Francisco's Locker Cleared Out. Traded? Released? Update 3/24: Released

[3and2Fastball]

I think the Overbay experiment will be short lived. I don't see him putting up an OBP over .300 and the sooner Roenicke/Melvin realize it the better

[logan82]

Yeah they are good at quickly recognizing dead weight like Alex Gonzales and Yuni...

[sveumrules]

Looks like JuanGone has landed in Toronto. Secretly hoping for a JoeyBats, EE5 type transformation just for the hours of entertainment it would supply.

[MNBrew]

Toronto it is:

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/04/blue-jays-to-sign-juan-francisco.html

[trwi7]

Edwin Encarnacion part II coming up.

[adambr2]

The two 1st basemen that we kept have a combined WAR the last 3 years of -0.5 and are both in their thirties (and thus almost certainly won't be improving on those negative WARs).

 

I wasn't looking for them to go sign some stud, but this is really the best they could do?

[CheezWizHed]

Well, that IS an improvement on last year...

[Bombers]

I heard someone call in on 1250 and say how the Brewers "royaly" screwed up on JuanFran. One month in and here are the stat lines:

Juan Francisco - 68 PA / 276 AVG / 368 OBP / 534 SLG / 902 OPS / 4 HRs .... 22 PO & 0 Errors

Lyle Overbay - 71 PA/ 242 AVG/ 324 OBP / 323 SLG / 647 OPS / 1 HR .... 139 PO & 2 Errors

Mark Reynolds - 101 PA/ 222 AVG/ 297 OBP/ 489 SLG/ 786 OPS / 7 HR .... 184 PO & 1 Errors

 

Splits:

Juan Francisco vs RHP - 50 PA / 341 AVG / 460 OBP / 634 SLG / 1.094 OPS / 3 HRs

Lyle Overbay vs RHP - 60 PA/ 275 AVG/ 367 OBP / 373 SLG / 739 OPS / 1 HR

Mark Reynolds vs LHP - 21 PA/ 278 AVG/ 381 OBP/ 611 SLG/ 992 OPS / 2 HR

 

If Juan Fran started all the games and had been responsible for 323 PO, I highly doubt he would be sitting at 0 errors. On the flip side if he had same amount of changes as Lyle - would he have more than the 2 errors lyle has? Hitting, Juans splits are better than Lyles and Juan has started the year hot.

 

So what say you, did the Brewers mess this one up?

[trwi7]

I thought it was a mistake from the beginning. It was a no brainer to keep the 26 year old over the 37 year old has been. Yet for some reason, they kept the has been.

[MadScientist]

Quoting from http://grantland.com/the-triangle/milwaukee-brewers-incredible-2014-start-francisco-rodriguez/

...he was a tire fire at first, committing 10 errors in 62 starts and exacerbating the problem by botching throws, failing to get to balls that most exchangers of oxygen and carbon dioxide would have, and generally setting first-base defense back 100 years.

 

The Brewers already have problems with players who can only play one position, the last thing they need is a guy who can play 0. Juan is a DH, and the NL doesn't use a DH.

[reillymcshane]

[sarcasm]I don't know if Francisco's aggressive approach would have fit well with the rest of the team's style.[/sarcasm]

[TooLiveBrew]

Quoting from http://grantland.com/the-triangle/milwaukee-brewers-incredible-2014-start-francisco-rodriguez/

...he was a tire fire at first, committing 10 errors in 62 starts and exacerbating the problem by botching throws, failing to get to balls that most exchangers of oxygen and carbon dioxide would have, and generally setting first-base defense back 100 years.

[jerichoholicninja]

Juan put up a pretty hot couple weeks last season that had everyone in a tizzy but then bottomed out to end the year. He's had a pretty good few weeks with Toronto and will probably end the year with the same .700-ish OPS he's had every year. Even when not considering his defense (or lack of), I'm not too worried that he was dumped.

[logan82]

I don't think anybody was to worried that Juan was dumped. It was the fact he was dumped for Overbay.

[TURBO]

I don't think anybody was to worried that Juan was dumped. It was the fact he was dumped for Overbay.

 

This is the issue, plain and simple...

[reillymcshane]

I don't think anybody was to worried that Juan was dumped. It was the fact he was dumped for Overbay.

Some turds smell better than others. But their both still turds.

[SRB]

I suspect there are some personality/clubhouse issues with Francisco. Seems slightly unusual for a 26-year-old with huge power (even if he's a poor overall player/hitter) to be with his fourth organization since 2011, each time let go for basically nothing.

 

[sarcasm]We need Overbay's gritty veteran leadership in the clubhouse.[/sarcasm]

[Roderick]

I suspect there are some personality/clubhouse issues with Francisco. Seems slightly unusual for a 26-year-old with huge power (even if he's a poor overall player/hitter) to be with his fourth organization since 2011, each time let go for basically nothing.

 

Not just nothing, the Brewers gave him a $332,000 parting gift when they signed him to that contract and then cut him loose. I still am confused over that one, when it seemed Melvin was dead set to cut him anyways no matter how well Juan played in spring training or how poorly the gritty veterans played in spring training.

[reillymcshane]

I suspect there are some personality/clubhouse issues with Francisco. Seems slightly unusual for a 26-year-old with huge power (even if he's a poor overall player/hitter) to be with his fourth organization since 2011, each time let go for basically nothing.

 

Not just nothing, the Brewers gave him a $332,000 parting gift when they signed him to that contract and then cut him loose. I still am confused over that one, when it seemed Melvin was dead set to cut him anyways no matter how well Juan played in spring training or how poorly the gritty veterans played in spring training.

