Jeff Francoeur’s number will be retired tonight by his old high school baseball team. Francoeur will be on hand to throw out the first pitch. From the AJC:

The ceremony will begin about 6:45 p.m., after the 4 p.m. junior varsity game.

Francoeur will throw out the first pitch before the varsity game, and a replica of Francoeur’s jersey will be hung on the outfield fence next to the No. 20 jersey of former coach Hugh “Buck” Buchanan.

It’s crazy how quickly Francoeur has become an Atlanta favorite. I mean, it would be one thing if this were Albert Pujols, or Ryan Howard or Justin Morneau. But we’re talking about a guy who struck out 132 times last season on his way to a respectable, but not mind-blowing 29 HR and 103 RBI. Francoeur’s celebrity is no doubt enhanced by the fact that he’s a local guy, having gone to high school in the Atlanta burbs and come up through the Braves’ farm system. Not to mention he’s engaged to a totally adorable Georgia belle.

Still, it’s hard to reconcile all the love that gets piled on Francoeur, considering his on-the-field accomplishments are still few and far between. For the sake of comparison, Pat Burrell, who hit the same number of homers and only eight fewer RBI for the Phillies last season, is mercilessly booed by Philly fans pretty much every time he steps to the plate. And Burrell has had big seasons in the past, hitting 32/117 in 2005 and 37/116 in 2002.

The similarities between Francoeur and Burrell don’t stop at statistics. Both are favorites of the ladies, both are recently engaged, both have strong arms (Burrell has led the league in assists more than once). So why is Francoeur a hero and Burrell a goat?

The lesson here is, of course, that Philly fans are jerks and Atlanta fans are desperate for a local boy done good. Francoeur would seem to fit the bill, except that as long as he continues to wildly hack at every pitch within a foot of the plate, his OBP is never going to rise much above last year’s piss-poor .296 (Burrell’s 2006 OBP, btw, was .388).

Still, if Frenchy can sharpen his eye, learn to draw a few walks and steer clear of the Hooters waitresses, he may very well be the golden boy Braves’ fans are longing for. And if he can’t? I hear the Phillies are still looking to trade Burrell.

Dallas Green, who was the General Manager of the 1980 Phillies World Series champion team and is now a consultant for the organization, is speaking out about what ails Pat Burrell.

Green thinks Burrell’s social life is the problem:

Not that this makes him a bad guy, but Burrell has a reputation for enjoying the Philadelphia nightlife.

“Probably well-earned,” Green said. “I’ve been out with him a couple times in Florida. We have a secret (watering) hole every now and then.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. There are tons of guys in the Hall of Fame that were like that.

“It’s neat to have money, it’s neat to have good looks, and it’s neat to have broads all over you. Every place I’ve managed, I’ve talked to kids about the same thing. It’s a hell of a life. But there comes a time in every player’s life when he needs to get his act together.”

It’s not so neat when your left fielder strikes out in the clutch on a regular basis. But it’s hard to imagine that Burrell’s socializing is the problem. From all reports, Burrell is the first one in the cages and the last one out. If he drinks a lot of beer, he must be doing a lot of sit-ups, too, because he doesn’t have a gut. And even if he did have a gut, so what? A beer belly hasn’t hurt the swings of Ryan Howard or David Ortiz.

Maybe it’s the ladies who are messing with Burrell’s head. In the late 1990s, Sixers star Allen Iverson developed a reputation for fading late in games and at least one Sixers beat writer suggested (off the record) that it was because Iverson was up all night having sex when the team went on the road.

Maybe Burrell’s problem is that he spends too much time in bed doing everything but sleep. But cut him some slack. What’s the point of being a star athlete if you can’t use that fame to score chicks?

Burrell works hard. And he parties hard. And odds are neither fact has anything to do with the fact that he strikes out way too much.

Alfonso Soriano is a popular guy these days. The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Cubs want to sign him and make him their center fielder and leadoff hitter. The Philadelphia Inquirer says that the Phillies want to sign him to play left field and bat in front of Ryan Howard.

Other reports have Soriano landing with the Angels, White Sox or Mets.

