The 36 year old, 10 season veteran, Ryan Franklin told reporters in Jupiter that he is considering hanging it up after his contract runs out after the 2011 season. It will be sad to see him and that weird beard leave, but it's hard to argue with his reasoning. The P-D reports: "Franklin's 5-year-old daughter looked at the Cardinals' closer with her puppy-dog eyes and said, 'Daddy, I wish you had another job where you were here.'"
How can you not retire after that? Oh yeah, because you just signed a 2 year, $6.5 million contract. Just explain to your daughter how many Barbies she can buy with that much money. I did the math - that's 325,000 Barbies. Dream house and convertible not included.
But in all honesty, I can see his point of view. But...what will the Cards do if he retires? He did struggle when it counted most last year, but to be fair it was his first year in the official full-time closers role and either fatigue or nerves might have played a factor. And he did still finish the season with 38 saves and a 1.92 ERA.
But what would the Birds do? Would they bring up someone from the farm? Would they shop the free agent market? Odds are they would would bring someone up. In 2011, (hopefully) fresh off the heels of their huge contract that they just gave Pujols, the Cards will probably be trying to save wherever they can.
I'm hoping that someone can emerge from the minors this year and be a shut down closer. That would be nice. I'll wait til the clock shows 11:11 and that is what I will wish for.
See ya tomorrow Cards Fans.
Two words...Jason Motte! Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteMZS