Nick Franklin to Double-A
The minor league season ends today, and moves are still going down as Nick Franklin was called up to join the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx in their playoff run. This comes on the heels of Franklin setting the Clinton franchise home run record with twenty-three, breaking Dick Kenworthy’s old record, which was set in 1961.
A number of thoughts might come up in response to this. One would be to think of the earlier “Franklin to the 40-man” rumor of a few weeks back had legs, and that this is a sign of things to come. Another would be to claim that the Mariners don’t think all that much of the High Desert team and make all sorts of inferences based off that.
Neither of these conclusions would be good ones, because Franklin is also in double-A because Triunfel is on the disabled list at the moment with a sprained finger on his throwing hand. Make no mistake: Franklin is well-regarded within the system, and they’re going to give him as much as he can handle. The double-A move may be a test run on keeping him there for the 2011 season, but any other notions of when he’s going to be on the Mariners 40-man or stick with the team are just speculation at this point. He’s a talented, confident kid, who still has a number of kinks to work out before he gets here, and much to prove in the high minors.
The other part circles back to the original point: Franklin is in double-A because they happen to need someone who can play short. Neither Lawson nor Seager would be an ideal fit, and moving either would open up another hole you’d have to patch up anyway. A few out there have undoubtedly thought of spinning this as “no prospect that the org really likes would spend a lot of time in High Desert”, but the fact remains that Chavez, Seager, and Poythress have all spent the entire season there, and all are highly thought of within the organization.
Placing Franklin in the midst of the Southern League playoffs is a challenge, certainly, but it’s also something that West Tenn needed in order to keep going. Trying to read too much into it is just going to lead to headaches for all of us. Just kick back, and enjoy the ride of the farm system having eight of their nine affiliates in the playoffs.
I managed to misread – twice – the second sentence of the first paragraph. So I was trying to wrap my brain around how someone hitting 23 home runs could break Dick Kenworthy’s old record of 49 home runs. 😀
Good news! Thanks Jay for all the updates.
I agree with Westside guy. That second sentence was really hard to understand the first time around. Regardless: great article and woohoo!
Fine. I’ll change it.
Haters.
Jay,
What do you think happens next year with Truinfel? If they put Franklin in WTenn do they put Truinfel in Tacoma?? The reason I ask is this has been a terrible year for him (he didn’t walk for nearly 6 weeks) and did nothing to deserve a promotion. However, I wonder if they just give him the Halman treatment and promote anyways to see what happens.
It would seem like Truinfel’s move to third base is inevitable at this point. The only question is whether they want to promote him to Triple A (where he could stay at short for awhile longer), or leave him in Double A to shift over to third.
Once Tru moves, 3B might be the organization’s deepest position. You’ve got fringy guys like Tui and Mangini, second tier like Liddi and Truinfel, as well as guys who are a long ways off but have some upside (Moria, Littlewood).
It would be great if one of these guys could turn into a legit major league 3B, to go with the future infield of Smoak, Ackley and Franklin.
Jay, do you think a June or July call up for Franklin could be a possibilty next year? I read an article a week or so back, (I just looked it up again and I can’t find it, but I believe it was the Seattle Times that wrote the article) and it talked about a possible september call up for Franklin. That’s not going to happen with him now called up to Double-A, but does he have a realistic chance of seeing the bigs next year? The chances of us being good next year are slim, and shortstop is quite possibly our biggest hole. He’ll be 20 in March so he’s not absurdly young. It would be just an early call up the Rangers did with Elvis Andrus.
And Moore too. He’s got a cannon of an arm and if he can figure out how to big major league pitching he could be very promising.
Hey, when I made that first comment – I was laughing at myself rather than criticizing Jay. 😀
Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky, but linny and dnc: It’s Triunfel, not Truinfel.
So far he is 2-3 with a couple of runs.
Franklin ends up w/3 runs. Not bad for his first AA game. He even got some work at 2B. Bonilla ended up playing all 9 positions for the DJaxx today.
Is it out of the question to let Franklin play the two weeks of playoffs in W. Tennessee and then head to Seattle for 2 weeks? If he plays well for the DJaxx, I don’t see why they couldn’t let him get his feet wet. He may just suprise.
Franklin had a 947 fielding pct in Clinton. 40 man roster, potential call-up…wow that is being too aggressive in my opinion.
He is definately a unique talent, but let the minors be his experience. AA is quite the move already.
Not nitpicky at all. I know better and totally spaced out. Good catch.
It should be. Wasting a spot on the 40 man for someone who a) doesn’t need to be added to be protected from the Rule “V” draft (that’s for DMZ) and b) doesn’t have a chance whatsoever of starting next season on the big league roster, should always be out of the question.
He won’t be playing for the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. He’ll be playing for the Jackson Generals.
sometimes a banana is just a banana?
Jackson Generals — that’s an improvement.
Jackson Generals — that’s an improvement.
It may be more than an improvement; it may have to do with team merchandise sales.
A few years ago, minor league teams could change their name every year, and some did; and fans regarded the stuff they already had as obsolete, and bought the up-to-date stuff.
A new rule requires franchises to keep the same name for three years, so they can’t change names as often as some used to; but still often enough to turn a buck.
[The name change may really have less to do with history than it has to do with the bottom line.]
Yeah, though I was always amused by the glam-rock association my mind consistently conjured for “Diamond Jaxx” (and in particular how that contrasted with my impression of West Tennessee).
Don’t know why they have a bulldog on their logo, though. Seems like a Stonewall would be the appropriate reference. (Of course then my mind would be conjuring images of riots in Manhattan’s west village, and once again contrasting that with West Tennessee…)
I’m from Clinton, Iowa & I record many of the LumberKings home games and a hand full on the road. If you haven’t yet, search Nick Franklin Baseball on YouTube…or click the link below for my YouTube Channel…I have plenty of videos of Nick! 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/HeinitzProductions