Jeff Francoeur has arrived to Tradition Field, with his locker placed across from David Wright and Jose Reyes.
According to David Lennon from Newsday, Francoeur said, ‘winning ballgames,’ is the best way to stop the negativity surrounding the team.
…word… up… so far, i’m liking the attitude of this team’s leadership… good spirit… now, nobody get hurt, play smart, play hard, and good things will happen…
To read other comments from Francoeur, check out Lennon’s Twitter feed, here.
Hey Matt,
Anyway to quote Twitter feeds in the post for those of us at work who get “social networking” sites blocked?
I’d love to read some of these twitter things, but none of it works for me here at the office. Thanks!
Do you see the scrolling feed in the sidebar, here on MetsBlog?
No, those ports are shut off to me at work. Even when I click on the “twitter” tab up top, nothing shows up on the page for me. If its too much trouble its no big deal, I can always look it up on my blackberry. Just a thought if it was easy!
Damn firewalls. OK. Thanks for letting me know.
No problem! I guess I should actually be doing “work” while I’m here, but since baseball is back I can’t stop hitting refresh every few minutes!
Yes, i do
It looks great
In terms of player development for Reyes and Wright, I think it’s a pretty big deal that neither Delgado nor Beltran are present at this year’s spring training. For the first time in their careers, Wright and Reyes are the de-facto veterans on the team — this is huge in terms of their maturity as players and leadership roles as teammates. Nonetheless, I cannot wait for Beltran to return.
I don’t think the problem on the Mets this year will be offense, defense, or our position players.
Its the uncertainty of our starters, other than Johan, and a shaky bullpen with no clear cut 8th inning guy, etc.
It is almost impossible to win in the MLB without quality starters and relievers.
and yet the Phillies made it to the World Series with just Cliff Lee.
don’t sell our relievers short, or overvalue the idea of having to havea 8th inning guy.
I hope your right but I stand by my statement and with this starting 5, we need too much to break right that its not realistic to go into the season feeling we can beat the Phillies.
I am ok with our position players and offensive capability but the lack of pitching will ultimately be our demise….unless everything that can go perfect goes perfect with the 4 questions mark starters. I think thats being a little naive to think that way…especiallly after the last few years.
Well look at the Phillies rotation too
Halladay – Stud
Hamels – Basically our pelfrey, will he bounce back or have another mediocre year?
Blanton – Middle of the rotation pitcher, nothing special, keeps team in games.
JA Happ – will he hit a sophmore slump? Will he be effective again this year or was he a flash in the pan?
Old man Moyer – How effective will he be this year? He wasn’t last year….
Will brad lidge be effective? What about the rest of their bullpen? Last year showed that Madson can’t handle the closer role, what do they do if Lidge falters again.
They have question marks themselves! Even the braves rotation has questions, will lowe have another down year? Jurjens shoulder “discomfort.” no more Vaszquez.
Other teams have pitc
….other teams have pitching questions too. Plus I wouldn’t sell our rotation short, Santana seems to have really worked into that leader of the rotation role. I see him getting on Pelf/Maine/and especially Ollie harder than anyone else this year.
Hamels is certainly not our Pelfry. Not saying Pelfry cannot be as good as Hamels, but up to this point, Hamels has proven much more. Just look at his 2008 post season.
If presented with the opportunity to swap Hamels and Pelfry, you do that deal 100 out of 100 times. I think Pelfry has the potential to be a front end starter….this is his year to prove it.
I meant that in relationship to each pitcher (pelf, hamels) ability to bounce back this year. If hamels goes back to ’08 form….watch out. But if Pelf goes back to his ’08 form our rotation could be a big strength. I wasn’t comparing their abilities as each are different pitchers, just simply if both pitchers will improve on a down ’09
I definitely agree with that sentiment. I have high expectations for Pelfry this year and I think our rotations has the potential to surprise some people this year.
Hamels is our Pelfrey? JA Happ isnt good? Oh man…not saying the Phils have the best starting 5 but lets not make Pelfrey into Hamels and suggest JA Happ cant be good because he is in his second year.
What GM wouldnt trade Pelf for Hamels and JA Happ for any of the Mets starters except obviously Santana.
You’re totally missing the point. I’m not comparing talent or ability, just simply will hamels have a year like he did in ’08, or another down year like he had in ’09. Same thing for pelf…….
Just pointing out that the phils rotation has question marks of their own. We have three guys that can be awesome or can be very very average. and so do the phils in moyer/happ/hamels.
Hamels doesn’t exactly have a decade of being awesome. So does he really bounce back to ‘great’, or did he just have a good stretch? His attitude isn’t great and was even questioned by his pitching coach. Happ had a good 2/3rds of a rookie season. He’s hardly a lock to win 15+ games in 2010. What if he can’t make the adjustments that come with being a mainstay in a rotation and being heavily scouted and analyzed by the opponents? Beyond that, Blanton is average and the 5th starter is crap.
