From the AP:
The slumping New York Mets have traded outfielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Jeff Francoeur.
The deal came Friday, with the injury-ravaged Mets trying to avoid falling farther back in the NL East race.
Church is hitting .280 with two home runs and 22 RBIs. Francoeur is hitting .250 with five homers and 35 RBIs.
Now, if the Mets made the trade to score some free Delta miles, great. If they made the trade to improve their right field situation, they may be in for a bit of a surprise.
Seriously, Frenchy is hitting .250/.282/.352 this season. That’s no better than he did last season when he hit .239/.294/.359. At the bat, he’s an out machine with a little bit of pop. And however bad Ryan Church has performed this season, his line is better across the board this season, and Francoeur has only once topped Church in either on-base average or slugging percentage–that being when he slugged .549 as a rookie in 2005, a mark he has since failed to come within 100 points of.
Defensively, I fail to see much of an improvement, either. His arm is spectacular, but he’s never provided much in the way of range. UZR saw him as well below average last year, and no more than average this year, pulled up by his arm rating in both seasons.
I suppose Francoeur does have more upside than Church, thanks to being five years younger and possessing more athleticism. But at this point, 2600-plus plate appearances into his career, I just don’t see him ever meeting that ceiling, or coming very close. It’s certainly possible that he does, but it just isn’t likely.
This one’s worse than a head-scratcher for me; frankly, I’m angry.
This is awful.
Why the heck is everyone on SNY praising this move. “It had to be done”…..”Great move by Omar”
I dont get it.
we’re a joke
A POX ON OMAR AND THIS TEAM
i’m done
With the way this orgainzation has treated Church I would be glad if i was him. Last year they mistreated him with the concussions and could have cost him to get his career really started. On the other hand maybe Hojo can work with Francoeur on his swing and get his numbers back to what they were as a rook. Hes 25 too which doesnt hurt. Hope the best for Churchy and for us.
So he’s worse defensively and worse offensively and the only thing that helps is he is younger.
AWESOME.
Frenchy was decent for one season of his career. He’s been shitty ever since.
Church is a better player in every facet of the game.
Well, Jerry got his wish and played Church right off the team!
YOU ARE AWESOME, OMAH! (fukker!)
At least Frenchy won’t miss third base. Oh wait, he won’t even get the chance to be that close to third base.
i still cant believe this happened
this is so bad, i dont care about posting on here during work
i am stunned
i want to e-murder omar and his family
Neither can I Dep. It’s unbelievable.
Frenchy’s OBP is 282!!! lol
Isn’t that close to what Church’s BA is?
Bobby Cox even benched Frenchy for 3 games this year.
Here’s a better idea, Omah: TRADE FOR BOBBY COX!!
OMG this is terrible.
We get a guy that can suck for more years!
Does this mean I can’t make fun of frenchy anymore?
FU Omar
remember how we talked about maybe wanting to sell church to see what we got?
omar delivered!
I just love how we traded Church for another corner outfielder. I love it. I could live with this if it shored up some of our problem areas. But it doesn’t do shit.
they wanted a righty bat and now we got one….
but i seriously question if this is the best Omah could do
.250
5 hrs
35 rbi
.282 avg
.352 obp
and Frenchy can’t even play 1B….what happened to the OF/1B we were looking for?
We didn’t think Church+Schneider was the best we could do for Milledge.
It’s like he traded a dollar for three quarters, now he traded one of the quarters for two pennies.
Career OPS+:
Church: 108
Frenchy: 89
At least church can play CF some with beltran out – frenchy can’t. This move makes NO sense on so many levels. ugh
i still can’t believe it
this will take a long time to get over.
everyone is laughing at us and the mets. thanks omar
BTF breaks it down right
Yeah Jeremy Reed is the new starting CF until Beltran comes back.
The Jeremy Reed that Jerry Manuel hates.
OH! we were the ones to get CASH
it was reported wrong
THANK GOD
I’m hunting omar down this weekend
lol he’s been below replacement level last two years
“If on-base percentage is so important, why don’t they put it up on the scoreboard?” – Jeff Francouer.
I can tell he’s going to be *real* popular with the geeks.
On the other hand, Atlanta fans don’t seem too happy with this one either. A lose-lose situation!
That’s basically the truth. We just traded a player with positive value for a player with negative value.
LOL
Well we got cash……..I feel so much better about things now.
The best part: they do put it on the scoreboard, even in Atlanta.
What cracks me up is the Carlins and MC of the world praising this deal lol.
I still cannot believe this.
yea, the “…I like this deal” sums up metsblog nicely.
lol @ anyone that doenst get how awful this is. I am stunned and very angry
I’m done with omar. i cant support a man running this very expensive team that could make a move like this.
cant wait for church to blast this team’s mgmt publicly. that will be fun
Doesn’t surprise me, Carlin initiated a protest at Jets camp to bring Favre to the team because it was a “no-brainer”. lol
U just know next week in atlanta church is going 8-12 with a couple HR’s lol
My phone is ringing off the hook. People are making fun of me. let it stop
It’s amazing how a rookie GM absolutely pwnd omar.
Yeah, I’m angry. But then i trie dto remember how I felt about the Kazmir deal. And I don’t feel as angry anymore.
I really apreciated Churche’s defense., but overall he wasn’t cutting it either.
We were a shittie team before the deal, and we’re still shittie.
If Beltran comes back maybe Pagan will be the rightfielder.
Why is everyone dissing this trade??
