Francoeur wants a trade...

[Vic Sage]

... to a team where he will "play every day".

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2010/08/mets_outfielder_jeff_francoeur_1.html


where would that team be... AAA? Mexico? Land of Oz?

[MFS62]

Vic Sage wrote: ... to a team where he will "play every day".

He wants to play every day?
I guess that's possible.
Is he the son of a little league manager?

Later

[metirish]

Well if Molly wants to stay then , maybe she swings a better bat than Jeff.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Not to be unkind to Jeff, but he'd have some difficulty breaking into Buffalo's outfield.

Maybe KC would want to look-see for a month or so, that'd be OK for me.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

For all the (mostly-deserved) crap Dayton Moore's been taking as Royals jefe, he's been sorta doing the right thing with his middling vets during/after deadline period, trading Ankiel and Farnsworth and leaving Jose Guillen curbside for pickup. Unless he's a LOT more fixated on Frenchy than we realize (like, his-wife-should-be-worried sort of fixated), or he's operating based on a long-ago-implanted post-hypnotic suggestion, I can't see why he'd want to bring in Jawja.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'm onto this manipulative **********.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Francouer would rule Japan.

[ashie62]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I'm onto this manipulative **********.

Uh, just how onto him are you??

[batmagadanleadoff]

So Frenchy doesn't wanna help the Mets win some games by being used efficiently as a platoon player with above average defensive skills? He cares more about his personal stats than the plight of his team, his employer? Was he lying though his big fat teeth when he was telling us all season long that he was a team player who only cared about winning? Say it ain't so, Frenchy.

[HahnSolo]

Molly's awfully chirpy.

I particularly like this:

�Talk to me is just that: It�s talk,� Fletcher said. �What matters is what happens and is he in right field every day. And that�s what we�re watching.�

Oh yeah, or what? You gonna give Jerry a knuckle sandwich?

[Gwreck]

As far as I'm concerned, Jeff can ride the pine for the rest of the year. You had a year to produce. You don't get to demand a trade now that you're unhappy that your stats have caused you to get benched. Shove it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

This is the second thread this article has been posted in, triggering a whole bunch of characterizations of and reactions to what it doesn't say.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: This is the second thread this article has been posted in, triggering a whole bunch of characterizations of and reactions to what it doesn't say.

Specific article aside, Frenchy's been in closed door meetings with Manuel and what not. He equated himself with Bay and Pagan when Beltran returned saying "We'll just have to find time for all 4 of us" and the trade stuff has popped up before.

oh, and he sucks.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Some people are pretty set in their feelings about Francoeur; I don't know that the article has done much to change those folks' views.

That said, the Mollychirping has to be taken as coming from Francoeur, as she's his friggin' rep. And-- unlike previous "leaks" to the press-- this is a pretty clear "play me or trade me" request.

Additionally: monitoring his playing time and talking to the GM about the same is one thing. Publicly making a statement along the lines of "This is what we were promised; we'll see if he sticks to his word" (with a thick fog of "or else" implicit) transmits another kind of statement along with it... and it ain't "Solidarity, brothers."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ceetar wrote: Specific article aside...

Except that's what this thread is about.

Ceetar wrote: ...Frenchy's been in closed door meetings with Manuel and what not.

I'm not sure what meetings these are, but so what?

Ceetar wrote: He equated himself with Bay and Pagan when Beltran returned saying "We'll just have to find time for all 4 of us" and the trade stuff has popped up before.

Before I respond, which quotes are these?

Ceetar wrote: oh, and he sucks.

So mischaracterization and deliberate over-reaction and hostility are all cool then?

[smg58]

So in a stunning development, Francoeur's agents are lobbying for what would best suit their client's long-term financial interests. It's strictly business, and if I'm going to be angry at Francoeur it will be over the fact that he's played his way onto the bench. I suppose I'd oblige him if another team gave me a reason to, but what are the chances?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If one posits that a portion of Frenchy's value lies in intangibles-- "plays hard," "consummate teammate," "clubhouse leader"-- then how he (and his reps) handle business (including press dealings) is fair subject matter in the debate over his utility, right?

[Vic Sage]

yeah, i don't think that Frenchy has said anything particularly inflammatory, and i don't think he'd be disruptive or uncooperative if he were on the bench. Nor do i think his agents have done anything agents aren't supposed to do.

i just find it hilarious, in that really not funny kind of way, that they are making public pronouncements about Frency being prepared to go somewhere else to play every day, as if (1) he deserved to, and (2) such a place even existed on this side of the rainbow.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Or as if the Mets' response to his agent wasn't, "We'd be happy to take virtually anything --- we're the team that went out and got Gary Matthews, Jr. --- so if you have any ideas, please let us know."

