Jeff Francoeur

First of all, he shouldn't be the cornerstone for a team. But it goes too far to say that he has no value.

He's a decent defensive outfielder (although he seems to not be as good as he was before, oddly), and has a bit of pop in his bat. He plays hard. And, most importantly, he's cheap.

That being said, he shouldn't be batting in the middle of the lineup. He doesn't walk enough, and his lack of power for the last season and a half is troubling. Last year, he had a decent batting average, but this year he's combined the bad part of his 2007 season (no power) with the bad part of 2006 (low average/on base percentage). Not what anyone was looking for, including him.

Of course, as long as the Braves are running the likes of Gregor Blanco and Greg Norton out there as the rest of the outfield, I'm not sure what the Braves can do. Their hands are tied, a lot like last year with Andruw. As long as they resist the temptation to give Francoeur a big contract ("big" here being "like the one they gave McCann"), then there's nothing to worry about.

Where I've Been All Year

Well, it's been quite a while. The last post here was over a year ago...

But I do have a good excuse as to where I've been, and why I haven't updated things here. On January 24, I welcomed a new Braves fan into the world.


Yep, I've got a baby boy now. And so I spent all my formerly free time last summer getting the house as ready as possible for him. And all that time has been used this year in doing baby stuff.

That's the main reason I haven't posted. But there's another reason: the Braves as currently constituted bore me. I mean, how many ways are there to describe a loss, especially when they seem to be of the same variety so often?

Of course, this season shouldn't be considered to be a total surprise. The front office rolled the dice, building a rotation that depended too much on two pitchers over 40 and a bunch of youngsters (and maybe Mike Hampton). Chipper's been fighting injuries for years now, and there's no reason to expect that he'll ever play 162 games in a season. (I'd be unwilling to expect more than 120 or so...) So mediocre isn't a surprise.

But. I'm still a Braves fan. And a baseball fan. And there are some good things about the team. I'm not promising anything, but I think I'm going to try and write some posts about what I like about the team.

And it's still a lot better than the mid 80s were.