The Player, The Scout, The Hitting Coach with Micah Franklin
Welcome to The Baseball Awakening Podcast, where we dive into the raw, unfiltered, unsexy side of player development
Guest Bio:
Micah Franklin, 15 Year Professional Baseball Players, 8 Year Professional Scout for the Diamondbacks and Mariners, and Current Hitting Coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Summary:
On this episode, Host Geoff Rottmayer sits down with Micah Franklin
Show Notes:Â In this conversation, Micah talks about:
- His professional career and what it took to have a career as he did.
- His belief system and how the game humbled him.
- The feelings he felt when he made it to the big leagues.
- He playing career overseas.
- Transition into becoming a scout.
- Becoming the hitting coach.
- The importance of vision plays in hitting.
- Developing and coming up with an approach.
- Meditation and how it goes into player development.
- The difference between an A swing and a B swing.
- How to start working on timing while hitting and how important timing his in hitting.
- The importance of being on time.
- Developing the relationship and trust with players before making drastic changes.
- and much more.
Website:Â www.baseballawakening.com
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Twitter:Â Baseball Awakening Podcast
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Email Address:Â geoff@baseballawakening.com
–Transcribe–
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:00:00 On today’s show. We did now with Micah Franklin, a former professional player, a former scout, and a current hitting coach. And we’re talking about at all.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:00:11 Welcome to another episode of The Baseball Awakening podcast where we dive into the raw unfiltered unsexy side of player development. Get ready for some knowledge bombs with your host, Geoff Rottmayer
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:00:34 Welcome to the Baseball Awakening Podcast, I am Geoff Rottmayer and today I am sitting down with Micah Franklin. Mike enjoyed a 15 year professional career to include playing Japan, Korea, and even had a short stint in the big league. From there he went on to scout for the back and the Marriner, which leads into what he’d doing now as the minor league hitting code for not even back. Micah, how are you sir?
Micah Franklin: 00:01:00 Great. How’s it going, Geoff?
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:01:02 I’m doing great. You know, I know you’re down there and there’s zona and you’re working hard trying to get guys ready for this coming sleeve. And so you know, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. You know, Michael, when I, when I read up on you, you know, your guy who’d done a lot of things in this game, you know, a 15 year career, which include playing in the big leagues for a little bit and you know, playing some overseas. Then that got you into scouting and now you’re hitting coach. So let’s, let’s kind of get into, you know, a little bit of everything of what you done, the let you start with you kind of taking that through everything that you’d done in baseball leading up to what you’re doing now.
Micah Franklin: 00:01:41 Yeah, yeah. I got to wear a lot of hats, um, throughout my career. Worked to note the play 15 years, mostly in the minors overseas and um, absolutely loved baseball. Um, I left it for five years, went into the, I call it the real world, um, and working in, um, ran a couple of businesses with my family in New York and came back to Arizona, got back into scouting, um, did that for eight years and had a little, had a little itch going on and in the, in a coaching and, and you know, talk to the dime bags. And fortunately Mike Bell got me a job, offered me a job and here I am.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:02:22 That’s awesome. So let’s, let’s go back to your kind of your playing days. Um, you know, the, you were a, uh, uh, you got dropped out of high school, third round by the maps. Um, talk about that, you know, what, what goes into being able to be a guy that’s in the high school and being drafted in the third round and you know, going to go play pro ball. What, I mean, what, what happened to happen for that, for that to happen?
Micah Franklin: 00:02:52 Um, well, you know, I love baseball from the time I was just a little kid, you know, playing out in streets, Lynch, strikeout, playing in the parks, playing. All we do is play, play, play, and you know, imitating all the hitters back in the day, whether it was Joe Morgan willing me, Jay, you know, whoever it was, and, and we’re sitting there and pretending I’m not hit or, you know, I mean Reggie Jackson and, and all these, all these great hitters. And then all of a sudden you start realizing at a certain age that, Hey, you know what? I’m kind of good. You know, I’m not bad. And when that clicks, then man, that clicked in for me. Um, and it clicked in differently for everyone that clicked in for me. When I was a freshman in high school, I played on the varsity team and I realized that, Hey, you know what? I’m getting some interest here. I’m gonna. I got a chance to go play pro ball. And I knew a couple of players. Harvey Pulliam was right before me, got drafted third round with the Kansas city Royals. And he went right into pro ball. And so that was my focus from day one of, I mean, when I realized that freshman year I wanted to go play pro ball.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:04:04 Very cool. So how does, I mean, what your top thought at that point, how did you know what you need to do and what you need to work on for that to become a reality, even though you had a lot of, a lot of abilities already, but how did you know what you need to focus on to get better and make that the reality?
Micah Franklin: 00:04:23 No, that’s a great question. I as now I’m coaching, especially the younger kids, everyone’s like, what do I need to focus on to get better? You know, I believe in myself so much that I was so naive. I didn’t think I needed to do anything to get better. I was the best, you know, I believed I was the best and I didn’t realize until I was in pro ball, um, the deficiencies I had that I needed to work on and really, really focused on. I just went out there every day and believed I was the best player on the field. And there’s something said for that, um, belief is, is in strength. It in, in your mind is, is huge. And that really was, I, I didn’t think I needed to get better in anything.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:05:10 Yeah, no, I mean everybody that I’ve talked to that had a chance to play at the level that you played at and said the same thing. It’s all, it’s all about the belief. So how do, how do you develop that or that’s something that you develop?
Micah Franklin: 00:05:22 Um, you know, that that was something that came, that I was best player on the field in my mind. A lot of times that was true. And if it wasn’t true, I wouldn’t know because I really, I really did believe I’m the best player. I mean, I have a story. I remember after my first at bat in the major league, I hit a line drive. Rico, y’all jumped up and snagged it. Snow cone dip. Um, I walked back into the dugout and I remember willing to get in there and the line of shield, Ray Labour, Brian Jordan, I walked by with the man. This lead’s going to be too easy for me little. I know it’s not that easy, but that was the mind, you know, that I had, I was the best person out there. So yeah, it is such an amazing thing when you believe in yourself.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:06:08 Yeah, no, I agree. So the now you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re playing pro ball and this is where you said you started to kind of define, you know, what you need to work on, what, what were some of the things and what would kind of the game plan to get you to kind of work on some of those things?
Micah Franklin: 00:06:26 um, well, quickly, um, you get into pro ball and you realize that, um, these guys are really good too. And you get humbled if you get humbled quickly. Um, and [inaudible] you talk to people you trust, you know, and that’s why in pro boy, you got to trust people in amateur. Boy, you got to trust people in life. You have to trust people. Um, I met people that I [inaudible] trusted. And when you’re humble, it’s amazing. Um, you’ll listen and you’ll listen and you’ll believe in them and they believe in you. And it goes from there.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:07:11 Whenever you get to, whenever you get to that level, and everybody gives me, everybody kinda think that everybody has everybody’s best interests. Um, and there’s that trust. Think the hottest. How did one know who to trust? I mean, that could be at the, the amateur level as well is, you know, everybody appeared to have my best interest, but really maybe not everybody does. So how do I know who to trust, who not to trust?
Micah Franklin: 00:07:43 That’s awesome. That’s a great question. Um, and it’s hard because sometimes the person that sounds like they’re, they’re out there for you is really not at all the person backing tell you that. True. Even when you don’t want to hear that truth, but they can do it in a way that you know, they’re there for you at that person. That’s the person you know, they care for me. I don’t want to hear that because it’s too easy to go to the next person right next to you telling you what you want to hear. Right. But the person giving you that hard talk, but giving it to you in a way that you don’t want to kill him. That’s the guy
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:08:27 so what a [inaudible]. You’re in the, you’re in the minor league right now and you’re learning what it’s like to be, you’re learning how to be a professional. I’m at 18 years old when you got there. Um, what, what, what’s that like? I mean, at the transition of getting away from home and trying to learn how to be Fashional trying to learn. Do you know dumb? I’m playing baseball too. I love to do. But there’s still that transition of how to, how to live and what it means to be a professional. So what, what would that process like and, and, and did anybody kind of help you and guide you through that process?
Micah Franklin: 00:09:00 Well, you know, that was a hard process for me. Um, again, I was a cocky little kid out of San Francisco and I had to get humble. Um, I believed I was the best. And um, I walked around like I was the best. Well not everybody likes the guy that walks around some confident and cocky and there’s a, there’s a fine line there. There’s a fine line believing yourself and maybe being insecure. Maybe some of that belief was insecure. Who knew? Um, but that was hard for me. It was hard to, um, I went to Kingsport, Tennessee, um, the 18 year old kid out of San Francisco and you know, both abs are not easy for any kid and it’s still that way today. It’s hard for to go from 18 years old and now you’re paying your bills. You’re, um, you’re a professional. You’re playing every day.
