The Braves Blog

This isn’t Braves related,  but I know a lot of you are still fans of Jeff Francoeur. This is from Jason Churchill at ESPN’s Rumor Central:

At least one of us here at Rumor Central has been told by New York Mets officials that Angel Pagan is a player that will always win over a coach, manager, teammate, or even fans and media, both by the way he handles himself and his play on the field. Such has occurred with skipper Jerry Manuel, as the platoon in right field is considered history.

The numbers say it all in this case, however, as Pagan beats Jeff Francoeur in every statistical category that matters, including on-base percentage, defensive range and versatility. Despite playing his home games at Citi Field, Pagan’s performance is that of an everyday player.

Manuel hasn’t ruled out the idea of Francoeur earning more time, however, saying “Frenchy is like a relief pitcher right now trying to get back into the starting rotation.” But for now, he’s an expensive reserve, and we have to wonder if he might be a candidate to be non-tendered this winter.

 
Original article by Mark Simon of ESPN New York’s Mets Blog

A colleague asked me a question a few weeks ago, given some recent retirement talk, and I’m still pondering my response:

If you knew that Chipper Jones was playing in his last game in New York, would you give him a standing ovation?

I don’t have a good answer, not yet anyway (leaning yes, but reserving judgment). But I know a few rather intense Mets fans who do.

And just for fun, I expanded the question to include Yankees closer Mariano Rivera too. Here are their thoughts.

The rest of the article can be found here.

Thanks for pointing the article out to me Mark! I definitely think it will be of interest to my readers.

Now for my thoughts on the question: (more…)