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Front Office Chat With Anthony Franco
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Anthony Franco
3:55
Every team has highly-regarded prospects who don't hit. (I think it's too early to put Kelenic there quite yet, as an aside). But that does feel like a particularly rough group of misses, particularly since they're mostly position players and those guys are a little easier to project
I guess that's how you go 20 years without making the playoffs though
Matty A
3:56
After a 20/20 season last year, Robbie Grossman was awful this year before his injury. What do you expect from him when he returns?
Anthony Franco
3:57
Grossman just got activated from the IL a half hour ago. He has to be better moving forward than he was early in the year, but probably average at best
3:58
He walks all the time, which is valuable. But he's swinging and missing more this year and that's particularly problematic with how many deep counts he's trying to work
Angels fan
3:58
Joe Madden was a skapegoat. Their bullpen did not do the job, the hitting was not consistent and they do need help up the middle. Plus they are not at full strength
Joe maddon
3:58
Realistically, what good does firing me midseason do? Especially when you just appointed another oldhead as the interim manager. Not to mention a guy who was just recently fired from his third base coaching job
Anthony Franco
4:01
Yeah it's mostly just a vibe thing. They were going to start playing better regardless of who's managing -- quite literally can't play much worse -- so perhaps just changing something for its own sake loosens everyone up a little bit
4:02
But yeah, I think far more important than Joe Maddon was the fact that the roster has some pretty serious flaws. The middle infield has been terrible, as its seemed like it'd be. I liked a lot of what they did in the bullpen, but that stuff is just volatile
4:03
It's a top-heavy roster, and they lost two of their best players in Ward and Rendon. Tough to win when you're playing Luis Rengifo, Juan Lagares, Tyler Wade and Andrew Velazquez all the time no matter who's managing
ATLs AA
4:04
Is Ozuna the next Uggla?
Anthony Franco
4:04
In the sense that he signed a decent-sized contract and immediately got bad? Probably
4:05
Just a rare misstep for the Anthopoulos group, I think. Even if you set aside the domestic violence charge as unforeseeable for the front office, it looks in retrospect like they got swept up in a two month season
4:06
Ozuna was mediocre from 2018-19, then awesome in 2020. The much larger body of work was just ok, and he probably just wasn't that good to begin with
4:07
I don't say that as a "gotcha" or anything. I liked the Ozuna deal for them at the time, would've been fooled too
ballpark
4:07
would you rather visit all 30 ballparks in one season or have season tickets behind home plate for your favorite team?
Anthony Franco
4:08
30 ballparks in one season seems kind of exhausting honestly. I'd like to hit all of them eventually, but it'd probably be more entertaining over a three-year stretch or so to reduce the travel wear
4:09
It's tough for me to answer this though since I don't have a favorite MLB team. So from a baseball perspective, I'd rather do all 30 parks and cities over a multi-year stretch than see the same team over and over
But if you asked me this about the NFL or NHL, I'd just go to all the Raiders and Hurricanes games
Yes
4:09
What’s the Yankees plan for the deadline? A reliever to replace Green and an OF?
Anthony Franco
4:10
Maybe a rotation depth add as well. The top five has been awesome but losing Gil doesn't give them much cover if any of those guys go down
4:11
I don't know if they'll do anything in the outfield really. That probably requires dealing Gallo, which would be pretty unconventional for a team that's running away with its division
I think they'd like to upgrade over Hicks but there basically aren't any center fielders available
how?
4:11
how can you be both a raiders and hurricanes fan? haha where are you from?
Anthony Franco
4:11
Buffalo haha
4:12
I've just never had geographic attachments teams. My dad's a Raiders fan, so I got that from him. I became a Canes fan from the NHL '03 video game
Duffy Scliff
4:12
If you had a one game playoff today, and you could choose any starting pitcher to take the mound for you, who do you go with?
Anthony Franco
4:13
deGrom if I can choose any pitcher. If I have to take someone who
Fat finger moment, sorry
If I have to take someone who's healthy right now, probably Corbin Burnes
McClanahan's really close though
Walker Buehler
4:13
What is wrong with me
Anthony Franco
4:14
This is a great question and I really can't figure it out. His fastball's just getting destroyed and I don't really know why
4:16
It's definitely an inferior pitch to what it was in 2020. It's lost almost two ticks of velocity, spin and movement are way down. So it makes sense that he's not quite as good as he was before
4:17
But he's still averaging 95 with ok movement on it, so it doesn't feel like a pitch that should have a 13% whiff rate and be allowing a .377 batting average
4:18
I'm still inclined to bet on the track record here -- both his and the Dodgers coaching staff's -- and think he'll figure it out, but that's the big issue. The rest of the arsenal still seems mostly fine
Paul
4:18
When will some of our injured pitchers start returning. We could use Dustin May, Andrew Heaney and Danny Duffy
Anthony Franco
4:19
Heaney's on a rehab assignment and should be back within the next ten days or so. After the All-Star Break on the other two guys
Hits Like Rays
4:19
Shane McClanahan was solid last year and is dominant this year.  What does a long-term extension look like for him now?  Can the Rays afford such a thing after signing Wander Franco to a long-term deal last winter?
Anthony Franco
4:20
Yeah I really don't know. There's no recent precedent for a pitcher this good signing an extension with between one and two years of service time
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