I had a friend of mine (and league mate) ask about Ben Francisco, and was wondering if he is worth keeping with the limited playing time he is receiving. In the beginning of July, Francisco burst onto the scene and smashed three homeruns in eight at bats. He promptly hit well in next few games and got his batting average to .500. He has since cooled back down and is hitting .313 since being called up. So is he worth keeping on your team?

Let’s take a look at some stats. He has a 34.4% strikeout rate, and then factor in the he has only two walks in thirty-four plate appearances. Those are some ugly numbers. In 2006 he had a strikeout rate of 14% in a full season in Triple-A. So there is a slight history that indicates he may improve his strikeout rate. However, his contact rate of 66% is terrible, and a BABIP of .389 indicates that he has been lucky. So don’t look for Francisco helping your teams batting average any time soon.

Another issue that needs to be factored is his playing time, or possible lack there of. So far Francisco is in a platoon situation with Jason Michaels. If you look at his split stats you will find that he doesn’t have any at bats against left handed pitching. Earlier this year he posted a .367 batting average against right handers and a .256 average against left handers in Triple-A. So I would not expect him to hit against left handed pitching any time soon, especially when you consider Jason Michaels can murder lefties. The only reason Ben Francisco would gain more playing time is if Cleveland traded some of their outfielders away. I don’t really see that happening.

So, should he be on a Fantasy Baseball team? No not at all. He had a nice eight game run, but that’s about all he will do. I would only use him on short days when he is scheduled to face a very weak right handed pitcher. That is about all of the fantasy value that he has at this point.