Jeff Francoeur is a Met and I’m in Hell
Metsblog.com is reporting that the Mets and Braves are swapping outfielders. Jeff Francoeur is Queens-bound while Ryan Church is heading down to Dixie.
Now, there aren’t too many times when I’ve lost my head while writing a post. But let’s add this one to that short list.
HOW IN HOLY HELL IS THIS GOING TO MAKE THE TEAM BETTER??????????????
HOW IS JEFF FRANCOEUR BETTER THAN RYAN CHURCH? IN WHAT WAY? FRENCHY’S OBP? IT’S AT .282. TWO-FREAKING-EIGHTY-FREAKING-TWO. HE’S OPS-ING .634. AS A CORNER OUTFIELDER. DEFENSE? CHURCH IS BETTER. POWER? CHURCH HAS A HIGHER SLUGGING. SIMPLY PUT, JEFF FRANCOEUR IS ONE OF THE WORST PLAYERS IN BASEBALL.
IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS JEFF FRANCOEUR BETTER THAN RYAN CHURCH? AND WHY WOULD THE METS MAKE THIS TRADE??? WHY??????????
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Dear God, I am not a man of faith. But I pray that this is a precursor to another trade. Because quite frankly, there’s no other possible reason other than pure idiocy as to why any GM would make this deal. IT MAKES ZERO SENSE. NONE.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
What’s funny about this is that Paul and I were just talking about the Yunel Betancourt trade and Paul was saying that at he’s not a Royals fan. But now I’m guessing he doesn’t feel quite so lucky.
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July 10th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
You are correct.
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July 10th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Actually. Frenchy is better than Church in the field. Infact, Frenchy won a gold glove.
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July 10th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Brian, yes, I am aware of the GG. However:
1) That was back in 2007, when Frenchy had the best defensive year of his career. Since then, his UZR has been in the negatives.
2) GG doesn’t mean anything when Jeter has 3 and Adam Everett – one of the best defensive shortstops of the last decade – has zero. For some bizarre reason, you need to hit to win a gold glove. Makes zero sense.
With that said, if I could rewrite this post (and now that I’m a bit calmer), I wouldn’t have written that defense part. Church is good in the field, but Francoeur’s shown that he can be very good. He just hasn’t shown much of it over the past couple of years.
Regardless, if you’re a corner OFer, you need to hit. And Francoeur can’t.
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July 11th, 2009 at 10:26 am
gold gloves are meaningless awards that have almost nothing to do with how good a fielder is.
despite francoer’s ridiculous 2007 fielding season (which almost certainly doesn’t represent his true ability, given the incredible number of runs he saved with his arm), he has only been worth 1.23 wins per full season since his career began (average is a little over 2).
church, on the other hand, has been worth about 2.7 wins per year. the mets better have gotten a tidy sum of cash.
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July 11th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Not an awful trade for the Mets. But a great deal for the Braves. No way Francoeur was going to be tendered next year. Now you get Church who has performed much better the last 2 years than Francoeur has!
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