Yeah, Yeah, We All Know Already
July 10, 2009 at 6:46 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves, New York Mutts, Transactions
Jeff Francoeur was traded to the New York Mets for Ryan Church. I’m initially pleased with the move. I’ll need a few days to digest it before I give it any serious thought. Just a couple of tidbits:
1) Church is hitting .280/.332/.375 this year, Francoeur is hitting .250/.282/.352 aided by his 3-double performance last night.
2) Church is hitting .326/.359/.444 in ballparks not named Citi Field.
3) Church makes less money than Francoeur and they’ve both got 2 arbitration years left after this one.
4) Church has a career OPS+ of 108, Francoeur has a career OPS+ of 109 89.
5) From what I can gather without looking it up, Church is a superior defensive player.
6) Francoeur sucks.
7) Surely the Mets will option him to AAA, right?
Thoughts? Discussion? Points? I want to hear ‘em.
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Thoughts? You slightly weaken a division opponent who you are chasing while slightly improving your own team. If Franceour ends up “above-average” then so be it. This regardless will not be a trade the Braves will regret for years to come. Braves win now…
I have a feeling he’ll get optioned to AAA.
HAHA:
“I am amazed that Dayton Moore only did the second-dumbest thing today.”
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/mets_acquired_francoeur/
Can you believe how many Francoeur supports are defending this clown\? Unbelievable I must have seen the most traffic out of any posts concerning the Braves. The AJC and Mark Bowman’s blogs have people outraged. Outraged!
This is incredible. Its like Christmas! 1st Kelly Johnson now Jeff Francoeur.
On a side note I hope Jeff gets it together. He is talented but needs to humble himself and realize he is nowhere near as great as he thinks he is. I hope he doesn’t end up like Khalil Greene with the New York media.
Congrats Braves Fans
Yeah. Some fans are upset. I think we’re a better team now. Jeff has some upside left. I think if he can get on a conditioning program that focuses on lean muscle and toning exercises geared towards bat and foot speed (i.e. get in better “baseball shape”) he’ll be better. And Manuel is good with plate discipline. So he’ll be good for Francoeur. The New York media is going to have a field day with that one, though.
Jeff clearly was not going to succeed in Atlanta. I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but let’s just say his image was always going to surpass his ability. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if Francoeur does what Pat Burrell did, that’d be a top line assessment. Your “getting in shape” analysis is spot on. For whatever reason, the ball does not jump off of Jeff’s bat. He’s going to need a tremendous swing to get it out of Citi. If I was asked who got the upside of this deal, I’d say the Mets, but I’m more than happy with the outcome. Francoeur’s just too much a risk, and I don’t think his upside is as grand s those who are upset with the trade think it is.
Exactly. It was like he had some sort of birth-right to play baseball in Atlanta. Until he got away he wasn’t going to improve. I think this is the best thing that ever happened to him. And one of the better things that happened in the Braves organization (I can’t say best because they once traded Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz, and that is the best thing that ever happened for the Braves)
this was all about Omar Minaya applying some window dressing for his collapsing team. Unfortunately this move is not only not flying well with the fans ( at least on sports radio) it is not going to any help to the Mets, Church was one of the few decent, uninjured guys left on the team. as I said in the other post jerry manuel has never had church’s back. and that was long before church missed 3rd base in LA earlier this year. I think he hold church responsible in some way for the fact that his concussion was handled catastrophically by the team last year. ( having him fly to colorado with the team evebn though he couldn’t play) for example. we really dont know what goes on there, but they wanted to get rid of church-even if the move was going to hurt the team.
I get what Minaya was trying to do. Really, I do. I’m mostly a stats guy, but I try to mix in baseball knowledge and the opinions of non-stat guys too. And what Minaya was trying to do was obviously a pure “baseball decision” because no wealth of statistical analysis could justify this move. But I do get what he was trying to do. And I think it was a good idea in principle. But good god, the execution of this idea couldn’t have been worse. If you’re trying to shake things up, sure. If you want to bring in an underperformer, sure. But don’t bring in the most worthless waste of space in baseball today. That does you no good.
Francoeur’s career OPS+ is 89.
Wow, thanks for pointing that out. Typo/mental mistake on my part. I looked it up, I guess after writing 108 and looking up 89 my mind combined the two. Thanks, Stu.