Living as I do in a southern college town, virtually every day I run across stereotypically effete British intellectuals. Often, they ask, “So, Mac, old bean, what about this Francoeur chap you’re always talking about? What if he somehow became Oxford Professor of Modern Poetry? How would that all work out?”
I think it would go a little something… like this:
why are shortstops so bad offensively this year? there are only 3 ss in the majors with an .800 ops (min. 250 plate appearances).
http://tinyurl.com/3acxoay
I miss Jason Heyward. 🙁
from the mets blog, amazin’ avenue:
“One year ago today, Ryan Church was shipped to the Braves in return for Jeff Francoeur. The trade that inspired 1,000 blog posts. The smile which saved the Mets’ clubhouse chemistry. The $5 million throwing arm.
Frenchy isn’t having a good season but he has certainly made the conversation more lively over the past 365 days. And for that I am grateful. Hopefully the Mets commemorate this special anniversary on the scoreboard.”
Escobar is a clown, but he’s a very good player to have on your team when you’ve got Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson pitching 2/5ths of the time.
Say what you want about ol’ Escobar…but his haircut is just flat out snazzy.
Tiger224 is my new hero.
4- I pretty much agree. On his non-hungover days, you can’t beat his defense at short. You’d like to think he’d remember how to hit at some point, but even if he doesn’t, the SS market is so shitty, it’s hard to envision scenarios where you’d find someone better.
All I’m saying is it’s all fun and games until he gets somebody important seriously injured with his BS. That almost happened last night. He also cost us a game or two with it earlier in the year. I’m just wondering at what point Bobby says, “You should probably trade this guy, because I’m not gonna play him anymore.”
Mac, that’s a reach for an intro. But hey, your house, your rules.
@2 – No matter how silly Escobar’s hair may become, it will never be the flopping mess that is Jose Reyes’ head.
ok, I’m tired of hearing about Yunel’s defense. the guy is slugging 285. his SLG is lower than his OBP. no amount of good defense is going to cover that up.
He destroyed his knee playing the OF
He tore his ACL running to first in spring training, as I recall.
sam, those are called dreadlocks…yunel’s hair is much more idiotic.
I don’t recall anyone wanting to keep Lil’ Tony Pena around for his defense, let alone start him everyday. And his defense was revelatory, frankly. World-class. Everyone agreed that he might actually be the best defensive shortstop in baseball at the time. He was certainly better defensively than Yunel Escobar is. And he didn’t every now and then attempt to play hungover and nearly lay waste to the entire team. And everyone hated him and we shipped him out…and rightfully so, really.
So remind me why we’re making excuses for Yunel Escobar again?
Olay, Yunel’s hair is far superior to dreadlocks.
Nick.. Yunel is my least favorite Brave.. But he pretty obviously has more offensive upside than Tony Pena did, as demonstrated by the fact that he’s been a valuable baseball player as recently as last season.
He can hit. He isn’t hitting.
That said, I’d love to move him in the right deal. I just don’t see any shortstops available.
I think your best chance is to upgrade CF, so you can stick Yunel in the 8 hole until he turns it around.
If we trade Escobar, who are we going to replace him with? Hicks? Infante? What happens when Infante regresses to where Yunel is now offensively while providing worse defense? Hicks is basically a white version of Escobar, only he’s NEVER hit, unlike Escobar who hit well the past two seasons while providing his stellar defense. Despite how lackadaisical may appear in the field at times, he’s STILL ranked among the top SSs in the NL defensively – posting a positive WAR based almost on his defense alone.
Am I making excuses for Escobar’s behavior? No I’m not. Of course I wish he would grow up and get his head in the game. But unless you’re getting a Tulowitzki or Stephen Drew in return, trading Escobar at this point only hurts the team. Bench him and start Infante at SS for a few games, sure, but let’s not be hasty with the trade gun just because the guy’s a little annoying now and then.
He’s certainly not the worst player in the game today when it comes to dogging it or being a diva.
I bet Jed Lowrie is our starting SS next year.
1. Prado 2B, 2. Cabrera CF, 3. Chipper 3B, 4. McCann C, 5. Glaus 1B, 6. Hinske LF, 7, Infante RF, 8. Escobar SS, 9. Hudson RH
And Esco gets the start. Not sure why Diaz isn’t in right today, but whatever. It’s not like benchings have helped Yunel a whole lot in the past.
@17 – Yunel and Gearrin for Lowrie and Bard. Get on the phone, Frank!
Chipper hurt his ACL playing LF against the Yankees in a spring training game.
Was it sliding in the OF or sliding into home? I am second guessing myself how he did it.
Yunel, even now, has more walks than strikeouts and a .337 OBP which is about league average.
Comparing him to Tony Pena is like comparing Heyward to Wankcoeur.
The Sox have Scu Scu Scutaro.
Chipper hurt his knee hitting the bag at first base. He was going to be the left fielder at the time, but it was irrelevant to the injury.
@20, I would have bet you it was running to first – I can see the play like it was yesterday. But I can’t find a description of the injury anywhere.
Spkie, i was just checking myself. I get the same blank answer that he hurt it in spring training.
I would still never complain about Chippers drive compared to Yunels.
I thought it was making a play on the line but my memory is not what it used to be. Parenthood seems to burn up that section of the brain.
@3
So should we celebrate today as a holiday? What should we call it? Ryan Church Day?
The day a young man named Church came to town to save us from the evil bat waving fool.
HAPPY RYAN CHURCH DAY!
It’s V-F Day.
“One year ago today, Ryan Church was shipped to the Braves in return for Jeff Francoeur. The trade that inspired 1,000 blog posts. The smile which saved the Mets’ clubhouse chemistry. The $5 million throwing arm. Frenchy isn’t having a good season but he has certainly made the conversation more lively over the past 365 days. And for that I am grateful. Hopefully the Mets commemorate this special anniversary on the scoreboard.”
The one with or without OBP on it?
The moment Braves Journal learned about the de-Francoeurification:
http://bravesjournal.us/?p=4551#comment-236944
29 — A day I’ll always remember fondly.
A Francoeur cartoon I made about 2 weeks before the trade:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/1418771/
I remember the firestorm last year after Escobar took a pitch with a hit and run call on, then he went on a tear (offensively and defensively) immediately after that.
And, on cue, a solid single to center.
C’mon Melky! Hit another HR here and we’ll trade you to New York!
At least we’re making Pelfrey work hard.
And there’s the Francoeur we know too well, striking out on 3 pitches.
A vintage Frenchy swing.
That’s our Jeffy!
Dammit Zombie.
2/1 Odds Chipper goes deep here.
You gotta get your body behind that, Dorn!
Escobar is having a rough go so far this year, but it seems a bit absurd to trade him at this point. We are talking about a guy who hit .300 last year while leading the majors (for the better part of the year) in hitting with RISP? Not to mention he’s great defensively. I mean how clutch was he for us last year?
He’s got an attitude problem, and plays with a lot of “latin flair”, which doesn’t quite jive with some members of this team. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fact that the team elders, namely Chipper and Bobby aren’t fans is messing with his head a bit.
Do you know how hard it is to go three innings with four hits and two walks and not score any runs?
Whatever else happens, we’re at least running up Pelfrey’s pitch count.
Since V-F Day, the NL East standings are:
Braves 96-67
Phillies 93-71 (3.5 GB)
Marlins 83-78 (12 GB)
Mets 77-87 (19.5 GB)
Nationals 73-92 (24 GB)
I still hate Hinske. He’s worthless until the last 3 innings for whatever reason.
Hinske got off to a hot start but now his BABIP is regressing to the mean.
He hasn’t produced too many BIPs lately.
lol Ike Davis
Ok, now it’s time for a run.
How about several?
Great, last thing we need is Prado injured.
Do not doubt the Prado!
Urgggh.
My god.
Unbelieveable.
Will we EVER score in this game???
You have to try to not score a run with the line the Braves have.
Gameday has it at 14 LOB through 4 innings. Six go to Melky.
F Melky!
I’m getting real sick of this offense.
No way we’re winning this game after that.
Seven hits, three walks, four innings, no runs.
Part of this is on Bobby for not putting Omar in the 2 hole.
This reminds me of the last time we faced Pelfrey in Citi Field.
At least Pelfrey’s WHIP is going up.
Man, those FOX announcers are bad.
Until it gets a healthy, productive Heyward back, I’ve got the feeling this lineup’s living on borrowed time.
I’d rather leave 14 men on base than go 1-2-3 every inning.
That looked like a strike.
65, I don’t.
We’ve won three straight on the road against two divisional rivals. I wouldn’t get too down on the offense.
Jeffy is fun to watch.
Jeffy still sucks.
It would be nice if Glaus started hitting again.
@67
Right, I’d rather Pelfrey have a no-hitter going with our lineup showing zero signs of life..
Millar just made the worst Skip Caray impression ever.
Millar makes me miss Mark Grace.
Mark, I was just kidding of course.
Love it when (some of) the crowd goes “ooohhh” when Jeffrey hits the ball and it barely gets out of the infield.
Okay, how will we blow this scoring opportunity? I say strikeout, GIDP.
Jeffy turns an entire stadium into Chip Caray.
How are we going to screw this one up?
Well, we dug up so much of the backyard that we had to find an acorn.
A RUN!
Glaus!
Rawr, Glausosaur.
@75
Gotcha. Was worried that frustration was clouding rationality.
And, there we go. Finally a breakthrough. RBI for Troy.