Micah Franklin: 00:09:55 You have to be at the field at this time. You have to do this at this time. And up until that point, you pretty much could do what you wanted to do. You know, you’re the guy. Every kid is the guy who’s in professional baseball. And now all of a sudden you have an old people telling you, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. You’re going out there on the field and you’re playing against, you’re competing against people who are just as good as you, or maybe you’re a little better. Maybe they’re a little better and you’re not the dude anymore. And that’s a transition.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:10:25 Yeah. So when I look at your, your kinda your, your career, um, number [inaudible] number, why? There’s obviously a lot of factors to it, but you, uh, you put up the numbers man, and then you, you, you produce. So, you know, when we look at, you know, uh, you got to go to the big league in 97 for a few games. Um, what was that like? I mean, what was it like going out there, producing and then finally getting that call up to the big league?
Micah Franklin: 00:10:55 Um, it was absolutely made me, I was so lucky. My dad passed now, but he happened to be there. My mom was there and my beautiful wife, my oldest daughter’s here. Um, the moment I came out of the clubhouse, um, and let them know that they, well, Jackie, actually the GM happened to be in town. They let me know I was going to the big leagues. It was amazing. I had a clue the night before. One of my really, really good friends, Willie, uh, was, was willing to be gay. Who kinda kinda mentioned that they heard that I’m coming up. So I go to the ballpark the next day. No one’s said a word to me, you know, the manager [inaudible] he’s sitting there, he’s, Hey, you know, a lot of things happen up there. Just keep, keep battling, keep, you know, keep doing your thing. Then after the game, I have ne have a pretty decent game that day. And he walked by my, my locker about three times and I’m like, man, they must have changed their mind. Wow. So I was like, Whoa. Then he’d finally on the third day, you know, third time when he’s walking back and say, Michael, come here. And they called me in and, and, and it was, uh, it was unbelievable. It was a dream come true. Everything. I dreamed, everything I worked for just hit me. And it was like, wow, this is amazing.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:12:08 Yeah. They always say that, uh, getting there hard, but laying there harder. Um, you know, and when we look at you, you know, you, they, they uh, look like you got, you got them back down. Uh, what would that whole thing like what would, uh, you know, you’re there, you finally feel like you’ve arrived and then they, and then you not, you’re not there again.
Micah Franklin: 00:12:32 Wow. Yeah. It’s no lie about that one getting there. And I don’t want to say easy, but he theory and staying there is, wow. Um, yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t get to stay very long. They did. Okay. Didn’t get to stay very long. Um, there’s some really good players up there and sometimes to me to be in the right spot, right time, things have to go your way. Um, and you know, they went my way because I got an opportunity to go up there. I can, I can be a little down that I didn’t stay as long as I wanted to, but um, I was fortunate enough year after that I went to, uh, Iowa and played with the, um, Cubs and AAA and then went to Japan and went overseas. Um, at that time, um, the opportunity to go overseas and make some money for my family was the deciding factor. But it was awesome going up there and I wish I could stayed as my one thing. I wish I could stay a little longer.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:13:27 Yeah. The Whoa. What was overseas like? What was the transition from, you know, the, the caliber, the language, the culture, all that stuff. And now you’re in a, in a new place. What, what was that like?
Micah Franklin: 00:13:40 Oh, I was so excited to be over there. Um, is a coacher is amazing. Japan is absolutely made name. The people are amazing and countries are just a wonderful place. I’m playing there. The time when I played there as, uh, as 99, you had two foreign hitters and you get to foreign pitchers and let me tell you what to know about pressure. It’s pressure from the time you took batting practice in spring training, those reporters are out there and they’ll let you know how many balls you hit out that day. If you didn’t do a good enough the next day in batting practice, it’ll be in the paper. And it is no joke. It’s serious. Yeah, it is serious.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:14:21 So what were the different know? You ought to play it in a, it looked like you played in Korea as well.
Micah Franklin: 00:14:26 Yeah, just these in Korea, a parts of that. And 2003, that was another amazing experience. Um, again, I wore a lot of hats, so I was, what, 12 organizations? So, um, I loved every single one of my socks. It was a story of, you know, my chapter, my book’s not done, but it was another chapter in my life. Um, and wow, what an experience that I’m really fortunate, you know, I got to play in Korea for two seasons. Japan’s you seasons, um, laid in Dominican winter ball, two seasons. We won the Caribbean series there. Uh, you know, I got to play in Mexico for two winters played event as well. Uh, you know, baseball has been really, really good to me and I absolutely love baseball right back. Um, so, you know, experiences have been great.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:15:19 Very cool. Let jump over to the, the scouting. I’d like to get into more, you know, what you’re doing now. The hitting, hitting up above. Let’s, let’s just kind of go through your journey, um, the scouting, um, talk about that. What would that transition like going from being a player and, uh, you know, having them fix that full ninth career run and then now you’re jumping over to the other side and, uh, you know, evaluating players. What was the, what was that like, and then how did, how do you think maybe you, the, the playing career and the people you were around kind of helped you with that transition?
Micah Franklin: 00:15:54 Um, definitely I absolutely love scouting. Scouting is awesome. Um, it, it takes a person, um, a while to really get, get their own little feel and niche or, or scouting, cause you can go out there right away, your first years and, and you have biases. We all have biases and you have to get rid of your biases and you have to look at it, um, with a lens. You know, when you’re looking at players, it’s if they’re raw. You know, I came in, saw some amateurs and I saw some young rookie players might trout. And those guys, his first year when he got drafted by us was there his first year, you seeing these players and they’re so raw and they’re so young and you dream and it’s pretty cool to go back in the room. You write your report and you dream with those players and you follow them along their career. Um, it’s, it’s pretty cool, but definitely playing, um, has helped, um, have an idea. You have a Rolodex lease. I’m old, so we talk about Rolodexes now you just go in your phone stroll. But you know, um, of all the players, you, you start remembering, Hey, he kinda reminds me of this guy. He kinda moved like that guy. Um, and you can dream along with them. So there’s no question. Scouting is, is an awesome, awesome job. It’s an arc. It’s hard, long days. Um, and, and some long nights.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:17:23 Yeah. So how do you, could you, you mentioned it a little bit earlier. Uh, you know, you have to take the, uh, the, the, the player development or the, the coaching lens off and turn it over to the, uh, the evaluating lens. Um, you know, that, that’s gotta be tough from times. Uh, when you look at a guy say, Hey, but we did a few things with him. Um, a few things could happen. Um, so how, how, how do you, I mean, what that, would that a tough transition or would that tough for you to do or were you able to kinda get that right land on and, uh, make them good evaluations?
Micah Franklin: 00:18:02 Yeah, no, I, I think when you’re, when you’re looking at it, that lens, you’re looking at the tool, you know, how you can see how it will grow. You know, fortunate enough to, you know, seeing Cody Bellinger is 16, 17 years old and, and saying, you can see it, you saw the way the body moves. It was free. I promotable you, you understood that. Hey, look at the dad, clay clay. I mean bloodlines, former big league or the body’s strong, really strong, well, Cody’s a little, little smaller, but he was strong. You can see how that’s going to grow. You see how he moves on the field. Um, and you can envision now when he goes into player development, how they’re going to help them along the way. So you kind of put those two together, you take off the lenses and say, Hey, you can’t be the one to do the player to Bellerman, but you can say, I know how player development is going to, to take this young man and going to help him. Um, I think that’s what helped about, um, being a player, especially out of high school, going through a couple of extended spring training at the lower levels longer and understanding how much player development really takes into account of, of a body and a player and can really mold that player.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:19:23 The, the, the scouting nowadays, the, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe they did it whenever you were, um, doing some scouting, the technology and the data and all that stuff. What are your thoughts on, on all bath from, from a scouting side of things?
Micah Franklin: 00:19:40 Um, I think there’s, there’s always a blend. You gotta have a blend of everything. One, one way. Is it the right way, the right way is the right way. Um, my way is not the right way. I always say I’m always right unless I’m wrong. So if I’m wrong, I need to get on the right way again, you know, so, um, there some good technology out there that can then help us, but there’s also, you need the understanding that, you know, there’s outliers, there’s also throughout the years of technology, we make things better. And maybe the first plan maybe here, the second or third version may even be better. So we have to remember that when we get into scouting that we just cannot go on technology alone because, especially if you’re talking about a 17 year old kid, um, um, 18 year old kids who still there, you know, DNA is still growing. We don’t know the final product here. And you gotta be able to take some past history of players who maybe were like that type of player. We can use that technology to say, Hey, how does body move? Things like that. I remember this kid at that age was moving and hitting the ball like that. And now all of a sudden at 22 is you know, 23 they’re winning MVPs, you know, so there’s a blend of boats and um, we can’t be stuck with one or the other. We got to blend them.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:21:08 Yeah. So you mentioned a couple of times, you know, how the body moves. Can you, can you kind of elaborate on that? You know, for the people that are listening, you know, when you, when you stay, how the body moves, what does, what does that mean?
