Julio Franco Hangs Up His Spikes
The first thing anyone noticed about Julio Franco was his batting stance. His body jacknifed toward the pitcher, his elbows above his head, holding his bat — always the heaviest in the major leagues — parallel to the ground, pointed forward. Every swing was a violent whirl, bringing the bat from front to back and then through the strike zone to meet the pitch. Every swing of every at-bat of every game. He retired today, at the age of 49, the oldest regular position player in the modern era.The motion was indescribably inefficient, which is why he’s the only batter who ever had such a stance. By the end of his career, he was almost exclusively an opposite-field hitter. He didn’t have a great deal of bat speed, but he had exquisite, and almost inexplicable, bat control, which allowed him to foul off pitch after pitch until he finally could either work a walk or drop a single into right field. His teammates consistently marveled that he was in the best shape of anyone on the team.
In a previous life, before he was a 40-year old pinch hitting wonder, he was one of the best-hitting shortstops in the American League, playing with the terrible Indians teams that inspired the movie Major League, largely prior to the offensive explosion of the ‘90s. By the time he was 30, he was a second baseman on the early-‘90s Texas Rangers of Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, and — for one season — Jose Canseco. When the strike hit in 1994, he went to Japan, spending the entire 1995 season there. He returned to the majors in 1996, at the age of 37, but was no longer a full-time player. After 1997, he went back to Japan, and other than a single at-bat with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999, he appeared gone for good.
But he hadn’t retired. From Japan he went to Mexico, and from there to South Korea. In late August of 2001, Atlanta Braves General Manager John Schuerholz found him leading the Mexican League in hitting — seven years after his last season as a full-time player in the major leagues — and brought him in as the Braves’ full-time first baseman for the month of September, at the age of 42. He ended the year hitting .300, for the 8th time in his career.
He was the Braves’ backup first baseman and ace pinch hitter for the next four seasons, until the end of 2005, in an ultimate show of respect, the Mets’ GM Omar Minaya offered him a 2-year contract at the age of 47. He remained productive in 2006, but was less so in 2007, and was released by the club midway through the season. The Braves picked him up 6 days after his release, played him for a few days, then sent him to the minor leagues, calling him back up to the majors in September. He then declared free agency.
He returned to the Mexican League at the beginning of 2008. He was a man who simply couldn’t stay away from baseball, and continued to play it at a high level longer than any other baseball player in history.
For the Braves, he appeared in 501 games and had 1218 at-bats, with 29 HR and 179 RBI. Over the parts of 6 seasons he played for us, his overall line was .291/.363/.424, which is better than the lines currently being put up by Kelly Johnson, Jeff Francoeur, Mark Kotsay, and Matt Diaz. He really should become a hitting coach. I hope Bobby brings him onto the coaching staff. He’s an inspiration.
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21 Responses to “Julio Franco Hangs Up His Spikes”
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Bobby Cox may well retire after this season, and Terry Pendleton has been a pretty obvious successor since Day One. So TP becomes the new manager, leaving a vacancy in the hitting coach job. Though I like AAA Richmond manager Chris Chambliss for that spot, the Braves would be foolish not to consider the venerable Franco.
Besides being a great hitter, he’s an awesome clubhouse presence.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Maybe Julio should be a hitting coach in the minors first then try to be the hitting coach. Not sayin he has to but it might not be that bad of an idea. He might really be able to teach the young players alot in the minors.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=atl
That is just pathetic. Advertising on the mlb schedules? I’m going to see the movie but still.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
The guys on MLBTR noted that, fittingly, his final major-league at-bat was a pinch-hit RBI single.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Well I cant watch this game cause I dont have that stupid peachtree channel. I was actually wanting to watch this game cause I wanted to see how JoJo pitches. I wanted to see if he was scared of the hitters like he looked last year, maybe he learned alot after what happened last year. His comand problems were good in AAA this year but if he starts walkin alot of guys in this game then he is either nervous or scared of the hitters like he was last year.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
NOT comand problems. I meant his comand WAS good in AAA so far this year.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
braves#1, Reyes has looked solid through two innings. He’s thrown just 23 pitches so far, with 14 of those in the strike zone. He’s also gotten three of his six outs on the ground (two in the air and one by K).
Bears almost no resemblance to the Jo-Jo Reyes we saw last year.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Im glad to hear that. He does have alot of potential and maybe Glavine can help him out some this year. Appreciate the update Tom.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
No problem, braves#1. I believe you can get all that info from the Braves official site if you go to the “Gameday” pitch-by-pitch thing. At the bottom of the box score, it lists the pitch count, # of strikes and GO/AO ratio.
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
ok I will check into that.
