Maikel Franco Deal with Os Final

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

Makes sense.  Do you think the Reds want him back for 50K?

Yes, they will take him back. He's not a bad looking pitcher overall, but probably more of a 5th starter kind of guy if it ends up working out for him, but he's a ways a way. 

[wildcard]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Yes, they will take him back. He's not a bad looking pitcher overall, but probably more of a 5th starter kind of guy if it ends up working out for him, but he's a ways a way. 

He is a ways away and he'll be 26 on April 9th.   That may be why the Reds did not protect him.

[Tony-OH]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

He is a ways away and he'll be 26 on April 9th.   That may be why the Reds did not protect him.

Yep, I understand why the Orioles wanted to take a look I guess, but it's probably time to offer him back since they have guys with better stuff that are more ready. I honestly really like what I've seen from Conner Greene. If he has found his command, he could be a keeper.

[interloper]

So..

What do we think is Elias' plan with this one? Franco could be fun, or he could just be exactly what we already have in Ruiz, which is sort of what the numbers say thus far. Elias doesn't seem to just make moves for the sake of it, so I feel like there's some piece of the puzzle that hasn't been revealed yet. 

Any ideas?

[wildcard]

9 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Yep, I understand why the Orioles wanted to take a look I guess, but it's probably time to offer him back since they have guys with better stuff that are more ready. I honestly really like what I've seen from Conner Greene. If he has found his command, he could be a keeper.

The big change for Greene is that his past organizations were trying to make him a starter.   The O's like him as a reliever. He may be able to hold his command for an inning or two.   

[interloper]

10 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Yep, I understand why the Orioles wanted to take a look I guess, but it's probably time to offer him back since they have guys with better stuff that are more ready. I honestly really like what I've seen from Conner Greene. If he has found his command, he could be a keeper.

He's a wild man out there on the mound lol. Fun to watch. 

[Tony-OH]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

He's a wild man out there on the mound lol. Fun to watch. 

I like the stuff and he might be a classic case of reliever being the better role for him. I'm surprised he was given a longer look as a reliever before being allowed to become a free agent. Saying that, we don't know how fast he can recover. That's still an open issue but even so, he could provide a little length as a 2-3 inning reliever.

[wildcard]

4 minutes ago, interloper said:

So..

What do we think is Elias' plan with this one? Franco could be fun, or he could just be exactly what we already have in Ruiz, which is sort of what the numbers say thus far. Elias doesn't seem to just make moves for the sake of it, so I feel like there's some piece of the puzzle that hasn't been revealed yet. 

Any ideas?

I see two things

1) If Franco does well he is a trade chip in July where Ruiz probably was not.

2)  Hyde seem set on Galvis at SS and Sanchez at 2B.   Decent defense but poor offense is what is expected. So Elias is trying to boost the offense at 3B and Franco is a better hitter.

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, interloper said:

So..

What do we think is Elias' plan with this one? Franco could be fun, or he could just be exactly what we already have in Ruiz, which is sort of what the numbers say thus far. Elias doesn't seem to just make moves for the sake of it, so I feel like there's some piece of the puzzle that hasn't been revealed yet. 

Any ideas?

I think he sees a player that should be better than what we have and that player is going to come at (likely) a minimal cost.

[interloper]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

I see two things

1) If Franco does well he is a trade chip in July where Ruiz probably was not.

2)  Hyde seem set on Galvis at SS and Sanchez at 2B.   Decent defense but poor offense is what is expected. So Elias is trying to boost the offense at 3B and Franco is a better hitter.

Is he though? You can find plenty of readily available data that he and Ruiz are kind of the same offensive player. In fact Ruiz has better exit velo numbers. So I wonder if Elias and Co. see something else, or if there's some kind of roster shakeup yet to be revealed. 

[interloper]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

I think he sees a player that should be better than what we have and that player is going to come at (likely) a minimal cost.

Yeah fair. My thought is just that our depth at 3B sucks and this simply improves that across the organization. Might just be as simple as that.

[Sports Guy]

10 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah fair. My thought is just that our depth at 3B sucks and this simply improves that across the organization. Might just be as simple as that.

Sure, assuming they keep Ruiz.  
 

I just think they realize he’s not a ML player on any kind of a consistent basis.  Franco is even if he’s not some great asset.

 

[Aglets]

11 minutes ago, interloper said:

Is he though? You can find plenty of readily available data that he and Ruiz are kind of the same offensive player. In fact Ruiz has better exit velo numbers. So I wonder if Elias and Co. see something else, or if there's some kind of roster shakeup yet to be revealed. 

I think the evidence points to yes he is.  As has been pointed out, a career .667 OPS vs .737 is not insignificant.  Ruiz walks at a higher rate however Franco puts it in play more.

[Philip]

What is the song say? “… A better class of loser”?

I’m OK with it. So long as the marginal improvement in offense isn’t canceled out by a larger marginal decrease in defense.

[interloper]

11 minutes ago, Aglets said:

I think the evidence points to yes he is.  As has been pointed out, a career .667 OPS vs .737 is not insignificant.  Ruiz walks at a higher rate however Franco puts it in play more.

A quick look at baseballsavant shows some interesting things. Basically, the biggest advantage Maikel has over Rio offensively is that he strikes out a lot less. Otherwise, they are pretty similar statcast players. Rio had a much better outs above average than Maikel last year. 

Again, I'm not against the signing. I just wonder if Franco is the offensive upgrade he seems to be. I think he's capable of having a better offensive season than Ruiz because he's done that. At the end of the day, neither guy is all that exciting, so I just wonder if Elias has some other wrinkle to this.