What’s the truth? Simply, that Soriano is the most desirable free agent out there and he’ll play wherever he wants next season.

Burrell on the block

Phils GM Pat Gillick has all but said that he will attempt to trade Pat Burrell in the offseason. It doesn’t even sound like he hopes to get much in return beyond salary relief.

“We’re going to have to continue to look for a little more offense. We know we’re probably… Pat has had a really difficult time protecting Howard,” Gillick said.

He noted the Tigers’ run to the American League pennant was driven by pitching. “We have to improve our pitching. We have to continue to work on our bullpen, and we have to continue to work on our starting pitching.”

I’m not sure how Gillick plans to improve the Phils’ starting staff — it’s looked great in the final month of the season. But if Jamie Moyer heads back to Seattle in the offseason, a starting spot could open up and, just between you and me, I think free agent Jason Shmidt would look darn good in red and white.

It’s been an up and down rollercoaster ride for Pat Burrell in Philadelphia. Since arriving in town in 2000 and hitting 18 homers in 111 games, Burrell has had a big year (2002, when he hit 37 HRs, 116 RBIs and a .282 avg.) a crappy year (2003, when he hit 21 HRs, 64 RBIs and had a .209 avg.) and another big year (2005, when he hit 32 HRs, 117 RBIs and a .281 avg.).

This year, Burrell’s numbers are somewhere in between big and crappy. So far he’s got 23 HRs, 73 RBIs and is hitting .259. He’s on pace to hit 100 RBIs, but he’s developed a reputation for choking in the clutch, hitting only .239 with runners in scoring position. (In fairness to Burrell, MVP candidate Ryan Howard, who hits one spot ahead of Burrell in the order, is hitting .240 with runners in scoring position.)

Lately, Burrell has been put into a platoon situation, splitting time with the hot hitting David Delucci. Conventional wisdom says that the Phils will trade Burrell in the off-season, hopefully for pitching. But moving Burrell isn’t going to be so easy. He’s due $13 million next season and $14 million in 2008. And he’s got a no-trade clause in his contract.

So Burrell’s only getting traded if he wants to get traded. And how do you make a guy want to get traded? Well, you start by taking away his playing time.

Are the Phillies platooning Burrell just to piss him off so he’ll demand a trade? Who knows. But whatever the reason, they’re probably not going to stop. After all, the team is playing great and has closed to within 2.5 games of the NL wild card. So whatever they’re doing, expect them to keep doing it.

As for Burrell, he says he wants to stay in Philly.

“You look around, Lieby, myself, Wolfie, J-Roll, those are the guys who have been here the longest,” Burrell recently told the Philadelphia Daily News.”Besides Lieby, that’s really not that long. Obviously, we understand what’s going on, the way the organization is going. I certainly would like to be a part of it.”

But will he be a part of it? That’s hard to imagine.

One subplot that didn’t get a lot of attention during this recent Mets-Phils series was the Pat Burrell-Billy Wagner reunion. Burrell and Wagner hate each other. Burrell called Wagner a “rat” during a players-only meeting in September 2005, after Wagner criticized his Phillies teammates in the media.

The two talked a lot of smack leading up to the Mets’ first series in Philly this season, but Wagner never faced Burrell. In this most recent series, Wagner and Burrell did square off. And you could feel the tension in the air.

In Tues. night’s game, Burrell faced Wagner in the bottom of the ninth, with a runner on first and the Phils down two runs. Burrell hit a rocket down the third base line, but Mets’ 3b David Wright made a diving backhanded catch to start a double play.

On Wed. night Burrell wasn’t in the lineup and Wagner didn’t pitch. On Thurs. night Burrell went 2-4, with two homeruns and three RBIs and his team still didn’t win. Wagner retired the side to win that game, striking out Sal Fasano for the final out. He didn’t face Burrell.

You just know that Burrell would give his right arm for another chance to hit against Wagner with the game on the line. If not for a spectacular defensive play by Wright on Tuesday night, Burrell would have had his revenge. Now he’s got to wait until the next Phils-Mets series in August. And unfortunately for Phillies fans, the Mets don’t return to Citizen’s Bank Park this year at all.