Micah Franklin: 00:21:20 I think it’s, it’s really interesting. I think it’s, it’s something that’s a little bit more scientific now and we have, um, great people that, that have really opened my eyes. I always, we would always look at it hitter and say, hot waste, both the move, well now we know a little bit more so we can go into the technology and understand the, um, it’s the ology of, of movement of the body. Um, that it’s not so much of a guessing game. Oh yeah, he looks like it. Or sometimes we used to say tight players, you know, um, maybe that’s why Mike trout tell so late, you know, obviously it came from Jersey and it’s cold freezing in the spring when people went to see him, but maybe he didn’t, wasn’t as loose and as hyper mobile, some other players bodies moved. Right. So now we have a better understanding of, of that. And that’s a technology that is, um, just deeper thinking into something versus in an old way of thinking. Um, or just a new way of thinking, if that makes any sense.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:22:22 Yeah. So w w what do you, um, if you could define how, what an ideal way some will move. Well, how would you explain that?
Micah Franklin: 00:22:35 The ideal way would be at the end of the season, they have great numbers. I mean everyone has different DNA, so it’s going to be ideally for that person. You know, I’m extreme dyslexic and I believe that’s helped me in sports. It’s helped me in my business world. It’s helped me in scouting and helped me in coaching because you know, if you say, Hey, add two numbers that add up to four one day I might say three plus one another day I might take two plus two, another jam might say four plus zero. There’s, there’s different ways to get to two to the finish line and there’s different, um, people, everyone’s different. So when we start saying this is the only way we’re in trouble.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:23:22 Yeah. Yes. Cool. So, uh, the, a little bit more about scouting, um, in, in today times, um, the way the game is kind of evolving, you’re changing a little bit. Um, what would be from a scouting point of view, what would be, uh, an absolute that a kid needs the, I mean they obviously to develop up all their tool, but what would be thumping that a kid would be like, okay, this is really where I need to work on for me to be able to get to this level.
Micah Franklin: 00:23:55 All right, well we’re an amateur kid. Um, in your position, player
Micah Franklin: 00:24:02 heating is going to be number one. You know,
Micah Franklin: 00:24:05 great defensive player but can’t hit is, is tough. We can find that. We call those diamond doesn’t, um, hitting is going to be number one. Um, without a doubt. If you’re a pitcher, um, site and then velocity you know, is what gets you drafted unfortunately. So after you get drafted, now you can hit, now you have an approach, you know, do you have a pitch mix if you’re a pitcher? Um, so it, it keeps going from there. But if you’re just going to say, I don’t, I’ve never, you know, sat in the draft room or sat around the room, the board room, we’re talking and putting up a, a board of players and talking about players and he’d go, Hey, this guy can’t hit it. It goes right to it, man, this guy can hit, he’s a hitter. Then they start talking about positioning, obviously make up.
Micah Franklin: 00:24:53 That’s a questionable one because whose makeup is the best? You know, do you like, um, you know, that’s a, that’s a, I was called out. Be careful. That’s like having a menu. That’s the person who decides the makeup. You know, around the room. I could have a great makeup, but that person doesn’t like that type of person is bias comes out. And if you’re 18 years old, guess what? We’re going to grow. You know what? I wasn’t the greatest makeup kid at 18. Some people would say, but one thing I did, I went out there and competed my butt off. I was trying to kill that other team. Um, so maybe that brought me to the person I am today that I was able to, um, sit here and talk to you today.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:25:36 Very cool. So can we talk a little bit about, and then I think there’s some confusion out there, the different between the sling into different, between headaches. So you guys are looking for guys that can kit though. Can you talk a little bit about different
Micah Franklin: 00:25:53 yeah, yeah. Um, on the scouting we’re talking about on the scouting side, right?
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:25:58 Yeah. I’m a scout has died. Yep.
Micah Franklin: 00:26:00 Okay. On the Saudi side. Um, but kid
Micah Franklin: 00:26:03 really, really good swing. What? He can’t hit the ball. It’s, it’s really tough. Um, it kind of goes together. Usually good in the amateur world. Good swings and good results come, come together. You know, you, you don’t find too much, at least in my, in my journey looking at a lot of amateur kids as most amateur kids are good anyway. If we’re looking at them. Um, they could have flaws and have a good upper body and strong
Micah Franklin: 00:26:27 arms and still take advantage of lesser competition. So that would be a guy with really good results, but a bad swing. And now we’re breaking that down and then we have good swings and good results. So there, there are good results with bad
Micah Franklin: 00:26:44 swings and we have to say be an outlier, figure it out. Why be having so much success?
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:26:51 Very cool. So again, from the scouting side, what would be, what would be like the absolute when you, when you look at a kid there. Okay, that’s a good swing.
Micah Franklin: 00:27:02 Cool. Well, again, we go back to the body movement. Kinetic chain looking good. Um, is he way off or is he just an arm swinger or is he, I mean the lower half. He’s not over rotating, rotating, perfectly balancing, um, just in control of himself. Um, body moves. Well, he can sync up, you know, it’s a fee I would say to feel, I want to be careful with feel because it’s a field because you know what? I’ve seen it so many years of what is, what it looks like. Um, and then now I’m learning and I’m going last couple of off seasons. I’m learning every day. I’m going to learn something from you today talking to you and my ears are open. My mind is open to, to not thinking I’m right, but let’s get the right answer, you know? Um, so when we talk about the perfect swing, you know, I want to be careful too when I answer that question because I don’t know the perfect swing. Um, it, you know, we can put them on a Quebec four date. We can fit in. That might say it’s the perfect swing, but let’s see, the results of the game will also tell us what’s perfect.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:28:12 Right? Yeah. It all come down to game.
Micah Franklin: 00:28:17 Yeah, no question.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:28:19 Um, so one more thing on the scouting thing before we jump over to [inaudible].
Micah Franklin: 00:28:22 We can talk about CRT all day. I love scouting.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:28:24 Okay, awesome. Well good. Yeah, no, I’d be, I let the how about, how about vision? You know, it’s something that, uh, I’m real big on in my, in my place. It, it really just honing in and trying to get guide and understand how the eyes work and how the eyes help them with the swing and what they’re, you know, picking up the ball and stuff though. I, you know, can you talk a little bit about the, the, the vision side of things and how important it is?
Micah Franklin: 00:28:48 Yeah. This is, you know, mostly, I mean, we’ve studied the been done. So many studies had been done. Division professional baseball players have great vision. Um, for the most part, really, really good vision. We’re talking about milliseconds. When you’re talking about milliseconds, um, you gotta have good fishing, right? We gotta decide, um, what the, what the hit, what the swing when it’s swing. You know, you’ve got 125 milliseconds to gauge a pitch. 90 95 pounds an hour. So, you know, let’s talk about boiling can take 300, 400 mils. First of all, I don’t even know what a millisecond is. I’m just quoting the sports is, science isn’t hitting, you know, when they did the scientists who talked to us, you know, so if we don’t calm down, relax, make sure, see the ball, we’re, we’re at a loss right there. So, you know, how do we help vision, there’s a lot of different ways, you know, I’m tracking pitches, I’m using actually, technology definitely has helped there, but you know, it does start with seeing the ball. Yeah. You can’t see the book. That’d be hard to hit.
Speaker 7: 00:30:01 Yeah, yeah. No, and that’s, that’s the thing, um, the calming down and relaxing it that I think of the really big part of that process because, um, you know, uh, you know, we hear about, uh, performance anxiety and nothing. That’s a real thing. And, uh, you know, the, the performance anxiety, uh, you know, you, your, your, your thoughts are going a million miles. Um, you’re blinking more and all of that can get in the way of the vision and the body just doing what it needs to do based on what the, I tone it. So, uh, the, no, I think that that’s a huge part where you brought up the, the, the, the common down there were laughing part in, in, in that the, you know, that, that ease that, that’s not easy to, to relay. And he forgot to really understand. Um, at some point they start to understand it and, and, and have, uh, a routine to help them with that. Um, but yeah, no, that, that part, that realizing the common part, you know, how do you, how do you help guide through that? Like what, what do, what do you, what’s, what’s kind of your cue for that?
