Grading Ryan Franklin

Ryan Theriot drives a single to score two in the top of the ninth against the defending World Champions and their bearded God to take the lead.  Game over right?  Not if Ryan Franklin has something to say about it.  That made me think: Is Ryan Franklin a good closer?  You may think the answer is obvious (Read: NO) and it very well may be, however I am here to prove or disprove that thinking.  I will do so by grading Franklin as a closer.

Reason being is that sometimes the eye test is incorrect.  For instance, despite what you may believe, JD Drew was a wonderful ballplayer who most likely tried his hardest or at least as hard as everyone else.  After all, it is kind of a grind and everybody slacks off at work once in a while. That’s neither here nor there though.  We’re talking about Ryan Franklin, the terrible closer.  Or is he?

I set out to seek the answer.  Because while the eye test says he is indeed a terrible closer, I was interested in if the numbers agree.  So I am grading him the past two seasons against the other closers in the league.  I charted anybody with at least 40 saves in the past two seasons.

Despite the fact that he is clearly not a power pitcher, his numbers are actually above league average for closers.  This chart does not include this season so he clearly could have just lost whatever he had by now.

Another point to mention is that the average for closers with at least 40 saves over the past two years is probably higher performance than the actual average closer since these men had to keep their jobs for 40 saves.  There are obviously some closers who kept their jobs because their manager is an idiot. (Read: Charlie Manuel)

However, I grew suspicion because Franklin is clearly not a good closer.  Let’s try to use splits to our advantage and see how he fares.

To be honest, if I checked, I’m guessing this would be this way for most closers.  I checked two closers who were similar, but I stopped because I realized it was 30 minutes later.  That means it’d be about an 8 hour project.  I want to find out if Franklin is bad, but not that badly.  Anyway, point being is that Franklin is really just an average closer.

The problem is that he isn’t a typical closer.  The other problem is that he’s probably going to be terrible this year.  You don’t have a 6.14 K/9 and a 2.97 ERA without a little bit of luck.  He has good control, but he needs to have Cliff Lee control to maintain that ERA.

So what exactly is the answer to the question: Is Ryan Franklin terrible?  The answer is both yes and no.  No as in he actually has been the typical closer the past two years.  YES as in he’s not going to stay that way.

It’s a good thing we have a manager who doesn’t have a history of staying loyal to veteran closers despite terrible performance.    Wait…