{"id":81029,"date":"2018-04-17T17:28:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T17:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"\/rcntv\/?p=81029"},"modified":"2023-04-14T18:57:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T18:57:32","slug":"francos-hotcold-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/francos-hotcold-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Franco\u2019s Hot\/Cold Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The views expressed in this blog are<\/em> <em>those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Sdx_6ntsHlc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When Maikel Franco was climbing up through the <a title=\"Philadelphia Phillies\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/phillies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phillies<\/a> minor league system, I remember talking with the hot, young prospect the day before Opening Day\u2014on a particularly frigid April afternoon. It was Franco\u2019s first spring in the Northeast. As I approached him, our exchange went like:<\/p>\n<p>FRANCO: \u201cMan, it\u2019s cold out there. It\u2019s not normally this cold up here in April, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ME: \u201cI\u2019m afraid so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FRANCO (smiling): \u201cThat\u2019s no good\u2026I\u2019m not a cold weather hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>True enough, Franco struggled for the first two months of that season until the weather did warm up for good. Once that happened, he made a rather quick ascension up the minor league ladder.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Maikel has battled issues of inconsistency\u2014coming randomly over the last couple years\u2014regardless of what the thermostat was registering.<\/p>\n<p>I recently approached Franco in the Phillies clubhouse\u2014a few minutes after he hit his fourth career grand slam and his fifth consecutive game where he hit a home run at <a title=\"Citizens Bank Park\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/phillies\/ballpark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Citizens Bank Park<\/a>, a streak that dated back to the end of last September\u2014another chilly time for baseball.<\/p>\n<p>He beamed his big smile again when I recounted that story to him. He quickly pointed out he feels that he has figured things out at the plate, even on a night where the wind chill factor was in the mid-30s.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the rest of my conversation with Maikel along with his comments on how effective his new batting stance has been\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pC2H7E-zhfQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At the time of this conversation his batting average was .308. However, after the two series against the Reds and Rays (in the warm climate\/indoor stadium of <a title=\"Tampa Bay Buccaneers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.buccaneers.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tampa Bay <\/a>no less) and one game in \u201cHot-lanta\u201d (although it\u2019s been anything but warm in Georgia this week), Franco\u2019s season BA has dropped to .214 (as of press time) and his slugging percentage has dropped over a hundred points.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, it still remains to be seen if Franco is the proven, everyday, power-hitting threat the Phillies organization had clearly envisioned back when he was still in the minor leagues. With Scott Kingery\u2019s strong acclimation to Major League pitching and Mitch Walding hitting well at Triple-A (currently with a slash line of .342\/.405\/.579), he certainly has to feel some pressure. But if he can hit like he did the first two weeks of the season in the cold weather, perhaps there is still hope that he can still be a part of the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>********<\/p>\n<p>One of the top high school games we covered for \u201cSportsTalk\u201d last week was a great contest between <a title=\"Central Catholic High School\" href=\"http:\/\/www.acchs.info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Central Catholic <\/a>and <a title=\"Northampton Area High School\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdschools.org\/nahs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Northampton<\/a>. Here\u2019s a sample of the highlights and \u201cplayers of the game\u201d interviews from that contest.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wqd0jcCpRP0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For more features, be sure to check out to check out our show on Thursdays at 7pm, On-Demand and our podcast: rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. &nbsp; When Maikel Franco was climbing up through the Phillies minor league system, I remember talking with the hot, young prospect the day before&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Franco\u2019s Hot\/Cold Month - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Franco\u2019s Hot\/Cold Month - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company. &nbsp; 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