At 23 years old, Phillies Third Baseman Maikel Franco is viewed as one of the centerpieces of the team's youth movement as they rebuild towards the future.  ESPN Baseball Analyst and 14 year MLB Player Alex Cora says that Franco is developing into a leader the Phillies will need when they become a good team:

"He's doing a great job offensively and I think defensively. One thing that people have to know is in the situation (Phillies) are in and being a young player, people might say 'yeah that's easy cause you don't have to worry about team goals'. But I see it the other way around, because he's one guy that he's going to be there when they become good. And just try to grow into a leader, that's not easy and he seems like he is doing a good job with it."

Cora went on to say he expects the Phillies to be better sooner than people expected thanks to trades and farm system:

"You start looking at the Phillies and they're doing a good job, this pitching staff is pretty solid...It seems like the rebuilding process is going to take only a few years, it's not as long as people thought. They did an outstanding job with the trades, last year with (Cole) Hamels then with (Ken) Giles and they got some arms. You start looking at that Double A team in the Eastern League and you're like whoa there's some pretty good players. You get excited about what they might accomplish the next few years. But obviously Maikel Franco is going to be in the middle of it, he's a guy that in Spring Training he had an outstanding Spring Training and he's done a good job early in the season. Last year we saw flashes too then he got hurt and he obviously couldn't finish the season. But he's a guy that is very interesting, strong kid, and I really like what he is doing for the Philadelphia Phillies."

Hear what Cora had to say about Jake Arrieta's No-Hitter from Thursday Night, he also weighs in on the debate of Bryce Harper vs Mike Trout

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