I understand that, but why would the Mets do this? They have to believe he has more power, right? Or is it just the arm/defense?

 

Jerry Manual is NOT a fan of Ryan Church. Church has only gotten as much time as he has because of the massive injuries to the Mets roster. Omar Minaya has made his coach happy and improved a very poor defensive team by this move.

Francouer had two pretty good years in a row hitting 19 and 29 homers.

Even the 29-homer season wasn't all that great, thanks to the sub-.300 OBP.

Not sure what derailed his career

A complete and utter lack of comprehension of the strike zone ...

He's a free swinger that was helped by pitchers not having a complete scouting report on him. After they figured it out it was down from there. Hopefully he can find a good hitting coach that can adjust his swing and help his patience at the plate. Francouer needed a change of scenery.

Nothing to be excited about....both players are average.

Francouer had great potential but never reached it. The Braves have a great starting rotation, but their bullpen is garbage. They need to bolster that and get one or two more bats if they plan on contending anytime soon. They haven't been the same since Smoltz came back out of the Bullpen.

Francouer had great potential but never reached it. The Braves have a great starting rotation, but their bullpen is garbage. They need to bolster that and get one or two more bats if they plan on contending anytime soon. They haven't been the same since Smoltz came back out of the Bullpen.

 

Smoltz had no control on the bullpen, he was the closer so of course the end of the game was always consistent.

 

Also you are wrong about the bullpen, while not stellar, the bullpen have been one of the better part about the Braves this season. The biggest struggle has been from Mike Gonzalez who has been really inconsistent this season.

 

All the Braves really need is another offensive bat but I dunno if they'll deal for one. The rotation is the best in the NL East but the offense is quite horrid.

The Braves went into this season with three subpar bats at power positions ... Kotchman at 1B, Anderson in LF and Francoeur in RF. Little wonder they are struggling to score runs.

Smoltz had no control on the bullpen, he was the closer so of course the end of the game was always consistent.

 

Also you are wrong about the bullpen, while not stellar, the bullpen have been one of the better part about the Braves this season. The biggest struggle has been from Mike Gonzalez who has been really inconsistent this season.

 

All the Braves really need is another offensive bat but I dunno if they'll deal for one. The rotation is the best in the NL East but the offense is quite horrid.

 

Smoltz had no control over the rest of the pen, but he was one of the best closers of all time when he was and rarely ever blew a save. He was automatic. We needed him back in the Starting Rotation, but I almost wish he had stayed in the pen, when we got Kolb things started to go down hill IMO, and they haven't had a consistent closer since. I know the Braves have had some bad luck lately trying to attract players-Peavy, Griffey-but I think they need to pick up one or two solid bats, maybe even one legitimate Power hitter, so that Brian McCann doesn't have to be our power bat, Chipper is on the down side of his career and a lot of the young talent that used to be able to step in and perform-Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, Jason Marquis, Rafael Furcal-hasn't panned out. I just hope that they will somehow be able to pick up a power bat and a solid contact hitter and two bullpen pitchers that are solid very soon. I'd like to see Chipper be able to contend for another title.

Church has potential but seems to get hurt a lot. The braves thought francour would be the face of the franchise when chipper left..... Hard to believe now they've traded him to a division foe!