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[philly sox fan]

One of the first hires in the new Sox new sabre friendly player development system was Orv Franchuk from the A's. All the great hitting philosophies and techniques that didn't really produce much offensive talent from the A's org would be coming east to replicate all that not so impressive success.

Sox farm has actually been more productive on the pitching side and Franchuk (or at least his reputation) seemed to fade. According to the Globe he was fired in July.

Who names a kid Orv anyway?

Leary also served as the system's hitting coordinator after the firing of Orv Franchuck in July.

[smastroyin]

One of the first hires in the new Sox new sabre friendly player development system was Orv Franchuk from the A's.  All the great hitting philosophies and techniques that didn't really produce much offensive talent from the A's org would be coming east to replicate all that not so impressive success.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It is always easy to attribute too much effect to various causes like this, but with a decent ml hitting instructor (I agree with philly that the A's record was less than impressive) i wonder if Hanley Ramirez's value would have dropped so low that the best he could do is be packaged with a b+ pitching prospect and $16 MM to take on Josh Beckett.