Wander Franco

This is their whole ethos ... I thought everyone who follows baseball more than casually knows the Rays do more with less than basically anyone, even after other teams have raided their front office talent.

 

I’ve been following Rays prospects all the way back in the days when B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Scott Kazmir, and Elijah Dukes were a thing. Used to hang out on an old Rays message board called raysbaseball.com when they were the Devil Rays that was a very active community. Prospects used to be all we had to look forward to, lol. I remember a converted college infielder turned reliever from NC State named Chad Orvella who I thought was going to be the next dominant closer who completely busted out. Those were the days.

 

Yeah, that is the general view. I was laughing at some Chicago fan trying to figure out why the White Sox kept losing to a bunch of players she had never heard of earlier this year.

I meant more following closely what happens even in the minors. Some top systems really don't play well on the field because they have a couple of great players at each level and a lot of mediocre or below mediocre players other than that. The Rays farm is crazy good. Two years ago, when Franco started the year in Durham, they may have had the most successful farm system in history in terms of wins and losses.

If I were a minor league team, my whole goal would be to be a Rays affiliate. Charleston was never that good apparently until they joined the Rays system. Now they are coming off back-to-back titles (and, while they started terribly this year, they've become one of the hottest teams in the second half of the year).

 

Have you ever made it to Durham for some games? First class ballpark and great atmosphere. Good way to see the guys rehabbing and the guys on the brink of breaking through. Tried to get over there to see Glas rehab but it didnt work out.

 

Without being sappy, its nice to talk about something with you guys that isn't a source of disagreement.

Reminds us that we are all deeper than politics and we have many things in common. Gators and Rays is a nice combo...probably alot of us love the Bolts too... If we ever all get to a game together this con is buying the beers.

 

Surgery on Margot, out 3-4 weeks, recall Aranda, who I never understood was an outfielder, so not sure. Not exactly an infielder either

 

Is it Amanda who had the relationship with Wander?

 

I doubt her name was Amanda. Too WASPY. Amanda's don't celebrate their quinceanera, which I understand is upcoming for the girl in question.

 

You spelled, Aranda, Amanda. My post was a weak attempt at humor.

 

The guy has already shown to be a bit of a clubhouse problem. He’s very talented, but I wouldn’t think he’s even in the top half of mlb talent. this is meant more for some of the earlier posts lauding his abilities

 

I understood. It was clever. I was trying to respond in kind.

Pretty sure my original mistake was autocorrect.

It’s all good. Appreciated the humor

 

It would be nice if the Rays would just go on a long losing streak and let the Orioles cruise into the division title but they are too annoying to do that.

 

Boooo

 

He has the second highest W.A.R. in the American league behind Shohei Ohtani. Barring getting into all kinds of shit, which is far from a future possibility, he is a future Hall of Famer.

 

As a die hard Braves fan, he reminds me of Andrew Jones. Still an extreme compliment, just a realistic one.

 

We were on a flight from Raleigh to Tampa in 2015 and ended up flying with a guy who was called up to pitch one game before being sent back down. He clearly knew the game as he didn't bring much.

 

Andrew Jones is a Hall of Fame level player. However, he petered out at a fairly early age, if I recall. Franco, if he’s not thrown out of baseball, almost certainly will hit for a substantially higher average than Jones. Both players are great fielders. Jones was a real Homerun threat. I’m not sure whether Franco will hit anywhere near as many home runs has Jones did. I expect Franco to be one of the top five position players in the American League throughout his career.

 

This is a pretty informative listen. They don't even suggest they know what really happened. They do translate the various Spanish language social media posts in a way that you know at least what they are saying. They also talk about how baseball investigate some matters, although with very little detail.

The point I found most cogent came at the end, although it was hinted at earlier. This kind of stuff, extortion at the threat of public disclosure of some negative fact absent payment, happens to players on the Rays and other major league baseball teams with some regularity, such that MLB has on the ground in country standing investigation teams in most of the areas that are feeders, including the Dominican Republic.
Over half the time there is no substantial merit to it. Even if there's discipline or the player is cut, it's not often announced why.

That's because players are supposed to go to the organization when they get the threat. In Wander's case, he knew about it for a while and the team literally never really learned about it till right before the game, although there were some slight rumblings. For that reason, it first played out on social media, such that it is a story that will follow he and the organization even if he is ultimately cleared in whole or in part.

But he essentially went live on Instagram live pregame before the team was even really formally notified or ready to deal with it. Another mark of his total immaturity. Even if he has not done what he has been accused of doing, and even if he has not done something worth true discipline or prosecution come by he is again marked himself as an immature unreliable part of the organization. Presuming he stays with the organization and is somewhat cleared, let us hope he grows out of it.

Wander Franco placed on the restricted list. - Rays Your Voice: A Tampa Bay Rays Podcast