Micah Franklin: 00:31:09 Yeah. Um, well we’ve talk about it. Um, now we’re getting a little bit more in it and the hitting.
Speaker 7: 00:31:16 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Micah Franklin: 00:31:18 Oh, I’ll go scout it out. Go back and forth. No worries. Believe me, they both blend. When I’m coaching with scouting, when I’m scouting, we’re coaching and I talked about a thing I use inner computer from my hitters. What’s our inner computer, you know, and we’re talking about our mentor approach, timing. And then we worry about mechanics, you know, so when we start with an inner computer, my dad fashionable all good into the amateur and the second. So for our professional guys, we send information on the pitcher the night before. Um, so they know the pitch mix. They know, um, you know, [inaudible] this guy throws percentage wise, velocity wise, a video of, of the picture. So they’re already in their mind, their computer is already starting to process that. Um, so they’re, they’re in these modes that to handle these, these, these issues about vision and calming down.
Micah Franklin: 00:32:23 So then they walked into the ballpark the next day and it’s on the board. We put even more information up and we careful they looked or whatever they want to look at. We’re not dumping it. You have to look here because they get the information, what they need, you know, they figure out their approach, what they need to look at the information. Then we have a loop of the pitcher on. So all that starting to calm down. Then we go about the day, you know, their body movements starts maybe two o’clock and drills that they need to focus on to get their body movement in the right position. Now we’re going to four o’clock, four o’clock practice time game practice, what they’re going to see in the game. So they’re not freaked out. Um, again, all this is calming. We have meditation of sessions, um, for our players.
Micah Franklin: 00:33:10 Then we go in, you know, I call it our rules, the lower levels, you know, the fourth hit or I have him get his, you know, fourth, any of that moment have him start getting his batting gloves on his, you know, shin foot protector, his elbow protector, every protector. They got their thumb protector. These kid’s got a million protector. You know, it’s amazing how many protectors they gotta have. So we did that as a way earlier. So by the time the third hitters, you know, that situation, he’s standing by me and that innocent computer’s really kicking in all this stuff, all that, all the information you would put into like a real computer sits in, sits in his little, a head of the computer, just like a processor. And we put in files, you know, Aisling’s Beasley and fast balls like this fast balls like that.
Micah Franklin: 00:33:58 Remember when he saw that kind of picture and they start processing what this guy likes to do when he likes to do it, how he likes to do it, what he reminds him of, and they go through this process in their head. So by the time they go up on the OD deck, now it’s just inner to Peter’s politically engaged and his time in the picture, you know, clearly three, he might have two or three things you’d like to think of. And he remembers those things that calm him down. Um, then by the time he walks up to the plate from that batter’s box, he doesn’t even think about this. This just is something that clicks in without him even thinking about it. What’s the situation? Hey, those men are first went out, just get a base. It’s the right deal. And the guy went from first base person, third downs, first and third.
Micah Franklin: 00:34:39 Um, the infields playing double play, devs short, the corners are in situ. Let’s throw this right. Those are clicking in his head without him. Actually even focusing on that because focusing on the one or two things, three things that he tells himself each time to stay relaxed. Now he’s relaxed, he’s able to handle that situation. His vision’s better. He’s able to control the moment. He can control himself. His inner computer allowed that versus freaking out. As soon as he gets in a box and now he’s processing all that stuff and thinking about all that. That’s too late.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:35:12 Yeah, man, you killed it there. You gotta. There’s a couple of things I’d like to elaborate on. Um, let’s start with, uh, let’s go back to the approach. Um, you know, we’re on the coaching side. So when you, when you, when you get a kid, you know, that 18 years old, he shown up to pro ball with a first time, uh, more than likely doesn’t really have it. Maybe he does, uh, uh, a refined approach. How do you start working with a guy to kind of develop that and then thinking about, you know, maybe what type of hitter he is.
Micah Franklin: 00:35:45 Okay, that’s awesome. And I’m gladly, I love, let’s go back on that inner computer. We’ll get deep into it. We want to do an approach, first thing we need to do because these kids come in, they may have an approach and it works in the amateur 18 year old facing way, lesser competitors than they are. Um, and that approach may need to be tinkered a little bit and changed a little bit, um, at this level. Cause maybe they, you know, don’t go about it as serious as they need to because the approach is a, is a very important thing for a hitter. And you really can’t start talking about an approach with a hitter until you have a relationship and trust with that hitter. So once you establish the trust, now we start going to an approach. We start talking to the hitter, what kind of hitter are you?
Micah Franklin: 00:36:38 He tells me, what kind of hair are you? And then when I have enough a trust, I can go to our computer and punch in numbers and I can show him, Hey, where do you like to pitch? He says, I like the middle end. I said, that’s interesting because I can show you right here. You’re a little ad, not as well, middle end, but middle of the way. You’re really good. You know how we start understanding who he is as the hitter. You know, they don’t really know who they are yet. They’re figuring that out and we can help them along the way, but at the same time they have to, they have to find out who they are as a hitter. So it’s a combination. We go about it together. We can’t rush that process and believe me, um, it’s not something I all automatically came up with. This is trial and error. There’s some mistakes I’ve made about surrender and rush that process. The more you rush, the longer it’s going to take. You know, the players gotta come to though, um, who he is and what his approach is. Now we can help them along the way and we can give him the information that he needs. Um, but ultimately he’s going to come up with his approach.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:37:50 Very cool. I love how you said, you know, you started off with, you got to get the, the relationship and the trust first. You know, cause a lot of people just want to jump in and start helping guide without even developing that and then really maybe the attention good. But the player doesn’t understand that they want that, that relationship and that trust it much that we don’t maybe not realize that, but I love how you started off with that.
Micah Franklin: 00:38:14 Yeah. I think I started off with it because I’ve done it the wrong way before. Sure. You know, and you know, you learn it and you’re, you learn, you get better every day. I want to get better out here. I want to be better every day. And I’m here, I use the word my word. Everyone should have a word for coaching. You know, what is it? My words help because so people in my life, it’s helped me to get to where I am right now and I want to help so bad that sometimes I have to sit back and let that process happen. And these are, you know, I made mistakes along the way. Plenty of mistakes. Um, and the reason, now I’m talking about trust and relationship and all that because, you know, I might’ve had a relationship from the trust, but maybe I went about it a little too, too fast and needed to sit back a little bit more.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:39:02 And that goes, that go deeper than just baseball
Micah Franklin: 00:39:07 without a doubt. Without a doubt. Um, I need to know what, where did it come from? What’s his upbringing, what’s his story, you know, how can I be an influence in his story, in his chapter or this chapter of his life? Because the way we have it, we got a player for a month, two months, three months, five months, six months, and they’re gone. They leave us. So I’m just a chapter in his story and you know what, I want that chapter to be awesome. You know, I don’t want that chapter to be just miserable for him. You know, put a quote this, this weekend doing the codes clinic, I heard a quote, he said, never be your, um, your player’s last coach. You know, at the end of the day, I’m there for him. He’s not there for me. I’m there for him. And that’s, that’s that, that’s something I gotta I, I go by every day and try to try to remember because we as coaches, we get excited. Right. You know, we fall into the trap, we need to fix, we need to fix and I’m as guilty as anybody.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:40:08 Sure. So if you had to like, did you kind of generalize, you know, without what they don’t know somebody yet. Uh, but just kind of a general, like here, the guideline of how I would help them on develop their approach. What, what would you, what would, what would that kind of, what would that kind of look like?
Micah Franklin: 00:40:26 All right. So after we talked about the relationship, we got this truck, all that, you know, we’ve talked about where they get called bass, where they, you know, what pitches they hit that um, you know, and if they’re struggling or not struggling, how’s the mental, the mental strong, the timing’s a little off all the time too. Sometimes it takes, you know, at a bat or two or pitches or two to get into time it, well, we’re going to have to start with timing drills to make sure they’re starting on time so that, that’s one of these approaches, you know, that in the day when he comes to the ballpark, um, things like that, you know, what does he like to think about? Um, when he’s in a bar. So that might be something he thinks about. Okay. Um, meditation process. There’s not just go to the cage.
