PHOENIX - It was here where Maikel Franco began thinking about the future, how an 89-mph fastball to his wrist last August helped persuade the young Phillies slugger to later take a meeting with a San Francisco start-up that sells stock in professional athletes.
He had signed for $100,000 as a teenager in the Dominican Republic, made a few thousand for five months a year in the minors, and had attained a label as one of the better young hitters in the game.
Franco recently played his 162nd major-league game, and the fastball that broke his wrist stands as an inflection point.