For my part, I think Boggs is your boy. He looks pretty good so far and at least you’d know what you were getting. Sanchez, I think, should spend some time (maybe a month more) pitching out of the pen till you can see how good his stuff is. With the power on that team keeping them in it they can afford to give him a chance to come along, at least for a month.

As I have stated before, I am not a big Franklin fan, but he has done a pretty good job the past 3 years, and it isn’t like LaRussa has an obvious choice as a replacement. While no one can ignore Franklin’s failures this year, some facts should be mentioned as caveats. First, every one of his 4 failed saves were 1 run opportunities, the toughest of saves. In his first two ‘blows” he retired the first two hitters. His third one should have been avoided cause Rasmus dropped a deep fly ball, but to be fair he got himself into trouble and the flub was on a well-hit ball. His last attempt came when he came in with the tying run on second and no one out facing Matt Kemp the MLB’s hottest early season hitter.

I’m just not ready to give up on Franklin, knowing our options. If we go to Boggs, Motte, or Sanchez then does Franklin return to the set-up role where he has excelled? Does he then fail in the 8th rather than the 9th? Knowing neither Boggs nor Motte are hardly consistent and not exactly going to outsmart any hitters, I say let’s share the closing duties between Sanchez and Franklin for a while, give Frankie a couple of easier opportunities saving Sanchez for the tough ones and as an old photographer fan once uttered “let’s see what develops.”