Micah Franklin: 00:41:12 I want you to hit five swings this way and five swings that way, you know, and then you do that every day that, that, that, that might be what he means is that moment that’s, you know, not really, um, set in stone that that can be, um, a living or living approach. Um, but I like to have certain things be careful with or approach. I kind of had a mix of both. You know, when you go into the on deck, there’s an approach there, there’s an approach of the day, how you walk into the clubhouse, how you like to start that approach. So we got about three or four different approaches every day. You know, we always say, Hey, have your, have your um, you know, have your approach, have your, what do you do to, to get yourself in the right mental frame. And there’s a lot, there’s okay. Like to come into the clubhouse a little early and you like to sit, you like to relax a little bit, then go into the training room. So there’s different spots of approaches for me that, that are key.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:42:12 Very cool. And, and you know, uh, you know, how much does the, you know, a coach maybe having some experience in that really bad or coming to, you know, in terms of, you know, being able to relate in that sense
Micah Franklin: 00:42:31 I think, I think extremely important to be honest with you. And it doesn’t mean that someone who doesn’t have that experience can’t eventually get that, but it’s going to take them a little longer and that’s okay. It’s kind of like in the scouting world of the guys never played, still scout. Don’t run in there and tell everybody you know, it, it takes time because there are days where I can feel my hitter in the box and know what he’s going through because guess what, I’ve been there. I’ve been one for 20 I’ve been one for 20 I’ve been 7% then I’ve been over 20 there’s days where you know, you’re so bad that if you fell out a boat in the middle of the ocean, you’ll hit a rock. You don’t have water.
Micah Franklin: 00:43:19 It has baseball and that’s what we know. We know we’re going to go through that roller coaster during the, during the season we’re going to have ups in high and we just ride them out in. The quicker we can get rid of those lows by being mentally strong and keeping your approach and in sticking with it, you’re going to be fine and you need someone I think who understands that um, doesn’t mean that someone, we can’t talk to them and they’ve, they’ve never been through that and walked through that and can understand it. They can feel it, but it really is important. Um, for me, I think, and I always talk about we have swim coaches and then we have hitting coaches. Yeah, I’m both, I’m both, I do swim with people during a certain season. We do both. But man, the off season, I do a lot of swing coach. I’m so good at a beat swing coach man. I flip a ball to a hitter and he hits it and I take a video and I edit it. Awesome. Maybe how good he is, man. I’m tell you what, during the season when that first fit comes and flies off the table and then you’ve got it. Matt is seven on the black. Whoa.
Micah Franklin: 00:44:30 No one likes hitting coaches when their hitters are doing good. Yeah, because they’re good and they should be because they did all the work. They’re good, but let me tell you when they’re not hitting any coaches fault, man, you’re doing something wrong. We’ve got to fix it. I always laugh about it. We only do, we all do bad stories. We don’t get the good stories, but there’s two different things. When you’re in getting coached, especially medical and coaching at two o’clock three o’clock we’re getting the body movement. We’re doing some drills to help them. By time, it’s time to, Hey, we’re preparing this guy to hit tonight in the game we need, we need to wrap it up a little bit. We need to complete, we need to do some drills for him to hit tonight so he can be successful in the game. His first pitch of the game can’t be that first time he saw a reaction of 95 in a slider and a curve, you know, and that’s that, that’s got to, that’s the hitting coaches job. It’s my job to be accountable to have my hit or prepared to hit.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:45:33 Yeah. So, um, you know, I’m sure you deal with a lot down there in the, in the minor level, the guys who are not mentally top God, they can’t make it through that. Um, don’t get, don’t last very long. Do they?
Micah Franklin: 00:45:48 No, they don’t. Um, unfortunately don’t. And you know what, the kids are different today. And as coaches, I have to be different. I have to be better. You know, it’s much easier for me to be a topper coach and say, Hey, we’re doing this drill that you can’t just, you can’t handle this. You can’t, you’re not gonna play in the big leagues. Let me tell you, it’s not that, but you know what, that works. But it’s also not the way the kids grew up today. Um, so we have to, we have to, um, be positive, um, with the kid. And we have to do everything we can to get them to understand you need to be mentally tough. I say it all the time. Hitting his mental approach, timing. Um, if you’re late you must compensate and then we worry about mechanics. Well, kids today are not mentally tough. They want to go right to mechanics and they want to seed right away, you know? Um, this is something that we deal with a lot, whole lot. You know, the difference between a big league or AA and a AAA, not that big. Right? It really isn’t that big, but that one who can consistently getting hit or two more a month. That’s it.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:47:01 All right. Do you, you mentioned, uh, um, you were talking about timing, a timing. Um, can we talk about that a little bit? Let’s talk about timing. The, you know, what is like, let’s just talk about what it is and then how do we work on that?
Micah Franklin: 00:47:18 Okay. So timing is extremely important. Once we’re off on our time. And usually it’s not that we’re early, it’s usually we’re late and we have to say, if you’re late, you must compensate. And you will break down in that kinetic chain when you’re late. It’s just a common thing. Our natural body self organizes and we always talk about self organizing. Self organizing is outstanding. Sometimes it’s bad when we’re late and we have to self organize just to hit the ball and we break down. Um, it’s great that we’re able to go ahead and organize and still be able to hit the ball. But when you’re late, you’re not going to get usually your best results out of that. So on timing, we have to actually practice that. We have to practice being on time and being calm because we talked about vision earlier. You know what, when you’re on time, you’re early, you’re, your vision’s a little better, you’re calmer. When you’re late, you freak out. You know, it’s like me if I’ve got an appointment, you know, I got a couple appointments today. I got an eye doctor in a, in a, in a doctor visit today, and if I’m late, I’m freaking out. Oh God, I gotta over, I rush, I gotta rush. But if I’m early, you know, I got time, man. Maybe I’m having a cup of coffee, maybe I’ll sit down.
Micah Franklin: 00:48:35 It’s the same thing. We have to be. So we have to add coaches. It’s our responsibility. I was talking about accountability of us to get that hit or on time. And we have to, we have to do drills during the day, BP and things like that, that, that are for, that is tied to the ballpark. Yeah. You know, that’s a great question. I, I’m, I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a holiday Inn express, but, but I know years, I mean 27 now. And, and, and watching hitters that have better, um, there’s hitters that either the ball with their eyes, their eyes connect to their brain, the brain sends signals to their limb and their body of where it needs to get to, to hit the ball. And, you know, we talk about it. Um, I got to sat where fast balls right down the middle, you know, and our, our computer system, I’m sure everyone is different, but we’re, we’re, they tell us the pitches are right down the middle.
Micah Franklin: 00:49:44 Horizontal vertical right down the middle fastball in the major league. Um, this is every level. Minor league, major league with less than two strikes, hitters hit way better. You know what? 95 batting average slugging seven 73 exited below 95.2. Now with two strikes, those are the same exact ditch. Okay? Two strikes, same back pitch right down the middle fastball. It dropped all the way down to two 74. Um, with the four 99 slugging at seven 73 to four 99. It’s a huge difference. And then exit velocity dropped down two miles an hour. So we know that if you’re losing milliseconds because you’re not in hit to take your and take the hit your vision freestyle just a hair, you know, there’s, there’s so much that goes into that. So right away we mentally have to be strong. Our mental goes into our timing or timing goes into our relaxed or inner computer goes into all of it.
Micah Franklin: 00:50:46 Um, it’s not one thing. Oh, he does better vision. He got what we do know that certain hitters with better vision, better, uh, milliseconds can hit a pitch right down the middle with lesson two. And then if there another guy, may he able to go to the outer half and hit that pitch just as well, where the other guy does it, you know, so he has to focus on his approach. What pitches does he hit, you know, now the other guy may be just as good and when he’s focusing only on a pitch, middle away instead of middle down the plate and he can hit it just as good as the other guy who can hit both pitches. But sometimes DNA plays a factor and sometimes we can make a little bit better on vision.
Speaker 7: 00:51:25 Very cool. So you mentioned earlier about a swing in between. Can you, can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Micah Franklin: 00:51:33 Yeah. Um, I like Aisling based ones are fun. Uh, when ACE winds work and the pitches where they want to, they hit it good, they’re happier. Um, there’s a time I think for B swings, you know, um, especially with two strikes, um, nanosecond bays to one count, we gotta be swing on a pitch middle away and we send it into right center that’s outstanding. Um, or you throw up your Aisling and you can’t actually hit that pitch with a wind. So this is where approach really comes. Then, you know, I kinda wandered off on approach, but you know, we can talk about controlling the zone and knowing what you hit. Good. What are you looking for for a ball? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Is it three, four? Is it three, four, five? Is it five, six. But we’re looking for a pitch.
