Francoeur was in the minors?!?!?!
8 July 2008 by DavidGo away for the holiday weekend and miss this?!?
On July 4, the Braves optioned outfielder Jeff Francoeur to Mississippi of the Southern League (AA). Double-A?!?!? Wowsers. I don’t know about you, but this just sucked what little optimism was left in the Nats fan in me by crystallizing how bad the Nats actually are.
Now to put this in Nats perspective, Francoeur’s paltry stats of .234, 8 HR, 41 RBI, .287 OBP, .374 SLG for his 334 ABs place him pretty much above the entire Nats entire outfield:
- Dukes with .263, 6 HR, 20 RBI, .367 OBP, .434 SLG for 175 ABs is clearly better offensively, however he’s got many few at bats because of his two trips to the DL. He is the standout.
- Milledge with .245, 7HR, 32 RBI, .312 OBP, .368 SLG for 302 ABs looks awfully similar to Francoeur. (even more painful, he’s leading the Nats with those 32 RBIs)
- Wily Mo Pena with .214, 2HR, 10 RBI, .254 OBP, .280 SLG for 182 ABs looks downright embarrassing.
- Austin Kearns has a lot of recovering to do with .194, 3 HR, 18 RBI, .300 OBP, .267 SLP for 165 ABs. Ouch.
- The rest of the “outfield” (some now gone): Harris, Langerhans, Casto, Bernadina, and Mackowiak pretty much all looks worse.
So the Braves sent a guy to AA that was more or less outperforming our entire outfield? Ouch for the Nats and Francoeur.
Good news for Francoeur is he was recalled today. Bad news for the Nats is the only player in their outfield that is outplaying Francoeur is scheduled for knee surgery on Wednesday.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Well, if you read about Francouer’s demotion, you’ll see he felt “betrayed” for being sent down to AA. As for Dukes/Milledge, they are young kids with less time in the majors than Francouer and no track record like Frenchy’s put up in past seasons. They are developing in the fly. Wily Mo is just a mistake I suspect that will be released in the offseason - I think if we weren’t so banged up, he’d be sucking for Columbus instead. Kearns has been really banged up and hurt.
But yes - this is the difference currently between the Braves and the Nationals. One is contending for a division title (or hoping to) - the other is just a developmental playground for some guys in their 20s for the summer.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I don’t think the Nats can send Wiley Mo Coyote, however - I think he’s beyond his option years, so they’d have to waiver/release him.