Freddy Galvis kicks teammate where the sun don't shine

When I get up in the morning, I like to go to MLB.com and watch the walk-off highlights. Now I know my friend, Mike Bates (@commnman) hates the term, "walk-off," so I know I am already in trouble. But the events are about as close to a sudden death situation as baseball gets. The walk-off homer is about as exciting as it gets for a home team. A team's player hits a homer that wins the game and the visiting team walks sadly off the field and the player who hit the homer pumps his fists, rounds third, throws his helmet and gets mobbed at home plate.

These events get a little passe after a while. There is a lot of jumping, the teams all huddle around the hero and there is whooping and hollering. They usually throw water at the guy or try to rip his shirt off. And the post-game interview usually involves shaving cream. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. The best ever was Prince Fielder's in Milwaukee where he landed on home plate and all his players fell over. But mostly, they are all the same.

Well, yesterday, Kevin Frandsen hit a walk-off homer for the Phillies, and all of the above elements were in there. But there was an added bonus. The video showed Freddy Galvis kicking his teammate where the sun does not shine. Galvis did not do it once. He did it twice. I will try to embed the video. If that does not work, see this link to watch it.


So Galvis could be forgiven for his enthusiasm. But what the heck was he thinking? Sheesh. The second one connected in such a way that junk might have been involved. Ouch. Next time, Freddy, just pat the guy on the back, okay?

A payday for Kevin Frandsen

Kevin Frandsen did not get rich a few days ago when the Phillies signed him for $850,000 plus incentives. That is certainly not big money when it comes to baseball contracts. But when you think that it took eight years of minor league ball and several cups of coffee for him to stick at the major league level, that is a pretty big deal. But his signing doesn't mean that the Phillies will actually hand him the third base job. The team is rumored in on the Kevin Youkilis sweepstakes. Such is the life for Frandsen, a guy who has never had it easy.

To get some sort of picture of what it took Frandsen to reach this point, here is a sequence of events leading up to his 201 plate appearances for the Phillies in 2012:

• Played at a small San Jose college and set the record there for hits.
• Not drafted until the 370th pick (12th round) by the Giants in 2004.
• Hit well in his first two minor league seasons and appeared in 41 games for the Giants in 2006. He finished with a .607 OPS.
• Appeared in 109 games for the Giants in 2007 and played at five different appearances. Fared better at the plate with a .710 OPS and a .331 on-base percentage.
• Blew out his Achilles tendon in 2008 and missed the entire season except for one at bat in the last game of the season.
• In the spring of 2009, Frandsen was in a competition with Emmanuel Burriss for the starting second base job. Burriss won. How ignoble is that? Can't even beat out Emmanuel Burriss? He was sent to the minors
• Only appeared in a handful of big league games in 2009 and finished with a .384 OPS. Ugh.
• Was traded by the Giants to the Red Sox for cash and an unknown player to be named later on March 26, 2010. 
• After just a three-day look, the Red Sox optioned him on March 29th of that same year.
• The Red Sox then DFA'd him a month later on April 28.
• The Angels took him off waivers a day later
• Frandsen played in 54 games for the Angels in 2010 at five different positions. Again, he did not hit an finished with a .613
• The Angels non-tendered him after the season.
• Signed a minor league deal with the Padres on January 5, 2011. They released him two months and twenty days later.
• Signed with the Phillies to a minor league contract in 2011 and he did not see any major league playing time. 
• Signed a minor league deal with the Phillies again in 2012 and played 99 games for the Triple A, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.
• Polanco hurts himself and on July 29, 2012, Frandsen was recalled from the minors and played nearly every day for the remainder of the season.

That is quite a long ride to earn himself (finally) a nearly million dollar deal! But Frandsen played really well when he got his chance this time. He rated above league average in the field, mostly at third base. He batted .338 with a .383 on-base percentage. His .834 OPS was good for a 124 OPS+.

And it should not be that big a surprise. In 2,563 plate appearances in the minors, Frandsen had a .310 batting average with a .368 on-base percentage.

The Phillies do not quite trust what they saw though. As stated, they are in the hunt for Youkilis and if they don't get him, they have stated that they would consider platooning Frandsen with Galvis. Seriously? Frandsen did not have any kind of batting split against right-handed pitchers. Most of his plate appearances were against right-handers and look at the numbers he put up.

There is some understanding of the Phillies' reticence. Frandsen's game does have a few weaknesses. He doesn't walk much with only a 5.4 percent rate for 836 big league plate appearances. He does not have power. As good as his season was, his ISO was only .111. Teams like their third basemen to have some pop. And Frandsen hits too many ground balls. His ground ball to fly ball rate was over two.

But there are strengths to his game. He hardly ever strikes out and his swing and miss rate is only 5.6 percent for his career. He hits a lot of line drives and again, he plays good defense.

Frandsen's story is one of perseverance. You root for guys like him. His fine two months of play last season will not guarantee him anything with the Phillies heading into 2013. But at least it guarantees him a major league job all season and his first real payday of his career. His game isn't ideal. But it is not half bad either.

Kevin Frandsen Off to a Hot Start

There has been a lot of ink for some hot prospects that have been called up this year in the majors. There is Ike Davis and Carlos Santana and Mike Stanton and Buster Posey and of course, Stephen Strasburg. But what about Kevin Frandsen? Who? Yeah, that is about par for the course for the San Jose native who was called up by the Angels 17 games ago after the Red Sox gave up on him and put him on waivers.

Frandsen has never been high on anyone's scouting report. He wasn't drafted until the 12th round back in 2004. But he burned through the minors and then got to the majors as early as 2006. He also got looks in 2007, 2008 and 2009 for the Giants but never stuck. A major injury (achilles tendon) in 2008 really set him back and he lost the entire year except for one at bat for the Giants in the last game of the season.

But Fandsen has always performed well in the minors and his career line there is .314/.377/.446. He's not a great fielding third baseman, but he gets on base and gives you solid play. The Angels started the year with Brandon Wood at third and the poor kid just withered. Wood has a .168 OBP and his OPS+ is an amazingly low 2. Maicer Izturis wasn't the answer as he posted an 89 OPS+ so the Angels had nothing to lose by trying Frandsen. And boy has he ever delivered!

Frandsen has participated in 17 games but has only started 14 of them. In those 14 games, he's had five multi-hit games and has hit safely in 11 of them and has reached base in 12 of them. He's batting .370 with an OBP of .408. The Angels have won nine of those fourteen games.

Give the Angels credit for thinking outside of the box in plucking Frandsen from the Red Sox trash heap. It was a move necessitated by having no one else in their organization to play third and they have won themselves some games by giving Frandsen an opportunity. He is making the most of it so far.