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
Francoeur (25): 82/.250/5/35/.282/.352
Obviously, Church isn't the other power source the Bravos were looking for, but you've gotta love the on-base numbers.
Provided, his numbers were in a smaller sample size than Frenchy's, but a 20 to 30 point difference in all "decimal" categories is hard to ignore.
No matter how you look at it, both guys needed this move.
Church wasn't Jerry Manuel's favorite player, and Francoeur was rapidly falling out of favor with, well, everyone in Atlanta.
Both guys are more than capable of putting up solid numbers, and this change of scenery could re-hump both guys' careers.
The only issue with this trade is that both of these guys (with their talent) are more than capable of making their former team regret this move.
Judging from reactions, Church is more ready (right now) for this trade because of his eagerness to face the Mets in the first series back from the break.
Francoeur's transition will take a little longer (especially if he gets the standard NY reception), so, right now, I say the Braves won this one.
In five years, I might say that the Braves were the dogs in this trade.
Francoeur will need to work on his discipline before I say that, though.
- Login to post comments