September Call: Maikel Franco

August 28th, 2014 by Mike H. | Filed under Baseball, General, Phillies.

makailfranco

On September 1st, major league rosters will expand from 25 active players to 40. Many fans and media members have been clamoring for Maikel Franco to be called up once AAA Lehigh Valley’s season is completed. The Phillies have not been as committal to a promotion, stating consistent playing time is a big factor. While Franco’s 2013 season and the second half of his 2014 season have given fans hope, it may make sense to wait until next June to call him up.

First off, Franco did struggle considerably the first month of the season. The adjustment period versus the available playing time at the big league level could potentially be even worse than the adjustment to AAA pitching. Not that I think it will affect him negatively to come up. I just think if you’re going to bring him up, make sure he plays.

More so, I want him to have a break. Franco played in Reading up until the beginning of September last year. He then proceeded to play from mid-October to late-December in the Dominican Winter League. Then after a few short weeks, Franco was back at it in Spring Training. Basically, Franco has been doing nothing but baseball for at least 70 of the last 78 weeks.

For as much as I want this team to turn the page, there’s no unselfish reason that justifies seeing Franco in red pinstripes. Whether Franco plays or not the last few weeks, it won’t prove anything positively or negatively. The sample size just won’t be significant enough.

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