The Brewers didn't sign Reynolds and Overbay until January, while Francisco was tendered a contract in December. So the club didn't know for sure that they'd have a replacement for Juan. But I think you're right - the club never really intended to go with Francisco at 1B. I think tendering him a contract was a safety net - just in case Melvin couldn't find a replacement.

 

I bet the team thought that someone would trade for Francisco. His salary wasn't outrageous. But no luck.

 

Personally, I'm not concerned we let Francisco go. He's a streaky player and a bad fielder. Reynolds is a streaky player, but at least his play at 1B has been solid. He's hitting .222 with a .786 OPS. That's about what you would hope for from a guy who had a .221 BA and a .759 OPS over the last three years. It's not great, but we can live with it. I just hope they keep Overbay on the bench more - he's gotten too much PT over Reynolds.

 

As for Francisco, he may have topped Reynolds' stats if we had kept him, but he would have needed a platoon partner and his defense would have been terrible again. Juan needs to play in the AL. He can DH and fill in at 1B/3B on occasion. That's the perfect scenario for him.

[Outlander]

Francisco is playing quite a bit of 3B though so he is not strictly a DH. Might even force them to play Lawrie at 2B when he returns.

[adambr2]

I don't think anybody was to worried that Juan was dumped. It was the fact he was dumped for Overbay.

Some turds smell better than others. But their both still turds.

 

Well, the turd in Toronto is 11 years younger than our turd and is hitting .311 with 5 HR's in just 17 games and OPS'ing 1.062. That would look pretty good in a lineup that is struggling to score runs. Our turd is 37 years old, is strictly limited to 1st, has no future, and is OPS'ing .647.

 

I'm surprised that most are downplaying this so much. This could end up being a really, really bad move, especially to keep a guy that we had absolutely no reason to keep.

[Roderick]

I suspect there are some personality/clubhouse issues with Francisco. Seems slightly unusual for a 26-year-old with huge power (even if he's a poor overall player/hitter) to be with his fourth organization since 2011, each time let go for basically nothing.

 

Not just nothing, the Brewers gave him a $332,000 parting gift when they signed him to that contract and then cut him loose. I still am confused over that one, when it seemed Melvin was dead set to cut him anyways no matter how well Juan played in spring training or how poorly the gritty veterans played in spring training.

The Brewers didn't sign Reynolds and Overbay until January, while Francisco was tendered a contract in December. So the club didn't know for sure that they'd have a replacement for Juan. But I think you're right - the club never really intended to go with Francisco at 1B. I think tendering him a contract was a safety net - just in case Melvin couldn't find a replacement.

 

I bet the team thought that someone would trade for Francisco. His salary wasn't outrageous. But no luck.

 

Personally, I'm not concerned we let Francisco go. He's a streaky player and a bad fielder. Reynolds is a streaky player, but at least his play at 1B has been solid. He's hitting .222 with a .786 OPS. That's about what you would hope for from a guy who had a .221 BA and a .759 OPS over the last three years. It's not great, but we can live with it. I just hope they keep Overbay on the bench more - he's gotten too much PT over Reynolds.

 

As for Francisco, he may have topped Reynolds' stats if we had kept him, but he would have needed a platoon partner and his defense would have been terrible again. Juan needs to play in the AL. He can DH and fill in at 1B/3B on occasion. That's the perfect scenario for him.

 

I know they signed Reynolds/Overbay afterwards, but it seems to me that it wouldn't have taken too much forethought to realize there are so many 1Bs free agents out there and so many spots available in the league.

 

And obviously the Brewers didn't care about how they performed in the spring, they just didn't want JuanFran. It just seems the Brewers are tight with the pennies on some stuff (paying the pre-arby guys) and are willing to pay $322K on the chance someone would give us a little something for him or one of the veterans gets injured in the spring (before they could pursue another gritty veteran).

[The stache]

Ya, Juan Francisco's bat would look pretty good, at least coming off the bench, if not starting at first. Another genius move by the Brewers front office.

[endaround]

I don't think anybody was to worried that Juan was dumped. It was the fact he was dumped for Overbay.

Some turds smell better than others. But their both still turds.

 

Well, the turd in Toronto is 11 years younger than our turd and is hitting .311 with 5 HR's in just 17 games and OPS'ing 1.062. That would look pretty good in a lineup that is struggling to score runs. Our turd is 37 years old, is strictly limited to 1st, has no future, and is OPS'ing .647.

 

I'm surprised that most are downplaying this so much. This could end up being a really, really bad move, especially to keep a guy that we had absolutely no reason to keep.

 

Because Francisco 's hitting is not sustainable. His BABIP is .378. That will regress down to his normal .315 or so. So his .279 AVG becomes a .215 AVG. And his OBP follows suit to a .300. And his ISO is .279 which likely will fall back to a .200 or so and we see the .220/.300/.420 hitter we could expect.

 

Add in Francisco has been terrible in the field.

[HiAndTight]

Ya, Juan Francisco's bat would look pretty good, at least coming off the bench, if not starting at first. Another genius move by the Brewers front office.

 

 

It's kinda amazing this team has the best record in baseball with all the "genius," moves(Which I assume was sarcasm).

 

There also seems to be a lot of teams in baseball not exacly enamored with Francisco. I'm guessing there will be a little less angst surrounding this move by the end of the year when he's hitting .220 and struggling to get on base at a .300 clip.