An odd assortment of strengths and weaknesses. I’d rather have that than a bench player who’s mediocre at everything.
Young’s from Temple, Texas (like Lance Berkman). He played three years at New Mexico before the Braves signed him as an undrafted free agent. Young is listed at 5-8 and may be shorter than that, and the Braves (as they did with Marcus Giles) attempted to convert him to second base. That didn’t go too well, and he’s spent most of the time in the outfield. Young doesn’t have the greatest outfield range either and is best in left, but doesn’t have corner-outfield power.
Young’s strength as a hitter is on-base skills. A .295 career hitter in the minors, his OBP is .390. However, in 790 career minor league games, he’s hit only 20 homers. The fear is that on the major league level he won’t be able to hit with enough authority to keep pitchers honest, and that they’ll knock the bat out of his hands. If a player like this can manage to keep most of his walks and average when reaching the majors, he can be very successful, but a lot of them don’t.
Young’s stolen a lot of bases in the minors, 158, and been caught 68 times; he’s also hit 36 triples. His value as a pinch-runner is lessened on a team that’s already carrying Brandon Hicks, who can’t do anything offensively but pinch-run.
Like the swallows to Capistrano, another sign that spring and baseball is finally upon us….
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/28/2759667/seitzer-says-francoeur-is-poised.html
I like this line –
“I’ve always had success against Barry Zito,” said Francoeur, a right-handed hitter.
Career – Jeff is 2 for 8 against Zito, no HR, 1RBI. I guess that is a lot of success for him.
Was it justhank the other day who reminded us that … if success against the pitcher mattered wouldn’t they put it on the scoreboard?
Hmm, looking at Frenchy’s career splits, what jumps out is that his numbers are only modestly better against LH starters v. RH starters. So his overall decent numbers against LHP (.299 .343 .481 .824) tell me that he beats up on the occasional LH reliever and weakly grounds out the rest of the time. Hard to believe he’s still making $2.5/year.
I tell ya, the Royals are going to be my pleasant diversion this year.
I vote we just call them the Kansas City Beaneaters because of all the former Braves.
Nice NY Times story on Alabama’s Anthony Grant, VCU’s former coach who recruited key players to their Final 4 squad:
http://tinyurl.com/4gehdfd
Any readers out there? Or fans of train wrecks? Google the name Jacqueline Howett. Good times.
I tell my friends here in Kansas City that whenever the Royals sign an ex-Brave, just assume he sucks.
Everyone in town already loves Frenchy. It’s insidious how quickly he can pull that off. Reminds me of “Aladdin” where Jafar brainwashes the Sultan with the snake staff.
“You will give me 650 AB’s!”
I wrote a career retro for Mike Hampton, complete with the requisite link to “Mike Hampton flies a helicopter.”
I don’t think it was me, Jeff, but if you thought it was pithy, I’ll certainly take the credit.
If you thought it was reactionary and poorly-spelled (like Jacqueline Howett) I disavow any knowledge.
—————-
Uh, is it just me, but if we compare Mac’s writeup on Matt Young to what would be his writeup on Gregor Blanco wouldn’t the reaction be:
“What the hell are we waiting for? Sign Blanco quick!”
Jason Bay is hurt, excuse me while I go into the next room to chuckle.
The LOLMets are planning to designate Manny Acosta for assignment… so they can keep Blaine Boyer.
It’s sort of sad reading the comments by Royals fans that think Jeffy will actually be good. It’s like being kept in a dungeon for years; anything looks better after that.
Jason Bay and Oliver Perez: partners in the Brian Giles trade, partners in destroying the Mets from within. I salute you, gentlemen.
Bad-to-Worse Dept.
Yup, Mets’ Jason Bay with a ribcage injury. Could start the season on the DL.
ububba – is Russell Smith (Amazing Rhythm Aces) still around and performing?
AAR – Got your piece on Hampton through Yahoo Sports. Nice work.
Yanks sent Montero and Romine down. Didn’t see that coming.
This is a new ad in the New York subways. It’s…it’s perfect.
hank,
No idea, but I always thought “Third Rate Romance” was a hysterical song. Liked the Rosanne Cash version, too.
Ethan, as a father of young kids, #9 made me LOL.
Jeff, thanks. And Rob — you’re right, that is perfect.
AAR – great article.
#1 and #9 – I read the link. Man, everyone says that Steve Jobs produces a reality distortion field, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Francouer. It’s like he shows up and a new time line starts. It’s down right uncanny how reasonable people get sucked into the vortex of Frenchy’s new approach.
I’m glad the kid isn’t an Al Qaeda operative. We’d have thousands of militants running around.
Rob, I’m trying to figure out how they got six. I can only think that they’re including the two Jersey-based football teams, but not the Devils or Nets.
If you’re counting the football, it should’ve read “…5 professional sports teams, and also the Mets.”
