Juan Francisco

2013

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2012

2011 was a costly season for Francisco, in terms of missed opportunities. He suffered a calf injury in April after making the Opening Day roster, and a later knee injury sidelined him for a significant period of time. Both of Francisco's injuries dovetailed with injuries to incumbent third baseman Scott Rolen. So instead of him getting valuable major league plate appearances, those chances fell to the likes of Miguel Cairo and Todd Frazier. Now Francisco is out of options, so the team has to keep him on the major league roster, but they still don't know if he's capable of handling an everyday job at the major league level. His plate discipline is still a mess - he had a combined 14 walks in over 400 plate appearances between Triple-A and the majors. When he does make contact, the results are nice, but it's an open question whether he'll make enough contact on a regular basis when Rolen's reign as the starter is over.

2011

Francisco did more of the same for Triple-A Louisville last year as he did throughout his minor league career - hit for power, hit for decent average and strike out a ton. The contact rate problem, accompanied by a lack of walks, is what's going to limit his future ceiling. He also isn't the most adept third baseman defensively, which makes it hard to anoint him as the Reds' future option at the hot corner. Look for him to play a little bit more in 2011 than in 2010, when he was essentially limited to pinch-hitting duty with the Reds.

2010

Now that Edwin Encarnacion is in Toronto, Francisco is the heir apparent at third base. He's hit for power at every minor league level, but his utter lack of plate discipline (his 26 walks at three levels in 2009 represented a career high) puts his ability to hit for average into question. Defense is also a bit of an issue - that the Reds were considering putting him in their left-field jumble over the offseason is worrisome. With Scott Rolen on board for at least 2010, Francisco probably will start off at Triple-A Louisville.

2009

Francisco's power is intriguing, but his lack of plate discipline is disturbing. For the second year in a row, he had more homers (23) than walks (19), though he did at least cut down on his strikeouts by a significant margin. He'll hit the Double-A wall in 2009, and he might find that level considerably more difficult.

2008

Francisco led the Low-A Midwest League with 25 homers, which turned out to be more often than he walked (23), striking out 161 times along the way (also leading the league). Until he gets better command of the strike zone, he's a flawed prospect.