Ryan Church gives us almost nothing. Sure, this year the offensive numbers for Church are “better”, but Francoeur is a MUCH better defensive player… Church has a good arm but Frenchy’s is way better, and Francoeur covers more ground. What’s more Franc runs the bases better (hits every base every time) and runs faster.
What’s more, the guy has upside. Church has none. He’s younger. He’s hit in the past. He’s improving his game. Ryan Church just seems to be falling off the map after a young career chock full of injuries.
This could be another one of those trades for Omar that winds up looking better than initially thought. Remember the trade of Lastings Milledge that got us both Church and Brian Schneider?
?
Church has an underated arm, but I admit thant Francoeur’s is stronger.
There is no chance that Francoeur covers more ground though.
Church is the superior fielder, Francoeur is the superior thrower.
We’re not REALLY upset so much by losing Church, We’re upset because we wanted help, and we didn’ really get any.
Jeff Francoeur has a gold glove (2007). How many gold gloves does Ryan Church have? Frenchie has had two consecutive 100-rbi seasons, and two consecutive 162 game seasons. How many of those does Church have?
Levin,
I don’t really have a problem with trading Church – he really doesn’t hit enough for a corner outfielder. The problem is that, at this point, Jeff Francoeur is an awful hitter. Even when he had his 100-RBI seasons he wasn’t getting on base enough to contribute offensively. Now, pitchers have learned to just make him chase after pitches out of the strike zone. He’s had an OBP under .300 the last 2 years, with little power. You can talk about potential & upside, but the fact is, Jeff has absolutely zero plate discipline, and that’s not a skill that easily develops out of nowhere.
Actually, I would prefer that Omar not get help, unless the price is very low. I just don’t think it’s worth it to overpay in prospects for an Aubrey Huff or Nick Johnson. We already have so many holes, one more bat is not going to put us back in contention.
Frenchy?
For realz?
:sends omar box of condoms:
Even when Francouer was driving in 100 runs for Atlanta, I still thought he sucked (and not just cuz he was a Brave). He has zero idea of the strike zone, has average speed at best and does not cover a ton of ground in rf. For Atlanta its at least addition by subtraction. For the metsies, just a big fat negative. Good Lord he sucks so much.
This reminds me when we traded for Hidalgo in 2004 I believe. You looked at his one career year in Houston and had a glimmer of hope, but once you saw him hit, you realized he was a slob on a steep downhill slide in his career.
How many years do both players have left on their contracts?
I mean, they’re both flawed players but at least Francouer has more raw potential… or had, anyway. Church’s ceiling is and always was “eh”.
I dunno. Not a huge improvement but, yeah, I was certainly sick of Church’s streaky mehness. Even if Frank gives us more of the same, at least its a different guy.
This is a GREAT trade for the Mets!
*If Ogre keeps saying it, it may eventually become true. Please God. Please make it eventually come true.
Ogre just heard from God. He said this will never be a good trade. How unfortunate.
I’m sitting here gap-mouthed. As far as I can see, this is one dumb-ass trade, except for the money. Think Ho-Jo can fix this guy’s hitting?
This trade looks like Kazmir for Victor Zambrano to me.
Maybe we can trade Francoeur (and if I’ve spelt that worng, like I care) for Elijah Dukes and get some attitude on the field, not this “we’re so hard done by injuries, I can suck and it doesn’t matter” attitude that’s going on at the moment. Yeah, sure we’ve got major injuries, but surely these back up players weren’t planning on piggybacking to success all year. Isn’t this when a young player from the Minors steps up and takes over the spotlight…… oh wait, we don’t have a farm system, all our prospects went to the Twins, and all our draft picks went for type A’s.
This is about placating the restless natives for a few weeks. The alternative was trading F-Mart, Niese, Murphy and Evans for Adam Dunn. I don’t think it can be explained otherwise.
What it appears to signal is that the plan is F-mart and a free agent in the corners next year, or perhaps Beltran in one corner and F-mart in center. The only way there is a chance this year is if everyone comes back and goes on a tear. There is no good trade to be made.
ugh
I would have rather them trade for Alex Rios’ bad contract than brin in Francoeur and have him clogg up a roster spot for the next three years. I would have taken a solid middle releiver over Francoeur. Lets hope Omar doesn’t make any more of these trades.
Here are the positives:
1. Trades generate excitement. The players seem happy that the front office made a move. They seem optimistic that they might be a better team now.
2. Francoeur’s an upbeat guy. One more of those in our clubhouse might be a good thing. Having fun is better than counting your D.L. tally.
The negatives, of course, are that Ryan Church is a better baseball player.
The only controversy regarding skill seems to be about running speed. Frenchy is taller with longer strides, and I remember him covering a ton of ground as a rookie. Having watched both guys over the last two years, though, it seems to me that Church is much faster, and that Francoeur is in fact much slower than you’d like an OF in a big ballpark to be.
We’ll just have to hope that the game or two Frenchy’s bat costs us are countered by David Wright putting less pressure on himself (with one more funny guy in the dugout to joke around with) and producing a one or two game upsurge in production.
I am much happier to have Frenchy than Rios. We can release Jeff, like the Braves were probably about to do, and owe him nothing. There’s no way out of paying Rios $12 mil/yr to be average.
Frenchy’s the best we could get without ditching all our prospects. (If Omar decides to ditch our prospects, I want nothing less than Halladay.)
I think this trade might work out ok if they let Francouer wear a Braves uniform while playing in Citi Field.
Seriously, this is stupid trade, but I don’t really see it as mattering all that much, and if it means I see less of Tatis, maybe that’s a good thing. Pretty much a deal for a deal’s sake to make it look like Omar’s trying. Yawn.