Jeff Francoeur can do it!

Another AJC article...

Keep Renteria, find young arms

Yay, Norman Bisher has some fresh ideas. Keep your trading piece and find some young arms. Wonder if they'll be connected to any bodies or if that's not needed for him.

This may test his bulldogged agent, Steve Boras, who doesn’t get nearly enough doors slammed in his face. The price tag on Andruw is $20 million. This time Boras has reached his extreme. John Schuerholz can see far more value in $20 million worth of starting pitching. He can find any number of .220 hitters who can chase down fly balls for far less. Maybe this season was just a blip on Andruw’s radar screen, but at no time during the season did he give any extended promise of breaking out of it.

Jeff Francoeur could handle the job. He has the arm that Jones doesn’t have, and he has the range for it. But, he is so perfect for right field, the powerful arm, plus range to cover some of center field as well. Well, a bit of a stretch, I guess. There’s a kid named Jordan Schafer down at Myrtle Beach who gets high grades — and who is known by some as Grady Sizemore-like — but the last time the Braves found a center fielder capable of making the leap from Class A to the major leagues was Brett Butler in the early 1980s. Rafael Furcal later made the graduation at shortstop, which brings up a matter of another nature.

What Francoeur he been watching? The Francoeur I have seen is, at best, adequate in right field. Yes, he has a great arm, but his range is pretty horrific. I will write about it more in my player review, but Andruw's range has come up huge when it comes to plays in the right-center gap because Francoeur simply is not that quick, nor has great instints, nor takes great routes. By the way, speaking of Andruw, he sort of made a jump from A-ball to the majors. Started 1996 in the Carolina League, ended with Atlanta. I know, technically, you're talking about making the jump in spring like Furcal did, but it is still notable.

There’s nothing uplifting about the thought of Edgar Renteria in some other team’s cloth. He has given the Braves two years of solid joy at shortstop, but here’s the deal: If the Braves are looking for a place to readjust the payroll, they could deal Renteria and go with the younger and more agile Cuban, Yunel Escobar, for a bundle less. A cruel thought, but baseball is a game that breaks hearts.

Two things...amaze me here. One, he previously said keep Renteria. I know he said that because it is that sentiment that attracted me to the column to see what worthwhile argument he would make for keeping Renteria over Mr. Dynamic, Yunel Escobar, or Dr. Sabermetric, Kelly Johnson. Gotta work on KJ's superhero name.

But then, instead of that, Bisher says...it would hurt, but the Braves could just deal Renteria anyway.

So...why the title? And more importantly, if trading Renteria is a "cruel thought," you sir lead a semi-charmed life. And now, I have to listen to Third Eye Blind.

So, instead of working the free-agency market, retreading with aging, leathery arms, is there not the possibility of transferring one of those young, vibrant riflemen from the bullpen to starting? Just asking. Chuck James appears better suited for short-term duty, so swap him for Soriano, Acosta, Ascanio or Devine, who, for the most part, are merely names at this stage. One thing for sure, leave Peter Moylan just as he is, the best thing that happened to Braves pitching this year.

This is not how Bisher immediatelly follows the Renteria discussion, nor is it how he ends the column, but damn, this paragraph amused me. Not the Chuck James part. I'm inclined to agree, though I am not sure how much better James would be in relief. But that Soriano is just merely a name.

The guy who finished the year as the closer...

The guy who has sick stuff...

Merely a name.

God, I'm glad I don't pay money for this incredible writing.