The division is still the Mets for the taking. Pitch well and the Phillies can’t take it.
Thank you. My sentiments exactly.
?? There have been many teams that won on offense. The Big Red Machine come immediatly to mind.
Ok so you found one from 30 years ago…guess that proves my point.
Of course anything can happen but it is rare a team wins with crappy starting pitching…plus are the mets a team with enough offense to cover for question mark starters in 80% of the games? Come on Sylow, your not drinking that Omar Kool Aid, are you?
Where do you get that I am drinking Kool-Aide?
By suggesting that many offensive teams win the World Series with very little pitching. Happens very seldom….I am not sure the Big Red Machine should ever be used in conjunction with the Mets. I think they could of won with me pitching.
My whole point was the Mets have little chance to win not because of the position players but starting and relieving pitching.
Up until today, most Mets fans felt the same way but now that the position players have said some good things, everyone forgets the horrible job Omar did neglecting our primary offseason need….starting pitching.
We all want to believe but I don’t like the flip flop everyone makes because they want to feel we can win and just ignore reality.
You said it was nearly impossible to win without pitching. Where did I ever compare the Mets to the Big Red Machine? I didn’t. Don’t put words in my mouth.
It is rare, you went back almost 40 years to find one of the “many teams that won on offense.” What does that have to do with the Mets offense?
Many times you like to just go with the opposite opinion which is cool but I don’t think my statements were off base and I have not seen the “many” primarily offensive teams win the World Series that you have.
If you dont have some type of decent pitching, having a good offense, short of your big red machine comparison, dosent win you the big one. Could it, yes….does it often…no way.
Umm I said “comes immediately to mind”. You have a lot of teams that win 90 games that have one or two good pitchers. The DBacks had Johnson and Schilling followed by garbage. The Phils had nobody until they got Lee, maybe Happ. But that again was two and mediocre. The Mets in 06-08 won 90+ without Maddux, Smoltz, and Glvine in their prime.
The Mets have one stud. If they acquire someone at the deadline they have two plus their #3-5 well above most 90 win teams.
I hope your right Sylow. I would of liked to have added at least a solid 3 to the rotation this offseason…a Marquis/Pinero type who isnt great, but isnt bad…just to give me a little more confidence.
As much as I want to believe in the Mets pitching, after Santana, I have no idea what we are going to get.
I’m on my phone…so I won’t look it up.But I’m pretty sure the big red machine had Don Gullett and Jack Billingsley in their starting rotation…I don’t remember who else they had but thats not a bad start.
They had 3 starters with 15 wins, no starter with less than an .600 winning percentage and a team era of 3.37, third best in the NL. Worst starter percentage wise was 15-10. http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/1975.shtml If thats not good pitching, I hope the Mets have that this year.
It’s not that good. Nobody was over 225 IP (at a time when top starters were pitching 250-300) Gullet had an ERA+ of 146 there was one other with an ERA+ of 114. The other starters were all under 100. One was 85 and the other was 75. Half the rotation was Redding-esque. Winning 15 games back then was nothing like today. Look at ERA+ rather than ERA. It normalizes it for park effect and era.
Color me crazy, but I actually like what I am hearing so far from these Mets. I love the fact that Jose has been outspoken and available to the media in so many ways. I like the confidence that he, Wright and Santana have displayed so far. Almost like a backslap to the media that have given them no credit at all and have already counted them out. I think that the “young core” (Reyes, Wright and now Francoeur) is ready to step up behind the leadership of Santana. Could it be a little swagger I’m detecting?
Difference is Wright, Reyes and Frenchy are everyday players who work hard EVERY DAY. Santana only pitches every 5 games, much to the displeasure of most fans, but not me, i hope he works well with the younger leaders and doesnt pull rank on them every chance he gets, what an ego on him, its insane.
Some of the greatest people in history have had big egos and I don’t see anything wrong with that. He didn’t get where he is by being meek and humble. He got there through hard work and belief in himself. I agree that these everyday players have to step up as leaders, but Santana is one of the few pitchers in the game who I think is capable of filing that void. Just look at his insane handshake routine!
Nothing wrong with belief in himself and ego is one thing, but i hope i see a good teammate emerge and not one who throws his teammates under the bus every time he doesn’t get a break or does not retaliate when appropriate. He is who he is, and that’s fine, but he has to understand that there are consequences to words, heat of the moment or otherwise.
Frenchy is awesome. What a great attitude. I was reading in Rubin’s article how Frenchy wanted to be in camp earlier than today, but his “wife had crap to do.”
Love this guy.
haha really!!!?? that was his quote? That just made me laugh at my desk, awesome.
I think we will be able to be a good offensive team this year. Just have to hope the pitching is going to respond to the many question marks.
I’ll see you guys at CitiField with my number 12 jersey on my back…