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Can Maikel Franco’s closed stance save him?

This is perhaps no more frustrating a player on the Phillies than Maikel Franco.

After his outstanding 2015 season in which he hit 14 homers and tallied 50 RBIs in 80 games with a wOBA of .360, Franco has regressed each of the last two years, with wOBAs of .311 in 2016 and .292 last season.

The struggles are well known. When hitting ahead in the count last year, Franco hit .200 with an OPS of .727. That’s ahead in the count. The league batting average while ahead in the count was .