Francoeur Sent To The Mets

So I’m a little late in commenting on Jeff Francoeur being traded to the Mets, but better late than never, right?

I, like virtually every other Braves fan, became a big fan of Francoeur during his rookie season in 2005. Francoeur started off on a tear, hitting over .400 for his first month with prodigious power and he also threw people out all over the basepaths. He seemed too good to be true.

And, well, he was.

Opposing pitchers began to figure out that Francoeur would swing at anything, and that if they didn’t throw him fastballs down the middle of the plate, he was a pretty easy out. And since then, to put it mildly, he’s struggled. Without going into the all-too-brutal statistics, over the last two seasons, Francoeur had devolved into one of the worst everyday players in baseball, and was showing no sign of turning things around this year.

Overall, I guess I’m not sad that the Braves traded Francoeur, but I am sad that he never turned out to be the player that we hoped he would be.

I hope he beats the odds in New York and reclaims some of the considerable potential that he seemed to have back in 2005.