Hello And Goodbye (Part 1): Au Revoir, Monsieur Frenchy

Jeff Francoeur was traded to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night. The man with the good attitude but poor on-base percentage was sent to the AL West leaders for Joaquin Arias. So who do you think got the best deal in this trade? Let's review, shall we?

Frenchy is going from a fourth-place team to a team that is close to wrapping up their division. In Texas, he will be surrounded by a formidable lineup and will only play against left-handed pitchers. As a Met, Francoeur hit .280 against lefties in 100 at-bats and was more patient, as his .351 on-base percentage suggests. Against righties, his averages were much lower (.223/.273).

What about the newcomer, Joaquin Arias? In parts of four seasons with the Rangers, Arias has come up to bat 242 times. He has yet to hit his first major league home run, or as I like to say it, he's one home run behind Johan Santana on the all-time career home run list. As far as on-base percentage goesm Arias has walked ten times. If that was his total for the season, that would be a poor number. Unfortunately, that's the number of times he's walked IN HIS CAREER!

If the photo to the right makes it look like Arias is a slugger, then you're thinking of the wrong Joaquin. There was another player in the major leagues back in the '70s and '80s who finished his career with 5 HR and 30 walks. That Joaquin has a last name of Andujar and he was a pitcher for the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals.

So let's see. The Mets traded a guy who was third on the team in home runs but had a relatively low on-base percentage. In return, they got a man who couldn't hit a single home run in one of the best hitters' ballparks in baseball and who has failed to take his medication for the past four years to combat his allergic reaction to walks.

Yup, sounds like a typical Mets trade to me.

Jeff Francoeur will now be playing October baseball while the Mets will be watching him play on TV. The photo to the left says all you have to know about the fans' reaction to this trade.

Au revoir, Monsieur Frenchy. Although Jeff could be frustrating at times in the batters' box, he was an outstanding defensive player who always gave his best effort and never made excuses for his shortcomings.

Joaquin Arias is now a Met. Hooray. He's the bat we've been missing since Jason Tyner was traded to Tampa for Bubba Trammell and Rick White. It's too bad Joaquin Andujar couldn't be coaxed out of retirement.