Micah Franklin: 00:52:26 We understand what we can do with each pitch. Um, we don’t swing at balls. We swing at strikes, we swing at our strikes. And sometimes guess what? That pitcher has the ball in their hand and we don’t get to go one, two, three hit. Once you, sometimes he takes one, two, three, four, five to get to the plate and you’re off by just a hair, but you still able to put a really good B swing on it, you know, and that is adjustability. It’s not putting a ball on a tee and always having the same exact point each time. That’s just not, unfortunately, that’s just not how it hit her, hit the baseball.
Speaker 7: 00:53:05 Right. Awesome. So you also mentioned a couple of times on meditation. Um, can, can you talk about that a little bit? You know, I’m a big believer in it, um, but can you talk about the, the benefit of it for, for, for, for baseball hitter, you know, I think a meditation be really important.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:53:26 Um, it could be an important part of the puzzle. So can you talk a little bit about that and then the benefit and all that stuff?
Micah Franklin: 00:53:34 Yeah. Again, it goes with my, my numbers. It started with mental and meditation is for everybody. It’s not just baseball, the truth, what we need to be, we need to be in a good state of mind. Our mental state of mind needs to be good and there’s no harder job for me in life in sports that I know about is being a hitter. You know, when we talk about, we break it down to 25 milliseconds and seven milliseconds to decide to split it. Gotta have a mental game and we have a great mental strength department. They came in last year and you know, we go in and coaches go in in the morning, then the players go in. We um, we have sessions where the players during the year, coaches during the year get ourselves completely relaxed to get our thoughts in the right direction. And, and this helps us on hectic days, helps us on calm. It helps us on everyday we have, we need to be mentally strong. We need to be calm, meditate, relax and be in that right frame of mind.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:54:48 [inaudible] can you, can you talk about what that process looks like?
Micah Franklin: 00:54:52 Well, everyone’s going to have a different process going to be for mine. A good coach. We have a, um, we have a process. We go out in the morning, um, with our guys and we sit back, we turn the lights down, um, getting nice comfy spot, have a nice, beautiful [inaudible] streaming music going through ’em and we just, we, we disappear into this nice location mode. You know, we have words going on and you know, I want you to be as free and loose as can be and whatever we need for, for, for us, you know, our hitters, you know, we’re coming up, I gotta be careful cause we’re coming up with ideas and different things that we’re putting together where they can actually focus on that perfect pitch. They have that feeling they have that they actually talked to, to our main mental strength people about and they put a whole program together for them.
Micah Franklin: 00:55:52 Same with our hitter, you know, they visualize, they can see it and they’re having it played through ’em, um, of that process that they go through what their mind is. Thinking about that. A couple of key words. So again, I don’t want to go too much into what we do. I don’t ask them approval to say that, but it’s, it’s a little deeper than, Hey, we just close our eyes and do this. Right. Everyone has their process, you know, and you figure it out. There’s a million different ways to do your meditation and figure out what works for you. Again, there’s so much that we have to do that it’s individualized now that we used to just put everybody in a, in a room, everyone do this. Well again, I go back to I’m extremely dyslexic. Well, for me learning was different and I used to have to think outside the box. Uh, and I loved the forward thinking that’s going on in today’s game because I didn’t learn the same way as someone else and we all learn differently. Yeah,
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:56:53 I know. No, you had that on base, you certification. Um, what has that helped you? Um, when, what would kind of the, the biggest takeaway from it that you felt?
Micah Franklin: 00:57:06 Oh, without a doubt. I got, um, an introduction. So we had the class in Arizona last year, um, the NACUBO class, um, and we went to OnBase U and we had the strength coaches and we had hidden coaches there and a strength coach did a Quebec and then he did a screening in the, and then they said pick a hitting coach. And I just happened to be sitting in front of them and let me tell you, I’ve never really experienced, they hit her like this in my life. He had his ankles were just tore up, had bad stability. Um, he was all arm swinger and no, um, knees were bad. Um, hips couldn’t move. No, no. ER, I mean he pretty much, you know, shouldn’t be playing baseball. They said, all right, swing. And I sat there and was like, how do I pick the swing? I’m trying to think of all his bodies and everything.
Micah Franklin: 00:58:02 Eventually I came up with the asthma manchego Cruz came up with a better one right away to a scissor. Obviously he version it can lead to an if he, he can’t do it. Hebrews Uyghurs he can’t do both, but he can do one of them. If he thought about it hard enough. So we put them into a [inaudible] right there, opened up my mind that, Hey, I got it, I got to get better. You know. So I dug into that a little bit and I looked at our players, I talked to our trainers in our, in our strength coaches more this year. Um, and um, and I’m doing that again this off season, so on basically was huge for me to really open up my eyes to another world of healing.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:58:40 Very cool. So though, have you found yourself, you know, when you’re, when you’re working with the guy going, Oh, we can’t do that, but maybe if this, like, have you gotten to that point yet or,
Micah Franklin: 00:58:50 definitely, definitely. And I know better questions to ask. Maybe a strength friend or, or another friend, Hey, he can’t get, um, internal rotation is struggling. He can’t get out, you know, he just can’t. Um, okay, so, but right away, you know what he can do. So this is the best way. Hyper mobile guides, you know, they, it’s hard for them to stability and they got a strength in certain chord thing. How do I get them to stretch? You know, and I get that fast. You’re working better. Maybe tying them up,
Micah Franklin: 00:59:22 you know, I can figure out a way to move his body to actually tighten it, to make them easier. Or he likes to be a bigger movement. He needs a bigger movement, you know? Um, so, so that definitely has helped me relate to the hitter better without a question. Instead of sitting there and say, okay, I know what it’s supposed to look like, so let’s try here. Let’s try this. So what it’s supposed to look like, it’s a quicker process without a doubt.
Geoff Rottmayer: 00:59:46 Huh. So let, let’s talk about the swing a little bit. What are your thoughts on, on your, what are your belief on the swing?
Micah Franklin: 00:59:55 Well, we started the ground. Um, is he, is he balanced? Is the creating force, is the overload stating if these things are an issue, then we got it. We got to get them, we got to fix these things. Um, I’m a big believer. Um, it’s, those things are going good. He’s a little bit of an outlier. I’m not trying to make a perfect kid, you know, hitters. Um, the result, I’m always, I focus more on, on his ABAs are they good or is he on time? Is his body pretty much in the right place? Is he creating for us and do not overrate city. We’re all right. We’re good. You know, his, his hands coming through fine bat path is fine. We’re good. And that’s pretty much on the swing. We’re not getting, I’m not a big guy getting overly, um, crazy about a swing.
Micah Franklin: 01:00:52 As long as those, those, my checklists, it’s good. Yeah. We’re looking at is he swinging at the right pitches because you know what I can, we can put them in, get them, throw a girl the best on them and all his numbers are great and batting practice, his numbers are great. Whoa. As soon as the first pitch and the game comes, these ladies, what any compensate. He’s not great anymore. Great. Five o’clock. But the able to do it and calm, control the situation in the game to be able to be in a position, you can have flaws mechanically, but your mental game is strong. You swing it the right pitches, you’re gonna probably have success.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:01:29 Yeah, no, I agree with you on that one. To swing it at the right pitch part. I mean if you swing at a bad pitch, your swing is gonna fall apart. And that’s what, uh, I tell our guys all the time, when your coach did the jumping, all of you out, you swung in a bad pit. No, no wonder your swing fell apart. You know,
Micah Franklin: 01:01:46 w without a question. You know, I’m a big, um, I like self organizing, especially on drills. Um, I love having different kinds of drills out there. One of my favorite is just a simple, if to hit a Rose, the ball on the pool side or it gets a foul ball, he loses the rest of his swings that round. It’s amazing. Those swings, right pitch or those, they’ll go their path correctly because they don’t, they want their swing. They don’t want to lose their swings. It’s amazing. If we allow hitters to do that more versus we tell them the swing, they’re pretty good hitters. Just this level, you know, even at the amateur level, you give them a little tips here and there. They find a way, turn their body organized pretty well to what they need to do, not what we’re telling them they need to do.
Micah Franklin: 01:02:33 There are times exactly being on time. I mean mental and on time is the key. And then, Hey, let’s focus on the process. You know? Um, I, I was, we got to talk about the process. You know, what, what is, what is good? You know? I mean, getting a hit is a good process. Over results equals results, you know? I mean, let’s focus on quality at bat, swinging at the right pitches. Even if you got out, it’s all right. You did your job, you did what you’re supposed to do. They’ll go, the odds are you’re going to have these successful, you continue to do that.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:03:11 Yeah, no, I like that. Like that. Uh, when you said, you know what, what good they needed, they didn’t know what’s good. They don’t, they don’t always know good. Like you said, you know, you can barrel up for baseball, hit it hard. Right. At center field. He caught it. That’s still good.
