Skip to main content

Francly My Dear, I Give A Damn

My take on the Francoeur trade?

I'm ok with it. A colleague told me he thought Ryan Church maxxed out, and comped him with Todd Hollandsworth. And I'd have traded Todd Hollandsworth for Jeff Francoeur without any hestitation.

I love the walk-off deterrent capabilities of Francoeur's throwing arm (unnoticed this season is how much opposing teams have run on the Mets) and that alone is probably worth more runs per year than we know.

I like that we took someone who usually hurts us and brought him on our side (can we do the same for Brandon Phillips?)

I like that he's a good, positive guy, though he's probably gonna be a bit shellshocked when he checks out the deader-than-dead atmosphere on Saturday night. I like that he's only 25, and he's a couple years away from free agency.

I like that he's got two career walk-off home runs, including one off "The Hat" (Chad Cordero, for those unfamiliar).

What makes me a little skittish? Well, that's mostly the numbers. A lot of people harp on Francoeur's low (awful) on-base percentage, but I wanna go one column to the right, and check out his slugging percentage.

Jeff Francoeur played 155 games last year and slugged .359. Tim Bogar slugged .359 for the Mets once. The difference is that Tim Bogar was never expected to be anything but a No. 8 hitter. Francoeur, in the current state of things, should be hitting No. 4 or No. 5.

Francoeur's slugging percentage dropped 100 points from his first season to his second, to .449. Guys who hit 29 home runs and drive in 103 runs aren't supposed to slug .449.

Since the start of the 20th century, 759 players have hit at least 29 home runs and driven in at least 103 runs in a season. Out of those 759...

The 200th-highest slugging percentage was Reggie Jackson's .608 (1969).

The 400th-highest slugging percentage was Mike Piazza's .561 (1993)

The 600th-highest slugging percentage was Mike Schmidt's .524 (1983)

The 759th-and-worst slugging percentage was Jeff Francoeur's .449 (2006).

So something's clearly amiss with this guy. Actually, a lot's amiss, if you look at his strikeout numbers. But at this point, I'll reserve judgment, because I'm not convinced that the current roster could get to .449 if you added all their slugging percentages together.

True Metcoeurs know...Three Mets have slugged .449 in a season...Lee Mazzilli (1979), Keith Hernandez (1984) and Joe McEwing (2001)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess
10 comments
Read more

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings
Post a Comment
Read more

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu
8 comments
Read more