By Mark Ashby Vaughan
The Cardinals’ recent release or reliever Miguel Batista was baseball’s version of what is commonly called a “mercy killing”, putting the poor soul out of his tortured misery. But, the team hasn’t gone nearly far enough. Why should the release of Batista be any more important than divesting themselves of the most obvious failure in this year’s bullpen, Ryan Franklin?
As I’ve written previously, Franklin’s freakishly good year in 2009 was an aberration and belied his career numbers. Franklin had an uncommonly good year in 2009, but his performance that year does not track with his other years. And players always gravitate towards their “norm” when all other factors are equal.
Franklin is currently holding a 1-4 record with an enormous 8.17 ERA and a monstrous 1.855 WHIP. There are no starting pitchers who would have a chance at commanding a spot in any MLB rotation with Franklin’s average numbers of 14.2 hits, 2.5 walks and 2.5 home runs allowed per nine innings.
At age 38, Franklin is done. It’s time to mercifully pull the plug.
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