Maikel Franco, Philadelphia Phillies
May Stats: .476 OPS, .091 ISO, one homer, eight RBI, good for a 17 wRC+ in 93 plate appearances
The Phillies have a decent hold on first place in the NL East right now, and it has nothing to do with Franco’s (lack of) offensive production. The third baseman has just completely fallen off a cliff, too — he owned a 104 wRC+ and .844 OPS entering the month and exits May with a 64 wRC+ and .677 OPS on the season.
Franco’s 9.0% walk rate is easily on pace to be a career high, and while his soft-hit rate (28.3% to 22.3%) and hard-hit rate (27.5% to 31.9%) have improved, they’re still not exactly conducive to having success at the plate. On the surface, his 41.6% fly-ball rate would be a good, but not when it’s paired with a 23.2% infield-fly rate.
The 26-year-old has been much more successful against changeups thus far in 2019 (115 to 201 wRC+). Once again, though, that’s basically been negated by his performance against sinkers (122 wRC+ in ’18 to 9 so far in ’19).
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. Check those out and more helpful tips on sports blogging at his website.
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