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Ceetar wrote: Specific article aside... Except that's what this thread is about. Ceetar wrote: ...Frenchy's been in closed door meetings with Manuel and what not. I'm not sure what meetings these are, but so what? Ceetar wrote: He equated himself with Bay and Pagan when Beltran returned saying "We'll just have to find time for all 4 of us" and the trade stuff has popped up before. Before I respond, which quotes are these? Ceetar wrote: oh, and he sucks. So mischaracterization and deliberate over-reaction and hostility are all cool then?

I'm not sure I could find the quote again. It was on Mets Extra, so it's probably not in print. He pretty much said they're all playing well, and they all deserve to play.

He's had a couple of meets with Manuel and the beat reporters have said they're about his playing time. He was supposedly one of the ones that had a problem with Strawberry in the clubhouse. And his agent is a representation of him, so while the quotes are hers, the sentiment is going to be attributed to him. Too many things like this and it makes him sound whiny and unhappy to me, certainly not a 'good clubhouse guy'.

[Guest Edgy DC]

My college basketball team had a walk-on player named Steve Boyle my freshman year. He was a decent guy and the kind of guy who gets good press (a hustling whitey with freckles). In the wake of a terrible team, a lousy recruiting year, a wave of injuries, and a lame duck coach throwing serviceable players into his doghouse, Steve actually made the rotation (we were down to eight players by the end of the year) with the 6-2 pointman rotating up to small forward and Steve taking the point.

A Westchester paper did a feature on gritty hardworking Steve and a couple of his teammates were happy to bring that cliche of cliches --- "On another team, Steve would get more playing time."

As we finished the season 2-26, one was left to wonder, what team was that?

As for quotes you can't find, what's the point? As for his agent, it's perfectly reasonable for her to request --- not "demand" --- a trade for her walk-year client if they can't find PT for him. Even she is quoted as saying the bets thing he can do to get more playing time is to hit better. There's nothing here except the human propensity to project a moral failing onto a physical one.

[HahnSolo]

Wow, you went through the Tom Sullivan/Bob DelleBovi years?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Holy moly. Somebubby who remembers Steve Boyle.

You aren't Steve, are you?

[ashie62]

Edgy DC wrote: My college basketball team had a walk-on player named Steve Boyle my freshman year. He was a decent guy and the kind of guy who gets good press (a hustling whitey with freckles). In the wake of a terrible team, a lousy recruiting year, a wave of injuries, and a lame duck coach throwing serviceable players into his doghouse, Steve actually made the rotation (we were down to eight players by the end of the year) with the 6-2 pointman rotating up to small forward and Steve taking the point. A Westchester paper did a feature on gritty hardworking Steve and a couple of his teammates were happy to bring that cliche of cliches --- "On another team, Steve would get more playing time." As we finished the season 2-26, one was left to wonder, what team was that? As for quotes you can't find, what's the point? As for his agent, it's perfectly reasonable for her to request --- not "demand" --- a trade for her walk-year client if they can't find PT for him. Even she is quoted as saying the bets thing he can do to get more playing time is to hit better. There's nothing here except the human propensity to project a moral failing onto a physical one.

A team that was 1-26?

[HahnSolo]

No, but I guess I was at Fordham while you were at Manhattan, and as I read your first paragraph, things sounded familiar. Then I saw the 2-26 thing, and figured it had to be the Jaspers.

To go even further off tangent, DelleBovi was the coach at my high school before he went to MC.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ashie62 wrote: A team that was 1-26?

Two! We won TWO!

I think we beat Harvard and Army. In other words, two teams that recruit for a basketball ability as a secondary concern. I think one Division One team had a 1-19 record that year, so I guess somebody may have played Boyle more.

[G-Fafif]

Jeff Francoeur would have a hard time starting for the Jaspers.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sort of what I was getting at.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If Francoeur is going to carry on about what a team player he is, and how winning is what matters most to him, then this thread is fair game and he deserves all of the criticism he's attracting, even though, concededly, he has the right to seek a better deal on another team. And it just might be that Frenchy's critics aren't motivated by hate, but by their rooting interest in the Mets, and wanting what's best for their favorite team. The world doesn't revolve around Frenchy, even though Frenchy himself might still not be old enough or wise enough or mature enough to realize that. Every AB Frenchy takes is at the expense of some other probably more deserving Met. Every AB Frenchy is given from here on out, especially against righties, is one more squandered opportunity, whether the Mets see themselves as still in this year's hunt or whether they're mainly preparing for the future.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm movitvated by wanting to deal in facts.