Tampa Bay Rays: MLB should market Wander Franco like a teen LeBron James

Wondering why Wander can’t debut on TV.

The ethicality of what St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School did or what the NCAA has done for years, does not apply to Wander Franco.

Why can’t a kid who has dominated every level of professional baseball get the national exposure he deserves in his very first spring game? We should be acting like this is a big deal, because it is. 

Why wouldn’t Major League Baseball promote this like it’s LeBron James against Oak Hill Academy?

Why isn’t ESPN2 broadcasting a momentous occasion such as this?

Why are the Rays broadcasting the other half of the split-squad games instead of Franco’s?

The Rays will be on television on Thursday, but it’s the split-squad playing the Yankees instead of the group with Franco meeting the Tigers.

Build Anticipation

Major League Baseball should be worrying about creating stars. They have opportunities every year to promote future stars of the game. Perhaps they don’t want to shine an even brighter light on the service time structure that encourages teams to purposely leave qualified youngsters off of Opening Day rosters. Maybe they are too busy worrying about the time it takes to intentionally walk a batter.

The world won’t care if Major League Baseball doesn’t appear to care.

It’s okay to market the kid. He’s a paid professional. At least put him on TV so we can see what Baseball America is talking about. So we can see what MLB Pipeline is talking about. So we can see what Baseball Prospectus is talking about. Just so we can see.