Remember The Frenchy?

Things are looking up for the Mets right now and I just wanted to point out something quickly about an ex-Met. Remember Jeff Francoeur? It wasn’t too long ago that Jeff Francoeur sparked incredible debate over every single thing he did. No, really…every thing. There were fiery debates right here and I enjoyed watching all of them. Francoeur became the poster boy for “anti-sabermetrics” and I found the whole thing pretty amusing.

In any case, Francoeur was traded to the Rangers halfway through last year for a backup infielder, Joquian Arias. I wasn’t fond of this trade because I thought Francoeur was worth more – but the saber-heads thought it was a fair trade. He went on to bat .340 in limited time for the Rangers throughout the rest of the season. Francoeur, this season, has found a new home playing for the Kansas City Royals.

That might be a small sample size, but wow. He’s even walked 7 times. It seems like he’s having a field day with AL pitching. Prorate his stats to around 600 ABs and he would be posting over 30 HRS, 100 RBI, 180 H, 40 some walks and 40 2B. I don’t think it’s possible for Frenchy to continue this rate for the entire season but honestly, don’t tell me it’s impossible for him to do .280/25/100. Combine that with above average defense and you’ve got a productive MLB outfielder.

I wish Frenchy only the best in the remainder of his MLB career and I always will be keeping track of him – probably because if he shows any kind of improvement, the super-saberheads will explode due to “does not compute” errors in their minds. I know not every sabermetric supporter is a generic zombie who only reads numbers – in fact, there are quite a few people who use sabermetrics that I respect. But…everybody knows by now that I’m a traditionalist and I don’t like sabermetrics. Maybe I’ll read Moneyball someday soon, though.

All jokes aside, here’s a fun question to think about. Let’s say the Mets sold high on Angel Pagan and a few prospects and traded for a pitcher during the offseason – and resigned Frenchy to play RF. (Yes, that also means Beltran would have to handle CF). He would be batting about 7 in the lineup. How would you feel about that?

LGM and have a great day!