The 2015 Philadelphia Phillies season, one that ended with the team posting the worst record in the league, didn't feature many positive memorable moments.
The most overwhelmingly positive game of the season came on June 22nd, when Maikel Franco played the best game of his young career, hitting two home runs and making a tremendous diving play in an 11-8 win over the New York Yankees, at Yankee Stadium.
Franco, both due to his need for seasoning and a service-time technicality, didn't start 2015 in the major leagues. He also missed more than half of August and all of September, before returning for the final three games in October, due to a wrist injury.
Still, in just 80 games at the big league level in 2015, Franco showed glimpses of being a cornerstone talent. He hit .280 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs. If you project those stats out to 160 games, which is still two shy of the amount of games played in a season, Franco would have hit 28 home runs and 100 RBIs.
After that impressive glimpse in 2015, the 23-year-old has quickly erased talk of him being the last player on the team to arrive to Spring Training, as he has hit .333 with two home runs and 6 RBIs so far in Spring Training. Prior to a hit-less game yesterday, one in which he still drove the ball well, Franco was batting north of .380.
It's early in Spring Training, and Franco could very well cool down heading into the regular season. But since Ryan Howard hit 33 home runs and drove in 116 runs in 2011, no Phillies' player has hit over 30 home runs or driven in more than 100 runs. It appears that Franco has a chance to challenge both of those numbers in 2016.
Phillies nuggets
- Perhaps the red jersey does him more justice than a pinstriped one, but Darin Ruf looks to have slimmed down. That probably won't help him hit better against right-handed pitching, but it may allow him to improve in the field.
- It was actually impressive that after a disastrous first inning that saw him allow four earned runs on two home runs, Aaron Nola was able to pitch a one-two-three second inning in last Sunday's game. Being able to rebound like that is an important quality to have at the major league level.
- Tyler Goeddel has been impressive in Spring Training, but so has fellow Rule-5 pick Daniel Stumpf. Stumpf could very well challenge for a spot in a bullpen that is short on left-handed options.
- Aaron Altherr's wrist injury, which will reportedly put him out for 4-6 months, is unfortunate in that it could cost him his entire 2016 season, but the bad luck goes beyond that. At this time next year, Odubel Herrera will presumably still be a lock to start. Tyler Goeddel, Peter Bourjos and Cody Asche will get chances to prove they are deserving of long-term at-bats in Altherr's absence. And on top of that, Nick Williams and Roman Quinn will presumably be competing for at-bats at the major league level at this time next year. So Altherr will face an uphill battle to earn a starting job next year, when he entered this spring as a favorite to start. That's a tough break.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
