber players -- I mean, yeah, that's not a coincidence. It's definitely something that they do."

Star hitters after this season

Aaron Judge
Joey Gallo
Xander
Trey Mancini
Trea Turner
JDM
Gary Sanchez

Potentially Carlos Correa and Nolan Arenado

Star pitchers

Most have player options so Chris Sale, Jacob DeGrom, Carlos Rodon, Noah Syndegaard

Sean Manea

Some relievers like Jansen, Kimbrel, Edwin Diaz
 

jon abbey

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That seems to be a quite stupid conspiracy theory, it certainly did not impact FA pitcher contracts after 2019, 5 of the top 7 FA contracts were pitchers, all with deals that were thought generous at the time and look even better now from the player's perspective, except maybe for Wheeler:

Cole 9/324
Strasburg 7/245
Wheeler 5/118
Bumgarner 5/85
Ryu 4/80
 

chawson

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Yeah I don’t buy that theory in particular. But it has occurred to me to wonder whether deadening the balls helps further their overall goal of salary suppression.

GMs already seem warier of giving pitchers mega-contracts than they do hitters. Jon Abbey notes some exceptions — all of them arguably cautionary tales except Cole (yet?) — but their intrinsically higher risk of injury already makes them riskier investments. Corey Seager is a very good shortstop, but he’s not the Gerrit Cole of hitters, and he just made $325M.

I’m not at all ready to call it a conspiracy, or certainly not one targeting Xander, Joey Gallo and Gary Sanchez. A scheme to flatten offense across the board may, I would think, have the effect of diminishing the contracts of star hitters moving forward, but there’s no evidence it’s intentional beyond the venality of most of these MLB owners.
 

shaggydog2000

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Yeah I don’t buy that theory in particular. But it has occurred to me to wonder whether deadening the balls helps further their overall goal of salary suppression.

GMs already seem warier of giving pitchers mega-contracts than they do hitters. Jon Abbey notes some exceptions — all of them arguably cautionary tales except Cole (yet?) — but their intrinsically higher risk of injury already makes them riskier investments. Corey Seager is a very good shortstop, but he’s not the Gerrit Cole of hitters, and he just made $325M.

I’m not at all ready to call it a conspiracy, or certainly not one targeting Xander, Joey Gallo and Gary Sanchez. A scheme to flatten offense across the board may, I would think, have the effect of diminishing the contracts of star hitters moving forward, but there’s no evidence it’s intentional beyond the venality of most of these MLB owners.
Their goal is making money. Making the sport boring to watch isn't going to help that in the long term, and it won't reduce salaries either. Owners can just not pay free agents if they wanted to. But they do, because there are a certain number of teams competing for a limited supply of players that can make a difference. If they all hit 15% fewer HRs, that doesn't change the math of how many teams there are looking for hitters and how many good hitters there are. And it doesn't reduce or increase the pool of money the teams have to spend.
 

jon abbey

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GMs already seem warier of giving pitchers mega-contracts than they do hitters. Jon Abbey notes some exceptions — all of them arguably cautionary tales except Cole (yet?) — but their intrinsically higher risk of injury already makes them riskier investments. Corey Seager is a very good shortstop, but he’s not the Gerrit Cole of hitters, and he just made $325M.
Actually I think the recent history has been the opposite, big pitcher contracts work out well for the team much more often than big hitter contracts. That Seager contact is almost certainly going to end up disastrous.
 

MtPleasant Paul

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Back on May 28, 2021 in this thread I said of Franchy, "Sadly his MLB (career) seems over. He gets a spring training invite next year and that's it." Lose Remerswaal challenged me to a wager on this glib assessment. Well, Lose, you win. I just sent $50 to the Jimmy Fund.

I saw Franchy as the second coming of Wily Mo Pena in his rare outbursts of tremendous power and in his defensive deficiencies Wily Mo was out of MLB at 29 and Franchy will soon be 28. Wily Mo cost us Bronson Arroyo and, arguably, Franchy cost us Andrew Benintendi (although Josh Winckowski who got off to a good start at Worcester will probably arrive this year and could redeem that trade.)

I wish Franchy the best. I watched him over three games last April in frigid Minneapolis. He seems like a good guy. He was a hard worker and a team leader with the Woo Sox and contributed to the city's Latino community.

Still, I shudder at his defense at first base. Perhaps, like Wily Mo, he will go on to a successful career in Japan.

And, no, I don't want to make any wager on that.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Back on May 28, 2021 in this thread I said of Franchy, "Sadly his MLB (career) seems over. He gets a spring training invite next year and that's it." Lose Remerswaal challenged me to a wager on this glib assessment. Well, Lose, you win. I just sent $50 to the Jimmy Fund.

I saw Franchy as the second coming of Wily Mo Pena in his rare outbursts of tremendous power and in his defensive deficiencies Wily Mo was out of MLB at 29 and Franchy will soon be 28. Wily Mo cost us Bronson Arroyo and, arguably, Franchy cost us Andrew Benintendi (although Josh Winckowski who got off to a good start at Worcester will probably arrive this year and could redeem that trade.)

I wish Franchy the best. I watched him over three games last April in frigid Minneapolis. He seems like a good guy. He was a hard worker and a team leader with the Woo Sox and contributed to the city's Latino community.

Still, I shudder at his defense at first base. Perhaps, like Wily Mo, he will go on to a successful career in Japan.

And, no, I don't want to make any wager on that.
I wish my memory was good enough to remember that. I reread the thread and although that sounds like me I did have to reread it to recall it.

You are a good man, Paul. I will also send the Jimmy Fund $50 today.
 

grimshaw

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Casas and Arroyo (or Downs) for Daulton Varsho and Ketel Marte. Get on it Theo. Throw in Durbin Feltman as a sweetener. He needs a change of scenery.
 

Ganthem

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If you had told me during the offseason Franchy would back up at some point this seasons, I would not have been surprised. If you told me Franchy would hit a few home runs for the Sox, I would not have been surprised. If you told me he was going to become much more selective at what he swung at, I would have thought you were smoking something. That to me is what is more impressive then the grand slam or the triple he hit yesterday. He seems to have stopped swinging out of his shoes at everything and is trying to work the count and find his pitch.
 

scottyno

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He put the ball in play 5 times today, the softest hit ball was 95.6 exit velo, and he ended up 1/5. His triple on Saturday was 111 mph, and his pinch hit single Friday was 106. He's absolutely killing the ball, which isn't abnormal, but when it comes with much better K and BB %s it's going to lead to great results.