Truth.
A year ago, we were talking about the signing of Roy Halladay. This Decemeber? Pondering the drop in talent between Jayson Werth, now a National, and Jeff Francoeur. -Punches baby-
Annnnd our stud rookie, who was supposed to take over for Werth, might not even start the season in the Majors. Matt Gelb reports that Ruben Amaro in considering placing Brown in the Minors, if he doesn't shape up to be an everyday player by April 1 (thanks to his 2-for-29 Winter Ball showing). Unfortunately, that's not a joke.
To make matters worse, it's looking more likely that Jeff Francouer could take Werth's spot in the interim. Charlie belives he can "fix" him. Craig Calcaterra from Hardball Talk breaks it down:
“I’ve always liked Francoeur.” He [Manuel] then made a comparison between Frenchie and Jayson Werth when he first joined the Phillies, referring to how each of them hadn’t yet lived up to their potential. he talked about how Francoeur “hadn’t had success for a couple of years,” and that he was sure he was due to come back. It was unclear where Francoeur was supposed to come back to, because objectively speaking he’s always been gone, but everyone loves Charlie Manuel and no one pressed the issue.
In all honesty, Francoeur has a lot of tools (including a massive hose) that he has never built anything with (yay puns). Perhaps Charlie is on to something and can "fix" him.
Manuel also said on Daily News Live that he's not ready to send Brown to the minors yet, despite his awful Winter League showing.
I'm not ready to send him down yet. We need to go to Spring Training, put him in right field and let our coaches work with him. Before we get big on sending him out, we got to give him a chance and try our best to teach him about baseball in six weeks as best we can.
If you ever wanted to see the inside of a baseball writer's hotel room, Matt Gelb and his new pubic do talk Brown and more at Philly.com.
8 Responses
Is Francoeur really that bad? He had a .260 or about last year, and he got a Golden Glove one year right??
Yes, he and his terrible on base skills (.300 OBP), mediocre power (.383 SLG, 13 HR), lack of speed (8 SB), and below average defense (-2.4 UZR since 2008) IS really THAT BAD.
2 years isnt enough for me to say you’re right.
please try again.
Charlie can fix him? Have the phillies hitters become models of consistency under Charlie? Or have they had some guys who can drop some timely bombs? Besides Chooch, i don’t see a lot of improvement, hitting-wise, over the last few years between Jimmy, Shane, Chase, Ryan. K’s and popouts. That’s how we roll.
I’m less than enthused about this. I’d rather have Quentin or Diaz.
Loki, 2 years of defensive information? First off, its actually 3 years (08,09,10). Fangraphs shows that defensive statistics give you an accurate measurement of ability if you look at a 3 year sample.
Also, what he did 4-5 years ago does not have much influence on what he will do this year. Best to take very recent years to predict how good you can expect him to be. He hasn’t been a good defensive player since 05-07. He never really has been a good hitter. No reason to have interest in this guy.
@Jeff…I agree when you think about it. What Phillies hitter was better in 2010 than he was in previous years, besides Chooch? Maybe he is good at short term fixes…that helps guys hit great for a year and then not good at adjustments. Then again maybe a lot of our hitters are just uncoachable in some ways. There isn’t much Chollie, GG, or Milt could do when guys take swings when up 2-0 in the count like they are down 1-2.
Diaz and Francoeur ARE both off the board. Diaz to the Pirates and Francoeur to the Royals.
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