If Reyes can continue to pitch like this then he could be a valuable 4th starter for us and then perhaps either James or Bennett as our 5th starter. As much grief as James gets from Braves fans he would STILL be the BEST # 5 starter in the game even if he NEVER learns another pitch. I think we might be alright in the starting pitching department IF JoJo pitches like he has so far and Jurrgens keeps doing good. We shall see.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Well, narrowed down all the colleges and just confirmed that I’m going to the University of Connecticut next year. That definitely clears up some time so I’ll probably be a bit more consistent in posting from now on.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I came across something pretty interesting today. Since the Braves acquired Mark Teixeira, all I’ve heard about is that like Chipper, he is better from the left side. Over the course of his career, Teixeira has a better average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage from the right side.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
braves#1, the problem we are going to run into is innings pitched. I don’t have a problem at all with the talent we have in the rotation, but Bobby’s gonna have to be careful. Huddy can probably go 220 no problem. But not so with the rest of the staff:
*Glavine imploded after 190 innings last year.
*Jurrjens pitched 143 1/3 innings last year, meaning he ought to be limited to about 175 this year.
*Reyes pitched 160 innings last year, so he needs to be limited to 190 innings (keep in mind that includes the 23 innings he threw for Richmond).
*Bennett just recently converted back to starting.
*James had that rotator cuff tear last season and he’s a very high-effort pitcher (throws lots of pitches), so he may be limited to about 175 innings.
We could ruin a lot of futures if we just let these guys pitch as many innings as they can until their arms fall off. We don’t NEED to get another arm, but it’d be nice. And it doesn’t even have to be somebody proven…just somebody who could take 12-15 starts to allow Jurrjens or whoever to take a couple turns off.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Will, congrats on your admission to UConn. It’s a fantastic school and I’m sure you’ll find success there. Not to mention it will be nice to have your voice back on the blog on a regular basis.
On a different note…
I am excited to see the Braves’ bats going nuts this inning, but there was a little part of me that wanted to see us win a one-run game, just so we don’t have that goose egg staring us in the face anymore.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Tom, thanks. It’s a nice monkey to get off my back.
As far as the starter to take some pressure off, you’re completely right. I don’t want to see Bobby do the same thing to these young pitchers as Joe Girardi did to his starters during his one year in the Marlins organization. You can’t take guys who are pitching 140 innings a year in the minors and expect them to toss 200 innings in the majors a year later. I think Bennett is out of the rotation (good move) and he’ll be that swingman who can take a start here or there. Also, I’d be shocked if we didn’t see Morton in the majors this season, especially if he keeps pitching like he has so far.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Congrats Will on being a Uconn Huskiee. I have know clue what college I am going to. I still have my senior year to decide on that. I need to go to a school that has a good journalism program.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Good point on Morton, Will. He had another excellent start tonight…seven innings of two-hit, one-run ball. I wonder what the strategy will be on Morton. Do you get him up to the bigs sooner rather than later to assess whether you need to make a deal for another starter?
If we can get 200 innings out of Hudson, 180 out of Glavine and 150 each out of Bennett, Jurrjens, Reyes and Morton, that’s nearly seven innings per start for the rest of the year. And that doesn’t involve either a) selling valuable prospects to acquire another pitcher or b) give starts to Chuck James or Buddy Carlyle. And all those inning totals leave a little extra gas for the playoffs.
It sounds risky given all the youngsters in there, but I personally like the idea a lot. There’s certainly plenty of talent and plenty of flexibility in that crew, and with a solid bullpen behind them (Smoltz, Gonzo, Soriano, Ring, Boyer, Campillo, Stockman), we could really go places.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I don’t think Bennett is going to have a regular spot in the rotation this year. I think he’s going to end up as a guy who will pitch out of the pen like tonight as well as making some spot starts here or there to cut down on the innings of some of the younger guys. We also don’t know his this rotation is going to end up. Hudson, Glavine, and Jurrjens all obviously have spots but past that there are a number of questions. Will Smoltz come back to the rotation at some point? Is Jo-Jo going to hold up? Will Chuck James hold up? Realistically, we’re just not going to see long starts from either James or Reyes, which probably means at least one of them is going to have to go. I’d assume Morton is after those two on the depth chart but any hiccups could give him a shot or he may be moving past James until he is fully healthy. I think this will all end in Wren acquiring a veteran capable of going 6+ every start.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Not a bad start by Reyes tonight — well, terrific, till the 5th-6th, when he gave up 3 walks, 3 hits, 2 stolen bases, and was lucky only to allow 1 run. This’d be the problem we’re used to with him, an inability to get through the 6th inning. If he’s going to be a useful major league pitcher, he’s going to need to figure out how to make that breakthrough.
Congratulations on your decision to attend the University of Connecticut, Will. I don’t need to tell you how cold Connecticut winters are, but bundle up nonetheless. After enduring four of them, I was basically ready to move south and never live through another one again. Good luck and all the best to you.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
I was quite impressed with Reyes’ start tonight. Unlike last year, when he missed his spots, he missed down. Everything through the first 4+ innings was at the knees. When he started to get tired, then he started leaving some pitches up. I went back and compared his mechanics from last year and from this start and surprisingly, they were pretty much exactly the same. I was expecting something different. The only thing slightly off was that they are a little more consistent this year but nothing huge.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Julio Franco played in the first game I ever went to when I was 6 (he’d been in the league a few years!). I’m about to get my Ph.D. One more time, for auld lang syne, Juuuuuuuuuuuuulio!
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