After a disappointing off-season of transactions and in desperate need of another arm in the rotation, the Phillies have settled on Ryan Franklin. Formerly of the Seattle Mariners, Franklin is an average pitcher who logs a lot of innings, but doesn't inspire much excitement. In his own words, Ryan says "I don't want to say I wore out my welcome in Seattle, but I was ready to move on."
In looking into his career statistics, it's hard to find much to be hopeful about. His numbers are pretty consistent across the board. In looking at his past 3 years, Ryan has a 4.49 ERA, and that pretty much seems to be his ERA in about every other key area:
4.20 Home
4.77 Away
4.27 Night
5.06 Day
4.62 April
4.21 May
4.22 June
4.85 July
5.75 August
3.50 September
4.43 Pre-All Star
4.57 Post-All Star
As you can see, it's pretty consistent except for late in the year when he appears to wear down in August only to have a renaissance in September. Maybe Franklin can be a serviceable starter for the first half of the year, enough time to get Randy Wolf healthy and into the mix.
If you are looking for a ray of hope from Ryan Franklin, look to his 2003 season where he posted a 3.57 ERA, though he did give up a career worst 34 Home Runs, a stat that should scare most Phillies fans. With the fences moving back in left field, maybe it won't be as big of an issue, but pitchers that give up too many home runs outside of Citizens Bank Park are in some trouble inside the Bank.
I suppose the good news in this signing is that Ryan Madson should now stay put in the bullpen. With the loss of Wagner and Urbina, his arm will be greatly needed in late inning situations. Madson could conceivably become the closer for the Phillies if Tom Gordon falters; a scenario that could likely come about given Gordon's lack of closing experience the past several years. This assumes that Gavin Floyd is ready to take his place in the starting rotation, and lets all hope that Gavin is finally ready.
At best we can hope Franklin turns out to be another Cory Lidle type pitcher, at worst, he is cut by the All-Star break to make room in the rotation for Randy Wolf, basically Franklin is in town to eat up some innings and keep the Phillies in about half the games he pitches. It could be worse, think Eric Milton and all of those home run balls, but certainly not the way Gillick had drawn it up at the beginning of the off-season.
Welcome Ryan Franklin, and good luck.
Random Thoughts
What's with the continued Abreu rumors? Why is Gillick so intent on trading the Phillies best hitter? You got me. The most recent rumor is Tejada for Abreu. Not sure how that makes sense when the Phillies have Rollins at SS and are paying about the same money for Abreu as they would for Tejada. Maybe it just sounds cool to have Tejada and Tejeda on the same team...Speaking of Tejeda, he seems to be a forgotten man this off-season, after the year he had, I expected him to be shopped heavily. It seemed almost natural to offer Tejeda and Michaels to the A's for Barry Zito. The A's just love guys with potential, especially young pitchers. Ah well, maybe during the season then.
