Just 5 Minutes: Face It, Ryan Franklin Is Toast

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St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin had yet another
 poor outing on Saturday afternoon in the Cardinals 7-3 loss
 to the Cincinnati Reds. - Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Saturday afternoon's game in Cincinnati was just like every other game this season for St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin.  Yet another appearance in a major league game for the 38 year old veteran, and yet another St. Louis Cardinals loss.

Saturday's 7-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds was not Franklin's fault.  But the struggling reliever had yet another terrible performance.

Franklin relieved Cardinals starter Kyle McClellan in the seventh inning with the Cardinals trailing 4-0.  Franklin was unable keep it just a four run lead, tossing 1.1 innings and allowing two runs on three hits and a walk.   He threw 30 pitches of which only 16 were for strikes.  And every time the Reds swung the bat against Franklin, they made contact as Franklin registered exactly zero swing and misses on Saturday afternoon.

Lets face it.  Ryan Franklin is like burnt toast.  Not even butter or grape jelly can save him at this point.  

So when will the Cardinals organization recognize that they can not afford to have Franklin on this roster much longer?

General manager John Mozeliak recently was quoted as saying that Franklin should be in the mix for the closer's role again.  But how can he justify such comments when Franklin can't get anybody out in low pressure situations as the club's long reliever?

Everybody knows that Franklin is one of manager Tony La Russa's "boys".

But major league baseball is rarely personal.  Its strictly about business and about winning.  And unfortunately for Ryan Franklin, the Cardinals must wake up and get him off their roster as soon as possible.  Here is the skinny, otherwise known as the dirty stats.

The Cardinals are 3-8 in games that Franklin has appeared in this season.  He has a 9.88 ERA and has allowed an earned run in eight of his 11 appearances.  He has struck out just five hitters in 13.1 innings.  Opponents are hitting .381 off of Franky with a 1.133 OPS!

Al Hrabosky, the Cardinals color analyst on Fox Sports Midwest, repeatedly mentions how "unlucky" Franklin has been this season.  I'm sorry, but allowing opponents to hit .381 with a 1.133 OPS is not "unlucky."  It's absolutely terrible!

To put it in perspective, Cardinals outfielder Lance Berkman is second in the league in OPS at 1.104 and Matt Holliday is third at 1.090.  And as Cardinals fans know better than anybody, those two have been hitting the ball harder than anybody in baseball for the entire season.

And yet Franklin's OPS against is higher than those two players!  Franklin essentially makes every hitter who steps in the box against him better than Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday!

So, what should the Cardinals do with their $3.5 million long reliever?

Honestly, it is easy.  I know that Ryan Franklin is a good guy and that he gets along well with teammates and treats members of the media well.

But the organization either must disable Franklin with a mysterious injury or cut ties with him as soon as left-handed reliever Brian Tallet is available to come off of the disabled list this time next week.

Franklin can no longer be on this roster.  Franklin looks dead out there.  His pitches are dead and so is his attitude on the mound.

He's beaten.  He is demoralized.  And for all intent and purposes, he is absolutely 100% finished.

And I could be really wrong.  Relief pitcher's constantly revive their careers and wind up succeeding in the weirdest situations.  Just ask former Cardinals closer and current New York Mets set-up man Jason Isringhausen.

But if Franklin ever regains form and becomes an effective major league reliever again, I guarantee that it won't happen in a Cardinals uniform.

Because it will cost too many games on the field to repair the mess that has become Ryan Franklin.

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