Ryan Church

Anyone who has been watching the Mets this decade remembers him, a.k.a. the guy with the weird name (he also went by Thrilledge and L-Milz). The Mets took him in the 2003 draft with their 12th pick after he was passed on due to his sex allegations with a minor.

No doubt controversial, he was hyped up as a major part of the future of the Mets team, a replacement for Floyd/Green in the future. He was raw, but packed immense talent and promise.

The Pirates had another busy trade deadline, but unlike years past, this year there were no salary dumps or accumulation of prospects. The Pirates made three trades today and all appear to be good baseball moves.

The Pirates acquired catcher Chris Snyder and minor league shortstop Pedro Ciriaco from the Arizona Diamondbacks, in exchange for Ryan Church, Bobby Crosby and D.J. Carrasco.

They also sent closer Octavio Dotel to the Los Angeles Dodgers for right-hander James McDonald and minor league outfielder Andrew Lambo.

Who woke up the Pirates offense after the all-star break? Whoever it was, what took you so long? The Pirates entered the break with pretty much the worse offense in baseball. It looked like it would be another long and dreadful summer, but the Bucs have come out swinging the sticks to begin the second half of the season.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer , Brian Schneider has signed a two-year contract with the Phillies for $3 Million.

After injuries plagued Schneider for 2008 and 2009, the Mets did not stand in the way of him filing for Free Agency.

During the 2008 and 2009 seasons, Schneider had several back and leg injuries and only played in a total of 169 games, and hit .244 with 62 RBI for the two seasons.

A trade that was just announced: The New York Mets have traded right fielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for struggling right fielder Jeff Francoeur.

I'd have to say the Braves win this trade, as they get a good young hitter in Church.

This is the second outfielder the Braves have acquired, the first being Nate McLouth.

So far this season, Church is hitting .280 with two home runs and 22 RBI. Church has 65 hits in 67 games.

In a move that truly surprised me, the Atlanta Braves traded Jeff "Golden Boy" Francoeur to the New York Mets for Ryan Church.

From all I can gather, the two are a wash on defense.

Francoeur has the better arm, but Church has the better range.

The issue lies with the bat.

Is Church an upgrade at all? Or is he going stick his left-handed bat in the lineup and stink up the place like Jeff did from the right side?

Let's look at the stats, shall we?

(age) Games/AVG/HR/RBI/OBP/SLG

Church (30): 67/.280/2 (in Citi)/22/.332/.375

In a trade early Friday evening, the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves swapped Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur.

In 67 games this season, Church is batting .280 with two home runs and 22 RBI's. Church got off to a great start with the Mets in 2008, batting .320 with 10 Home Runs and 34 RBI's, but his season went downhill from that point, mainly due to a concussion.

The Mets acquired Church from the Nationals along with catcher Brian Schneider in exchange for Lastings Milledge on November 30th, 2007.

According to Bart Hubbuch's NY Post Mets Twitter account, the New York Mets have traded OF Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for floundering Right Fielder Jeff Francoeur.

Franceour, 25, started off hot in Atlanta hitting a cool .300 with 14 home runs in his rookie 2005 campaign.

He won a 2007 Gold Glove with his NL leading 19 outfield assists also.

It’s funny how things have changed. A little over two months ago Mets skipper Jerry Manuel had all but officially denounced Ryan Church as an everyday player. There were rumblings that Church would eventually be traded. For the next month or so Church fell out of the limelight, rarely earning a start in right field.

Last year, when the Mets acquired Ryan Church and Brian Schneider in exchange for Lastings Milledge, I was one of the people who was ecstatic about the deal. Church was always a guy who was underutilized during his time in Washington, and Schneider is the excellent defensive catcher that we have been looking for the past couple of years.

But unfortunately for Church, things haven’t panned out