Micah Franklin: 01:03:26 Exactly. Exactly. I got it. I got a guy that we still do this today. He’s in a big league. Um, he sends me his quality of bath every night. A couple of guys actually, they send me their quality of bets, you know, again, process over results equals results. Period. You know, let’s not focus on did I get a blooper that fell in, let’s focus, did I wing it? The right pitch was my mind correct? Did I have my correct box? Was I calm? Okay. I can’t control the rest. You know, baseball is the only, only sport. We don’t have the ball in our hand as we hit her. We do everything right and we can get out. We can do everything wrong and get a hit. You know that, that’s the end all we need to focus on. What was our quality about? What was our process up there?
Micah Franklin: 01:04:17 Did we have the right approach? All right, we did that. We’re good. We can’t, we cannot control anything else. At the end of the day, we did everything we’re supposed to do. Now. We ha we can handle these situations now. Now all of a sudden, the old for three going up in the ninth inning, we’re not over three. We’re actually two for three. I had a great quality of that today. So now I’m two for three would have, you know, when you run a second, I’m, yeah, I’m doing good. I’ll go up there over three thinking he had three lines drive and thinking. You’re doing terrible. It’s going to be tough.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:04:50 Very cool. I love it. So, uh, you mentioned a couple of times too about over rotating, um, that that’s a big problem at the amateur level and maybe even maybe at that level too. Um, you know, what, what is over rotation and how to, how to guide, how do you explain the guys look me and you, you, you’re rotating too much, you know?
Micah Franklin: 01:05:14 Yeah. Yeah. That’s something I think even as me as a player, I didn’t understand the way the hips, pelvis, everything works. Your body work, the kinetic chain at work, I would think I had to over-rotate and swing so hard. It hit the ball. And it, it’s funny, I’m a little, just a little bit and then probably now where I’m going to go out with a couple of guys who play in big ways and they’re going to hit and I’m going to watch them. And they did the same thing and we focus, the first thing we do, we put a board out, you know, and we worked on, uh, some swings to get them direction, not over-rotated he version in with their ankles. Um, and you know, a lot of hitters, ankles are, are, it’s amazing how many people have forced to Billie on their ankles.
Micah Franklin: 01:06:00 You know, it really is, you know, um, and being able to have the balance, the body positioning and the right part and understanding how to stop yourself, you know, we’re going to going, but how do we stop? Stop that, that from over rotating and that’s hard. And those are drills that we do, um, a lot focusing on a lot because direction with your hips not over rotating your body is, you know, that’s key to hitting really is sometimes, you know, well I was calling five, three killers, you know, you’re five, three cause you’re over-rotate around hit the balls and the third base was getting a lot of work today does get a lot of work. You know, it really is true. Um, if we focus on, on having our, our backpacks are like our body correctly, direction, direction, direction, direction is key.
Speaker 7: 01:06:51 Yeah. So, so with that, someone who’s listening thing, they actually mean by direction. What are the directions?
Micah Franklin: 01:06:59 Yeah, that’s big. I mean, um, for our guys, if you took a board, Oh, the ball’s coming right down the middle. You hit it right back up the middle. All right, where’s our direction? You know, where’s our body and where’s your spine headed? Um, you don’t following it is your, your head all the way looking out the left field, your spine following that, um, you’re saying I’m, I’m on direction. Um, I get in, take, put a board down and you know, just use as is, make sure his hips are working correctly, taking out too much other stuff of his in, get his body under control. You know, there’s a million different ways. I don’t like to get too much into, uh, when we go on mechanical ways of doing it because everyone’s got their way of doing it and they’re all right and none of them are wrong.
Micah Franklin: 01:07:48 There’s a million different ways and it’s also each hitter. So I can say these things and then I go out today and I’m going to do something totally different for, I’m a mobile guy. You know what I mean? So, um, so versus fifth guy, the tight guy or this guy learns this way, this guy learns that way. So, you know, maybe I actually take the guy and have him so over-rotated I throw pitches where he’ll just continue to roll over or pitches inside FAO that I need to do a drill on it. So I show them, Hey, I’m going to throw this ball in the inner half, right on that white line of the, in between home plate and the white line in the batter’s box. And I need you to stay through it and hit the left field and hit it the correct way so that his body would self organize this direction.
Micah Franklin: 01:08:31 Foreman. And so there’s lots of different ways that we can do that. Um, but we need to have the correct path, the correct understanding. Um, and there’s a million different ways of doing it. I can go on Twitter and find so many good people showing different ways of doing it and we need five people showing the wrong way of doing it. Right. Um, and then everyone would want Twitter and tell this guy that’s wrong or this is wrong or that’s right. Or that, you know, and that’s why I say a little bit away from mechanics when I started talking, cause you know what someone’s going to hear and say, Oh, I got a better way to, you know. That’s great. That’s great. So we all got our ways in, in my ways, not right in my ways. Not wrong and his way is not right. I bet if we put them together we have even a better way.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:09:19 Right. I agree. So, uh, what about, what about, uh, Oh man, I didn’t know anything of the time. Um, you took a little bit time. Okay, cool. Um, let’s, let’s talk a little bit about routines. Um, very important. Um, how do you help a guy kinda, I mean, I think they all start to understand that they need one and really like having one is better than not having one even after the bad one. Um, but how do you, how do you start working with the guy to start thinking about routine that may be what works for them and being aware of what’s working for them and what’s not working and what they need to be doing and to get ready for games.
Micah Franklin: 01:10:00 Yeah. You know, my routine goes right there with my approach, you know, and I, I kind of, I kind of put both of them together, you know, but we have one approach it at when we go to the park at two o’clock, cause everything to me is the game. You know, at the end of the day, how do, how do we, how do we go about being successful for the game where we have, here’s, here’s my approach at one o’clock in the day, this is how I’m going to go about this box when I’m in the box. So I want to be thinking about how it’s, how it’s going to be for that game. So I’m successful. I’m not freaking out, I’m relaxed and I’m calm. So you know, my routine, you know, for a player, everyone’s going to be different. Um, you know, one guy goes in there, he likes to come to the ballpark right before you gotta be out of the field.
Micah Franklin: 01:10:46 Well that’s what he likes to do, you know, and he goes into the cage, like to take about four or five lanes, have the checklist of what he likes. So all he wants, no problem. You know, that, that’s what he needs. Then he goes out for batting practice game, like batting practice, whatever it is right before the game goes. Um, he goes in there and he might have a dirty 30 round. He might have controlled zone zoning, like sliders, whatever you like. That’s his routine. But it’s very important that they do that. Not a superstition, but actually do that routine. Um, because it puts them in the right frame of mind that goes on the mental, it goes on the medicine meditation, it’s all part of their day goes on their approach, their approach, you know, for that round and that, and that’s kinda why I drove routine and approach a little bit together because what’s his approach in that, in that drill that he’s doing?
Micah Franklin: 01:11:38 What’s his work? That’s his routine. What’s his approach? Okay, bam, he did that. He’s in the right frame of mind. We need them in the right mind, which all go up into mental. So now he has routine, um, the younger level, we kind of give them a routine. Right. You know, uh, because they really don’t have one yet. They can, that can vary. A guy doesn’t want to stand right next to me, no problem. Because we explained why he likes to be in this spot and it’s a little bit superstitious, but as long as his thought process was correct, no problem. Again, that routine puts them in the right mental frame of mind. Then he goes on deck, right from um, frame of mind. He goes to the plates. That’s his routine, where he stands in the box, what he does, it’s all part of the routine of the day. It’s all part of their approach of the day. It’s all mental to help them be on time to help their vision. Hopefully all that just allowed the mechanics to click in without them thinking about it. Yeah.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:12:33 Nah, I love how you combine that. Because when I think approach, I’m making more mental rather than, than going through routine mindlessly. Could they see that a lot is God’s just a, they’re going through their routine, but the mind’s not right.
Micah Franklin: 01:12:47 Without a doubt. I mean if we focus, so if we only, let’s just assume that, let’s take everything else out. Let’s take approach, timing, mechanics, everything else. But our mental part was there, we would still have an approach, we’d have timing and we would have our mechanics. Right. And you probably don’t have any of those other things.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:13:11 No, I love it. Oh man, it’s been great. Uh, let’s just kind of wrap up up to you, cause I don’t want to take up too much more of your time. Um, if you were me and you were interviewing yourself, uh, what, what would you have asked that I didn’t ask?