But yeah, of the 9 area pro teams, only 4 actually play in NYC—4 in Jersey & 1 in Nassau County, Long Island.
@21
Artists that have covered “Third Rate Romance”…
Sammy Kershaw
Tom Jones
Kenny Rodgers
Barney
(Ok, I kid about Barney)
25, 26 – I think they’re counting the six other teams with “New York” in the team name, which includes both football teams, the Islanders and Rangers, the Knicks, and the Yankees. That doesn’t include the Nets or Devils, who are (nominally) “New Jersey” teams.
The Aces had some Hall of Merit stuff that didn’t get played. “The End is Not in Sight” is great for burning up I-75 from Atlanta to Lexington – especially the stretch between Knoxville and Jellico.
————–
I think the Royals have installed the Orb of Confusion in their front office.
Me: How’s it going?
Metfan/Art Dept. Guy: Are you kidding?
Me: What do you mean?
MFADG: We’re looking at an outfield of Lucas Duda, Jose Pagan & Scott Hairston! That’s how I’m doing!
In fairness, it’s Angel Pagan, and he’s actually a good player.
Yeah, but he shouldn’t be the best one out there.
True, but he’s better than anyone we had in 2009.
(Fun fact: our 2009 outfield combined for 45 home runs and 215 RBI in 2117 plate appearances, with a triple slash of .261/.328/.393.)
But they’re got Duda & Hairston replacing Jason Bay & Carlos Beltran.
If the Mets are going to be at all competitive they need some output from the corners.
Oh, no doubt. But if I were a Mets fan, I’d worry less about the outfield and more about the, um, Wilpons.
Funnily enough, our 2009 outfield had stats almost identical to Matt Wieters, who has a career line of .266/.328/.393.
At this point, if I’m the Mets, I worry about losing 100 games.
BP has the Mets at 81-81 this year. I saw that on the 30 Clubs/30 Days show on the Braves and I thought it was an error, but it wasn’t. I’d love to wager
on that not happening. There’s no way in hell the Mets are finishing .500 this year.
I think the Vegas over/under is down to 77/78 games.
I’d also point out Dickey is coming off a career year that I doubt he repeats, and they’ll probably trade off parts once they fall out of contention.
Dickey’s one of the few guys I think will be OK. Plus, I have him in an office pool.
The Mets suck.
I’m not so sure the Mets will be as bad as everyone here thinks. Of course, if they can’t get Beltran or Bay onto the field, they’ll be bad. But I actually think it’s reasonable to think that both those guys will have bounce back years, that Reyes, Wright, and Pagan will be solid, and that their run prevention won’t be too bad. I think the 81-win tally is about right.
Verbatim Ozzie Tweet:
“Why no hall of fame ? Luck u self. People”
The Mets’ rotation isn’t scaring anybody over the long haul & there’s no telling if they’ll get anything from Santana this season.
They’ll need more of the same from Pelfrey & Dickey, and they could use some best-case scenarios from the likes of Chris Young & Jon Niese.
I’ll give them this: They do have some tall pitchers.
First Braves game I’ve been able to catch this spring and I’m greeted with the Lisp. Bummer, but seeing Proctor would have been worse.
@20, they have a huge ad, same one, in lower Manhattan. I think I was around Spring and Hudson looking East when I saw it a couple of weeks ago.
“I’m excited to see what Dan Uggla’s damage ratio will be in this ballpark.” Me too Chip. Whatever that means.
Maybe Chip came up with a new advanced hitting statistic. Or maybe he’s just a fucking moron.
What are you all talking about? Is the game on TV right now?
Edit: Oh, I see it’s on SportSouth.
Mather cleared waivers tweets the DOB. Sent across town.
HBO Real Sports is promoting their new show.
I don’t think Auburn gridiron fans are going to like it.
Chuck James in the house.
#51 – I really dont find that surprising. He’s not that good.
54 – How dare you. He’s the next Jayson Werth!
Since Uggla usually starts off slow, can we all agree to cut him a little slack if he does? I’m looking forward to seeing his monster hacks this year.
I’m hoping that Mac starts calling Hicks ‘Slugging Brandon Hicks.’ It worked last time.
Who in the hell is Mauro Gomez?
Why the Royals are excited about Frenchy? The guy is amazing. He is on his third team after being traded away by Wren and we are still talking about him.
57 — He must be an addictive drug.
Okay, bad joke. That’s the Royals’ problem though.
“Why the Royals are excited about Frenchy? The guy is amazing. He is on his third team after being traded away by Wren and we are still talking about him.”
This is true. No one here is still talking about Pete Orr.
#51 54 – I guess you have to hit like Jayson Werth too.
@55,
Yep. The fact that he isn’t on the Marlins killing us is a plus.
Of course if he does start slow, we will know he truly is a Brave killer
Everyone,
Tomorrow we will have a game thread!
New post.