BA Midwest League Top 20

saying he has a “thick” lower half could not be further from the truth, and honestly makes me think he was looking at the wrong player. He is actually pretty skinny.

If Franklin moves to 2B and doesn’t refine his walk rate, I’d say that his floor is just as low as Hicks’ floor – it’s just swapping power for patience.

was .149. That’s not otherworldly, but it’s not as if he’s some slap-hitter we’ll hope develops gap power down the road. He’s got solid gap power already (35% of his hits went for extra bases) with a chance to develop solid HR power as well.

Hicks is more projectable. Franklin’s in-game power is excellent, but his raw power is still only so-so. He’ll still likely continue to hit some home runs (particularly in the Cal league), but it would be an error to assume he’s going to continue to add a huge amount of power. He’s not built that way, and the Ms are not going to try and develop him that way, because they want him to stay in the middle infield.

Hicks’ batting eye is light years ahead of Franklin’s. Given that his scouting profile is also superior, I don’t think it’s the easy choice you’re making it out to be. There’s certainly an argument for Franklin, but there’s a totally reasonable argument for Hicks as well. Personally, I’d give Hicks the slight edge.

to every player regardless of physical tools is a big, big error.

Franklin pretty much maximized his raw power this year, Hicks barely began tapping into his. Hicks projects to develop more power moving forward, even though Franklin showed more in games last year. Whether that projection will A) happen or B) close the gap completely between the two players’ present power output, nobody can say with 100% certainty, but Hicks showed a far superior approach in 2010, and his tools are still better than Franklin’s. Further, their XBH%‘s were very, very close – Franklin’s was 36%, Hicks 35%.

I think my fellow Mariners fans need to start tempering their enthusiasm for Franklin a bit. What he did in 2010 was a fantastic performance, but he still strikes out too much and doesn’t walk enough. More importantly, while his 23 homers were very impressive, he doesn’t project as a 30hr guy in the majors. All performances in the low minors are not created equally, and Franklin is a guy who got the absolute most out of his tools this year. We can project some growth out of him, but not the kind of growth we should be expecting from Hicks. He just doesn’t have the physical tools for it.

Nick Franklin is a very good prospect. Nick Franklin is not, however, a surefire middle of the order bat from the shortstop position. There is a reason guys like Dave Cameron, Jason Churchill, and the BA writers still project his upside as “the good version of Jason Bartlett” and not Cal Ripken, Jr. reincarnate.

Basically, it deals with the question of when Rice University will promote Anthony Rendon. Rendon’s not doing anything for me as he’s just repeating his level of competition. Hopefully Rice doesn’t hold him back this year, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. There’s got to be a reason why they’re holding Rendon back at a level of competition even lower than that found in the rookie leagues, and we’re going to have to drop him considerably as a result.