Micah Franklin: 01:13:27 Okay. What would I, uh, um, man you’ve asked everything you hit, you did, you hit on it. Um, maybe some of the drills, you know, my favorite part is, is my drills that I do, um, to get hitters ready for the game. It is not the swing part of the game. I, I, I’m not, that’s not my favorite part at all. You know, I wake up in the morning, under season, I look at the videos from the night before. Uh, I get to the park about 11, 1130. I love that part of it. Getting to the parks game planning for the, the game tonight. Um, it really starts well before the game that day starts days before that, but just re re recapping, refreshing it was the pitchers tip DFX act. Kids like this. What does the ball do about it? What does he have Kari? Does he use it?
Micah Franklin: 01:14:16 Simple terms? Does he have Kerry, does he have run do this thing? What does he like throw, how did he throw it? Where’s the tip? And then putting a lesson together that day on the field. You know, maybe we’re facing the left seat, so maybe I’ll have the taser, the BP pitchers, you know, a little off to the left handed side. And then behind that picture maybe we’ll have the curve ball slider machine coming in from the left because they don’t just see that as much. And then we’ll have mixed winds. Then they’ll do it that way, uh, to strike drills with, they don’t know who’s gonna throw it. Once you three of the BP pitcher you that lets the ball go are the per book on just that part of it. Um, with the drills. And then again going back and we talked about the trust and the relationship that they would actually do the drill without, you know, being upset that they’re not there. Um, just hitting home runs and BP that’s not helping them.
Speaker 7: 01:15:06 All right. What, uh, I, I’m just curious what, uh, when you, they the two, the two strike joke, what, what does that look like? Curious.
Micah Franklin: 01:15:14 Well to strike, Joel could be any drill. It can be just one pitcher on the mound throwing nappy. But um, we, I, I like to set up where there’s BP pitcher. Say, you know, he’s reaction time about 90, 91 92 miles an hour. So it’d be hard or whatever. Um, and then you have a machine behind the BP pitcher and I say you or me and I’ll have the machine. And so in curve balls and you know the arm goes and one ball comes out and it’s either a curve ball or basketball and they gotta they gotta get it in play. As basketball comes, they’ve gotta, they gotta hit that and if not the all season to come, they gotta stretch out and stay with it.
Micah Franklin: 01:15:53 The tough drill. And once they figured that drill out man, they have the confidence to go in the game and not worry about hitting with two strikes. You know, because because they hit with the strike before, it’s not the newest thing for them. It’s not all of a sudden, Oh I’m two strikes, I got to freak out. I’m going to relax, look for pitch right down the middle and just go ahead and do my thing on it. I’m not going to chase because I’ve been in this situation before. Yeah. We focus on on, on what pitches to hit. I’m not going to roll over a pitch cause I’ll move my swings. Well guess what? In the game now they will go after that pitch hopefully because they know what happens if they go after that pitch. We practice those
Speaker 7: 01:16:33 well what are your thoughts on uh, practicing, you know, hidden curve ball? The cause I feel like uh, you know, yeah we get a ton of balls and we could hit the power ball and that’s not the hardest pit to hit. Like for us, we like at my plate, we wait weeks, we hit a lot of curve balls, left the handwriting. And what are you, what are your thoughts on that?
Micah Franklin: 01:16:54 I actually liked getting curve balls. I mean we probably don’t have five days a week at least if not more, but we do a mix of it. So two, we have two cases going on and we’re in the cage that day. One stage is going to be fast ball, so they go right from the fast ball with a BP pitcher
Micah Franklin: 01:17:10 reaction to about 95 or sometimes we’ll throw tennis balls in there and like 110 115 because the kids, I like hitting fast balls that a hundred miles an hour, 95 miles an hour with st Paul’s. But tennis balls will hit them all day long that the next case will be curve ball machine and they’re hitting a curve ball. And I like hangers. I don’t, and sometimes we’ll throw, we’ll throw two, we’ll throw a nasty one they should take and then we’ll go hangers. The reason I like hangers because we want those hit out. We want them, they get a nice side turn, they get to their body in the right position, they got to stretch it out. It’s a great pitch. And they got to see it cause right now in today’s game, a lot of off season.
Speaker 7: 01:17:49 Yeah. So, uh, when, when you, when you got the machines that up, you know, growing super fast, um, what uh, what the trigger to get God to be on time, cause you see that a lot and you, you can see it on the internet guy set up the machines super fast and everybody to your lane and they’re just compensated and all kinds of stuff’s happening. So they’re like a trigger for you to say, Hey, you know, make sure you start here so you can be on time.
Micah Franklin: 01:18:16 Yeah. You know, uh, um, more what’s really worked with me is I actually give them the answer sometimes and then hopefully they pick up on it. So I think now when I go down, they go ahead and get their loads daughter and shoot, they swing and they start figuring out, Oh, okay. I was, wait, I got it.
Speaker 7: 01:18:33 Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think we do go. Yeah. Cool. All right, well, cool. So, uh, let’s just, uh, what, what would be like some of your biggest resources? Um, that, I mean, ultimately people don’t even learn from,
Micah Franklin: 01:18:53 Oh, I’ve, I’ve learned from so many people down there. Well, we got to talk about my, my, my biggest influence in my life was willing to keep, Oh, I met him and every off season we would get together, I’d go to drive up to his house and we would hit every single day, um, and just talk. And it was absolutely awesome. Um, it’s through the people I’ve met through him, through so many people I’ve met through my life. You can say, okay, who’s the biggest, he’s deaf. He’s his biggest, it starts and stops and willing to get everyone else through the way. It could have been a clubhouse guy take you on the phone right now to, to everyone that’s built the person I am today. You know, obviously you talk about your parents, of course they are. My wife has been amazing. She’s been through this ride with me and my life of, of baseball the whole time. Um, so you just learn in every part of your life. So a lot of people go straight to baseball. This led you to say, well, you know, the journey through a life isn’t, isn’t all only what a baseball person can tell me. It’s through, you know, living through being a parent of three, three kids. The three of my daughters
Micah Franklin: 01:20:08 that, you know, you know, my oldest now is in the, uh, she’s a replay operator in New York, the commissioner office. So, you know, it’s every day is, is an influence. I’m with people right now. Um, young coaches are just came in, you know, we got someone who just got it, man, he’s so fresh and into the listen to him because he’s, you know, instead of sitting there and go, I ain’t gonna learn, but no, I want to learn from think about what, what it’s like to be, you know, fresh and green, you know. So there’s so many influences, um, you know, getting a play for a manager like Tony LA Russa was amazing and things like that. So my whole life has been, um, a journey and it’s been amazing.
Geoff Rottmayer: 01:20:52 That’s awesome. You know, I, you know, one thing you said, you know, the conversation that you would have with Willie McGee. You know, I grew up in a Clearwater, Florida, so I, I would around, you know, my high school coach, Darnell cold and you know, Derek bell, all those guys were down there and I never really, you know, out the high school guy would try to, you know, I kind of felt like I knew it all to, you know, kind of that age. But I never really appreciated the conversation that I had with them. And really take it in. So you know, with the conversation with someone, like a willing McGee would that you had and I know I’m going over time, but I what, what, I mean the conversations are always the most valuable part rather than just maybe you know, are taking the future over to cute Kip from them. Um, what type of conversations do you have with someone like a William McGee in terms of trying to help you develop it? The player or the person,
Micah Franklin: 01:21:45 Willie Willie, he lets you know, you remind you, you know, I was saying, you know, um, baseball doesn’t need me. I need baseball and, and he reminds you of how lucky we are to have this game and go out there every day and give it everything you have, treat people the way you want to be treated. Um, and and kind of person he is. When you’re around him, you want to give everything you got. He’s just an amazing person. I don’t know anyone who’s ever said a bad word, but willing to get, I mean there is nothing there, there’s no bad words about him. And he just gives you that. Um, I met him at the right time in my life when I needed that guidance, I needed somebody to humble me and, and, and he was the guy. He was there for me. You know, God sent them my way, man. I, I, I, I’m sure I drove him crazy at times cause I didn’t leave him, you know, and it was great. This day I went up to the big league, um, he took me and my wife and my daughter, we stayed at his place and as I drove in every day with him, you know, we’d go eat lunch, say how’s he Smith or Joe Morgan. I, it was unbelievable. The people I got to meet just, just because of the person he is so willing to get, you know. Very cool.
Speaker 7: 01:23:06 Well, Micah, um, awesome conversation. I really appreciate, um, what you shared with us and I appreciate your time.
Micah Franklin: 01:23:16 Definitely. It’s been, it’s been fun, man. Thanks a lot for having me. I really appreciate you reaching out and, and, and wanting to hear anything. I have to say. I’m, I’m really, really blessed. Honored that. You would, you know, want to want to do that with me. Thank you.
