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Brookover: Franco needs to become next Phillies superstar

A single superstar can be the foundation. Get one and the building can begin in earnest. "Over the last couple of years it has been, as I call it, an experiment," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said last week in describing the team's 2015 and 2016 seasons. "We're trying to find out who's going to fit in and bide time until we're going to spend a little bit of money and make our move."

A single superstar can be the foundation. Get one and the building can begin in earnest.

"Over the last couple of years it has been, as I call it, an experiment," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said last week in describing the team's 2015 and 2016 seasons. "We're trying to find out who's going to fit in and bide time until we're going to spend a little bit of money and make our move."

They've also been searching for that homegrown superstar, the one guy who makes the entire team look different. The 76ers, of course, have found that guy in Joel Embiid. The Eagles want and need that guy to be Carson Wentz. The Flyers believe it might be Ivan Provorov.

It is also clear who the Phillies think their next superstar needs to be.

"I think [Maikel] Franco is going to blossom into a perennial all-star caliber player," Mackanin said. "Hopefully this year will be the year he makes his move. Here's a guy who hit 25 home runs and drove in 88 runs and I don't consider that a good year for him even though for most people that's a real good year."

In fact, it was a terrific first full season for the third baseman, especially when compared with others. At 23, he hit .255 with 25 home runs and 88 RBIs. Ryan Howard, the team's most recent power-hitting superstar, was not even in the big leagues at 23. Neither was Chase Utley.

Mike Schmidt, at 23, hit .196 and struck out 136 times. The next year he finished sixth in the MVP voting.

Franco was 11th in RBIs and tied for 11th in home runs among big-league third basemen last season and nobody in front of him in either of those categories was younger than him.

It's an interesting exercise to look back at the guys in front of Franco to see how they performed at his same age. The answer is not as well for seven of the 10 players, with the exceptions being Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs, Manny Machado in Baltimore and Evan Longoria in Tampa Bay.

All three qualify as superstars who have been the foundation for teams that have reached the postseason.

Another fascinating exercise is to look at how the guys in front of Franco last season improved with age. At 23, Colorado's Nolan Arenado hit .287 with 18 home runs and 61 RBIs. A year later, he hit .287 with 42 home runs and 130 RBIs. Last season, at 25, he hit .294 with 41 home runs and 133 RBIs.

Bryant was the National League rookie of the year in 2015 after hitting 26 home runs and driving in 99 runs at the age of 23. Last year his home run total rose by 13, his batting average went up 17 points, his OPS rose by 81 points and he cut down his strikeouts from 199 to 154.

There's no guarantee, of course, that Franco is going to take that same giant leap, but it's reasonable to believe he will.

"I expect a lot out of him," Mackanin said. "I think he's going to improve with the experience he went through the last couple of years. He just has to learn how to be a better situational hitter. He needs to relax and understand things. Know the pitcher, know the score, the inning and hit accordingly. I think he'll do that."

Franco's attitude is another reason to believe he is on the verge of becoming the town's next superstar. He loves to play as evidenced by his participation in the Dominican winter league. He said his main goal there is to become more disciplined at the plate, which he recognized as his greatest weakness a year ago, saying "most of the time in 2016 I just went to home plate and didn't have a plan."

He said he just swung at everything, every pitch.

And still he had a pretty good season.

Now, the Phillies need him to take a giant leap forward so they can get this rebuilding project moving at a faster pace.

It can begin with a single superstar.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob