Francoeur signs one-year deal with Braves

The deal allows both parties to avoid arbitration, which is almost exactly what you’ll read below. But check out what I’ve bolded:

Francoeur and the Braves avoided arbitration late Wednesday night when they agreed to terms on a one-year, $3.375 million contract, which includes incentives that could push his earnings this year to $3.4 million.

25 grand? Really? That’s all the incentive the Braves offer after he has an absolutely terrible year? You have to wonder how much time was spent negotiating over those 25 g’s. It also makes you think Frank Wren is either excellent at negotiating (doubtful) or a total trifler (likely); the later would explain his failing with Griffey, Smoltz, Furcal, Peavy, and Burnett.

Anyway, Francoeur is a Brave for at least one more year. Obviously I’m not thrilled about it. The man had a VORP of -17.8 last year (meaning that he scored or was responsible for nearly 18 less runs than the average right fielder) and a WARP of -0.9 (meaning that w/o Francoeur in the lineup, the Braves record would’ve been one game better). Your ‘franchise’ player is supposed to produce runs and win you games, not the other way around. I guess the good news is that he’s projected by Baseball Prospectus to have a .273/.326/.440 line with 19 HRs and 74 RBIs, good for 7.8 VORP and a 1.8 WARP, which is not exactly good but I guess we have to take what we can get.

Francoeur continues to not suck; Braves beat Giants 11-5

The two pillars of the Braves ‘08 season, Francoeur and Mike Hampton, came through again last night. Hampton pitched six solid innings (6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 SO) and Francoeur was 4-5 with a double, 2 RBI and two runs scored. Yep, you read that right. In fact, he’s been on a tear of sorts; in the past three games he’s gone 7-14 with 1 HR, a double, 5 RBIs, and 4 Rs, raising his average 9 points, his on-base percentage by 6 points, and his slugging by 13. Of course his line is still atrocious (.233/.292/.358 ) but perhaps those two extra-base hits (his only two in the past 19 games) will inspire/remind him to perform to his potential or at least the league average.

Speaking of league average, it seems as though Kelly Johnson is the MLB’s most average player. Fangraphs.com notes that Kelly’s stats are more mediocre than any other players:

His batting average is .266, compared to a league average of .259.
His on base percentage is .335, compared to a league average of .330.
His slugging percentage is .416, compared to a league average of .413.

He’s posting an average BB/K rate, an average ISO, and an average BABIP. His WPA/LI (which is measured as above average) is -0.01. He’s even average defensively, as the Fielding Bible +/- system ranks him as just +3 plays as a second baseman, which is not quite a premium position but not a spot for oafs either.

So we have that going for us.

Covering old ground; Francoeur is not very good this year

The AJC notes that Bobby Cox is again leaving Francoeur out of today’s day game against the Cubs to “‘mix (things) up a little.’” David O’Brien again throws the scary stats that are Francoeur’s ‘08 season at us:

Francoeur has hit .209 with six homers in 90 games since April 25. He hit a two-run homer in a 3-2 loss against the Cubs on June 12 and has only one home run in 176 at-bats since then.

The 2007 Gold Glove winner has hit .173 with four extra-base hits and nine RBIs in his past 42 games, and has no extra-base hits in his past 15 games.
…
After batting .338 with runners in scoring position in 2005, .320 in 2006, and .341 in 2007, Francoeur is worst among Braves regulars with a .186 average with runners in scoring position this season.

And after hitting .379 against lefties in 2005, .292 in 2006 and .317 in 2007, he’s hitting .208 against them this season.

Also McCann has been so good of late that he’s apparently become delusional: “Catcher Brian McCann keeps saying how the Braves aren’t mathematically eliminated and that they still need to play every game to win.”

Delusional or not he is the man.

In related news, I will be at the game tomorrow night, in awesome seats no less, wearing said man’s jersey. If there is a rain delay/cancellation for the one day I’m in town and available to see a game you’ll probably see me hanging out around one of the I-75 overpasses with a bottle of Jim Beam, chain smoking and muttering to myself.

Braves Lose Fifth Straight; Light Officially Too Dim To See

The Braves lost their fifth straight game last night to the Cardinals. In good news for them Chris Carpenter returned for four scoreless innings; in shitty news for us Hudson’s elbow is still is more fucked than anyone could have imagined. As usual, Jair pitched well (7 IP, 3 ER) and the bullpen imploded (2 IP, 4 ER). In unusual news Francoeur had as many hits as he had outs, with a walk tossed in to boot! Could it be that he’s finally getting his shit together now that it won’t matter one bit? Let’s hope so; I, for one, certainly want to see him artificially inflate his numbers now that the season is ruined so he can sign that fat multi-year contract he’s so greedily, and unwisely, held out for.

I’m sorry, do I sound upset? Do I really? Well, I guess I am BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE THING THAT COULD HAVE GONE WRONG THIS SEASON DID GO WRONG AND NOW I HAVE TO HEAR SHIT FROM MY FRIENDS FROM PHILLY. DO YOU REALIZE THAT I AM ONLY 90 MINUTES FROM THAT HELLHOLE? THAT MEANS THERE ARE MORE OF THEM HERE THAN THERE ARE OF US; I’M KNEE DEEP IN SWARTHY AND UNSAVORY CHARACTERS. WHILE YOU GRIEVE IN THE COMFORT OF THE GLORIOUS AND STERILE SOUTH, CRYING ON THE SHOULDER OF EQUALLY DESPONDENT FRIENDS AND FAMILY, I’M TRAPPED HERE IN THE DARK, DIRTY MID-ATLANTIC REGION SURROUNDED BY THE ENEMY, WHO, REST ASSURED, ARE GODLESS, UNPATRIOTIC AND BADLY DRESSED. THIS IS THE WORST.

Oi Vey!

Things have gotten bad. How bad? Bad enough that the Braves were one-hit by the Marlins pitching staff. This is not the Dodgers, who lead the majors in ERA when the 1-hit the Braves earlier this month, but the Marlins, who have the 24th worst team ERA in the league.

Rick Van den Hurk? Vandenhurk?

Has anyone heard of him? No, I don’t think anyone has. Some googling tells me he’s Dutch (nickname: the Holland Hammer aka the Incredible Hurk) and spent the last three and a half months in the minors before pitching no-hit ball for five innings tonight. It wasn’t until after he left the game that Chipper managed to get off the Braves’ only hit, a line-drive single to center.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on what ridiculous/rare/badass nicknames he has: The Holland Hammer and the Incredible Hurk. Now that I think about it the Braves have terrible nicknames. Frenchy? Larry? Tex? Bad, bad and worse. I will now pause to consult the experts. Okay, I’m back and I stand corrected; there is indeed one cool nick name for Braves players and it actually covers several of them, although it mostly has to do with long-time lovers McCann and Francoeur: Gay Lumberjacks. Awesome.

Obviously everyone put up 0-fers except for Chipper, but a few players were worse than the others. You, over there, with the two strikeouts and 5 men left on-base, I’m looking at you. You can’t hide behind McCann anymore, I can see the 7 on your jersey. It’s illuminated by the hell-red light reflected off your pitiful .231/.287/.368 batting line. I won’t embarrass you by mentioning your name, but you know who you are. I hope you go home tonight and think on just what you’ve done, or haven’t done, and not just for tonight but for this whole shit show of a season. I think it may be time for you to fake ADD and get a prescription for adderall because whatever else you’re trying clearly isn’t working.

In the increasingly tiny “Good News” section, the Braves’ bullpen was lights out, going 2 1/3 with just two hits and no runs.

A Brief Note on Just How Bad Jeff Francoeur Has Been This Year

Baseball Prospectus ranks him as the Braves’ least valuable offensive player in terms of VORP (Value of Replacement Player), which is one the sabermetric standards for determining such things. In plain language, his replacement player would score an average of nine more runs if he were given the same amount of playing time as Francoeur. This puts makes him the 32 out of 32 on the Braves, and 844 out of 862 in all of the Majors. Yikes.

Francoeur Hits!?!

“YIPPEEEEE!!!!”

Going 2-4 with two RBIs, Francoeur led the Braves to a 4-1 victory over Maddux and the Padres. Chipper was 3-4, and Morton went 5 1/3, giving up just one earned run.

Despite a solid performance (7 IP, 3 ER), poor Mad Dog has now gone 12 starts without a win. In a story that doesn’t bode well with my hangover, David O’Brien of the AJC points out that Maddux is significantly older than the rookie Morton:

Charlie Morton was 2 years old when Greg Maddux debuted in the major leagues in 1986, and 8 when Maddux won the first of his four consecutive Cy Young Awards in 1992.

It’s a weird fucking feeling knowing that professional baseball players are your age.

Braves Lose; Offense and Francoeur Again Fail to Do Anything

The Braves’ managed a paltry one extra-base hit (a double from McCann, who had two other hits) last night in San Diego. To be fair, it was against Jake Peavy, who is always tough and absolutely dominant at home (4-3, 1.45 ERA). However, this game marks the third time in the last four games that the Braves have failed to score more than one run – this is clearly bad by any standards.

Jo-Jo Reyes 7/11/08

And poor Jo-Jo Reyes. His line for the year is deceptively bad at 4-8 with a 4.40 ERA; as usual, the Braves haven’t given him anything close to proper run support. In his eight losses this year, the Braves have produced a grand total of nine runs. Of course several of those games were crushing, one-sided blow-outs, but two were 1-0 losses. You can’t help but wonder the effect those games would’ve had on the young pitcher’s confidence had even one Brave batter done his fucking job. Last night he pitched well enough on paper, just two earned runs on five hits, but was removed after the fourth inning for whatever reason. It was the fourth consecutive game in which the Braves failed to score a run while he was in the ballgame.

Francoeur continued his torrid streak, going 0-4 with a strike out and 3 LOB.

SD vs ATL, 7/11/08

Francoeur Can’t Hit; Whining, However, He Can Do – Ditto for Instigating Scandalous Cover-up

It’s bad enough to publicly bitch about your demotion, dragging your poor, kind-hearted GM’s name through the mud in the process, but to cover-up said bitching in the local paper? Seems a bit out of young Francoeur’s league but what isn’t these days. (Burn!)

Nothing’s been substantiated but here is the accusatory (and sensible) posting from the fine folks over at Sabernomics.

Get Better Soon. Or Don’t. At This Point, What Difference Does It Make (But Alvie, the Universe Isn’t Going to Expand for Billions of Years)

Old Man Francoeur was sent back to AA Mississippi the other day. This can’t be a bad thing for several reasons.

1). He never beat his wife in the middle of downtown Boston.
2) He needs a break so he can get his focus back to the level of a professional athlete.
3) Now is the perfect time for him to leave because the Braves couldn’t get any worse if they tried.
4) Because the Braves are so bad right now, the only thing really effected is his long term contract prospects, which I hope never get as high as his potential because that means a huge investment from the corporate/tool-owned Braves. Jeff, if you’re going to suck, at least stay bad until you sign your extension.

So Jeff, get better quick. Or take your time. I’m so despondent over how the Braves have played thus far (and how the Gods have cruelly toyed with our star player’s health -WHY?) that I really could care less at this point.