D’oh. Apparently, Kevin Millar is not very bright.
I wonder if anyone (other than Pete Rose) has made eight straight all-star games (Straw also made the team his first year with the Dods) and not made the Hall of Fame.
I hope Millar is kidding.
Millar: “Get him on your staff.” Dirty!
Millar sounds like Hawk Harrelson a little bit.
He’s an All-Star, donchaknow.
Another run!
Just what All-Stars do.
we can call this the “death by papercuts offense”
Kevin Millar must have been hit more in the head than I knew.
@92 – Somewhere, Chip already has.
Boy it’s tough not to hate Yunel these days.
That was a disappointing run. Better than all the game’s disappointing not-runs.
Edit: And Hudson gets the hardest hit of the inning.
All-Star Omar Infante now hitting .478 since being named one.
Go chase it, Jeffy.
Millar is now saying that Pelfrey — who gave up twelve hits and is only going to get charged with four runs — “didn’t throw that badly” and “had bad luck”.
Does he have tar on the soles of his cleats?
did anyone notice that yunel’s highlights are gone?
Omar is really pushing to be playing everyday….
It’s pretty clear that Yunel’s highlights have been missing all year; it’s only just now that we’ve noticed it.
Good one, Nick 🙂
Though I do think some people noticed he was never on any highlights.
Two years ago if I had said, “Dessens gives up a Grybo on a double by the pitcher over Francoeur’s head”, I’d have turned the game off.
Helluva play, Troy!
Yay Glaus!
Glausaurus munches line drive.
3b skills ar 1b
who is doing the commentary on fox?
Shut up, Millar.
110 — Kenny Albert and Kevin Millar. The really annoying one is Millar.
Chip Caray is still worse than Kevin Millar.
At least Millar is into the game….
Millar sounds like my uncle who used to spike his O’Douls with Jameson.
what a horrible human being. what is he on?
Am I watching a baseball game or a Gatorade commercial?
Pagan’s average is ten points higher than Francoeur’s OBP. They can’t really bench him for Jeff when Beltran comes back, right? RIGHT?
Kyle, of course they can! Frenchy sells tickets, or some such thing.
It’s always good fun hearing the announcers trying to justify even thinking about benching Pagan over Jeffrey, “… he brings leadership and… uhm… he has a cannon for an arm in right”.
At this point, I don’t know if that’s good or bad news for the Mets, but it’s good news for the National League.
I do believe that Matty D is back.
Get Diaz ready for Santana tomorrow….
“Cowboy up” Millar
Just as good as a bunt, Jeffy gives himself up
Jeff Francoeur sucks. Not sure if you guys remembered that, but he’s really, really bad.
Bill Hohn is apparently dehydrated from clubbing with Melky the last couple of nights.
Minus the ‘stache and with the benefit of his voice (being mic’d for Fox today) it is apparent: Bill Hohn is George Costanza.
Since returning from injury at the end of June, Matt Diaz is 6-19 with four doubles and a homer. When the man hits, he hits.
just wish Diaz could play CF
worst announcer ever
That wasn’t a bad Marv Albert impression, for what it’s worth. On the other hand, it made no sense whatsoever.
Millar is obviously drunk….what was that Ken Rosenthal? Was he reading? That was horrible…
Ahem… 7-20.
Diaz is so cool.
Pagan’s average is ten points higher than Francoeur’s OBP. They can’t really bench him for Jeff when Beltran comes back, right? RIGHT?
Of course they can. We saw it plenty with Bobby Cox. It’s the amazing Jeff Francoeur.
A manager risks the wrath of a lot of 18-25 year old blonde girls in pink Francoeur jerseys sitting in seats around right field if said manager benches Jeffy.
How many games does Fox have going right now? This announcing team really really have to be far down the list.
Ron Gant’s right — they have to platoon Beltran with Jeffy in right.
I hate Fox. I can’t even watch the game online because of their blackout restrictions. At least y’all have the game! (and frankly, everywhere I’ve looked they’re talking about Millar, which makes me curious)
how far does one have to fall to platoon with Frenchy? Beltran is a better hitter from both sides of the plate
Im starting to think Yunel hates hitting now
I thought Kenny was the #2 play by play behind Buck……
All’s well that ends well, and with a five-game division lead.
Venters and Wagner are so overpowering it is hardly necessary to use defensive replacements
The 1st time all year I get to watch 3 braves games in a row….with TBS having the game tomorrow.
Robbie Williams had it right: you should definitely sing when you’re winning.
Ohh… Kenny Albert is Marv Albert’s son. I guess that’s why there was a Marv Albert impression.
15 hits and 5 walks probably should result in more than 4 runs, but a win is a win.
Recappage accomplished.
when the other team cant score, I dont concern myself with how many runs we have