Sean gave a pretty good analysis/summary of the NBA off season to date recently, and so I figured I'd provide you readers with a little bit of MLB trade news, since a few weird trades have gone down in the past few days.
The major trade, having occurred yesterday, was the Braves swap of Jeff Francoeur and cash to the Mets for Ryan Church. Everyone's first thought on this trade has simply been "Jeez how far has Jeff Francouer's stock fallen?" and that's pretty appropriate. Francoeur was the up and coming face of the Braves when he arrived in 2005. Homegrown and talented, he hit .300/.336/.549 with 14 homeruns in 70 games that year. And he's never come close to that since, even famously going to the minors for a bit last year to regain his stroke (which didn't really seem to work).
So a lot of people look at this trade as awkward for the Braves, since Francoeur's star fell so very far and they're giving him up for a (granted, talented, and better at getting on base/defensively, but also) injury prone outfielder. However, it's also what had to happen. With Smoltz and Glavine gone and Chipper Jones in the twilight of his career, the Braves are in a situation where they need to find those young face of the franchise guys to right the ship. And it's better to find that face in veterans like Brian McCann and rookies like Tommy Hanson then it is to let the former glow affixed with Francoeur tarnish the franchise. I feel like Francoeur could certainly turn things around now that he's in a new (granted, much more intense New York) enviornment, and that'll be super awkward for the Braves if he does it for their rival Mets. But Ryan Church is a pretty good little player when healthy, and I think it was a pretty good deal for both clubs, since the Braves could use the on base percentage and the Mets could see a revitilization.
The other major trade recently was the Seattle Mariners dealing Yuniesky Betancourt to the Royals for cash and two minor leaguers, Danny Cortes and Derek Saito. Initial analysis on this deal is not friendly to Betancourt or the Royals, as general assumption is that Betancourt sucks. And yes, after you look at his negative defensive rating, negative baserunning rating, and low OBP, he does suck (Joe Posnanski has a hilarious article about the trade here). But the Royals were starting a utilityman and should be pitcher at Shortstop, so I guess anyone is better than that to them, even if he's terrible. However, my thoughts, like everyone elses, is that the Royals made kind of a dumb deal. Betancourt sort of falls into the Francoeur way of thought of "OMG he has potential wait til he finds it!" Only Betancourt is 2 years older and worse offensively and defensively at this point, so I don't see him turning it around. Essentially, sucks to be a Royals fan, and good to be a Mariners fan since they finally started dumping bad contracts the past few seasons and seem to be making headway towards a decent team.
MLB Trades of the Past Few Days
