Reading's Wathan always confident Maikel Franco would be a star

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READING, Pa. — Dusty Wathan had a hunch about Maikel Franco when the third baseman made a quick pit stop at Reading in 2013.

It was during the second half of the '13 season when Franco hit 15 homers and batted .339 in 69 games for Wathan’s Reading Fightin Phils when the manager thought he had a big-league All-Star on his club.

At the time, though, Wathan probably didn’t think Franco would be vying for an All-Star berth not even two years later.

“He hit here and he hit everywhere he was,” Wathan said. “Coming through the minor leagues I thought he was going to be a successful major-leaguer.”

Franco is certainly making a case to be the Phillies’ representative at next month’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati. Heading into Wednesday afternoon’s game, Franco was batting .319 with 10 homers and a .972 OPS in 37 games. During the month of June, Franco is batting .415 with eight homers, 21 RBIs and an OPS over 1.200 in 21 games.

Franco had a June just like this one two years ago when he was promoted from Clearwater to Reading. In his first 24 games in Reading, Franco batted .400 with 10 homers before cooling down to hit .319 with 10 homers over the final 48 games of the season.

He also mixed it with stellar work at third base, with some work at first base mixed in.

Wathan warns not to get too far ahead and earmark Franco for Cooperstown just yet. Consistency is the trick, not just a hot month.

“The trick is to go through the league multiple times and multiple years and earn the right to be an everyday major-league player,” Wathan said. “Right now he’s doing a good job as far as the numbers say. Hopefully, he continues on. He’s playing great.”

Then again, Wathan says, the sky is the limit for Franco. At just 22, Franco is only going to refine his hitting skills.

“I think he has a chance to be a major-league All-Star, Wathan said. “He does everything well. He has a better-than-average arm, he’s a better-than-average defender and he has better-than-average power. To me, the older you get the better your command of the strike zone gets.”

Crawford following Franco’s footsteps?
As Franco kicks off his big-league career, shortstop J.P. Crawford is following a similar path. Called up from Clearwater this month, Crawford is hitting .310 in his first 23 games at Double A.

Crawford has reached base in all 23 games for Reading and has a nine-game hitting streak. However, Wathan has been most impressed by Crawford’s defense.

“He’s pretty good. The ball gets in and out of his glove pretty quick. He’s as good as I’ve seen than anybody I ever had as a manager,” Wathan said.

“He comes across the bag to turn double plays quickly and it’s part of the reason why he was drafted where he was drafted.

“He has a good arm, but not a great arm. He has a lot of range and he’s accurate as heck. I can’t remember a time this year when he pulled a first baseman off the bag.”

If there is a flaw so far with Crawford it’s his hitting against lefties. Heading into Tuesday’s game, Crawford was hitting just .167 against southpaws.

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