Jeff Francoeur is a bad baseball player on a bad baseball team. Now 31, the days of “The Natural” are long over. Francoeur has turned into a journeyman since the Braves dumped him onto the Mets in 2009 for Ryan Church, playing for the Mets, Rangers, Royals, Giants, Padres, and Phillies in the majors over the past six seasons. He hasn’t played in as many as 100 games with a big league club since 2012, and hasn’t even been a replacement level player since 2011.
But while his usefulness is extremely limited at this point, Francoeur is still pretty entertaining to watch when he’s playing. Check out this /gulp/ vintage Francoeur throw home to end Wednesday night’s game with the Pirates.
Goodness gracious, that’s ridiculous.
Earlier this month, Francoeur made his Turner Field debut as a Phillie, and turned in a 4/5 night, much to the joy of Braves fans in the crowd that were oblivious of how bad of a player he was during the end of his tenure with the club.
Last season, when he was a Padre, Francoeur was targeted by his El Paso Chihuahuas teammates in one of the greatest pranks in history.
Francoeur also started a tradition of “Bacon Tuesday” (which later became Bacon Friday) with A’s fans at O.co Coliseum, leading to the Oakland fans absolutely adoring him.
Sure, he’s not all that great of a player anymore. But it’s still fun to watch Francoeur play the game. You never know if you’ll see a ridiculous throw, get some free bacon, or maybe even get some of your popcorn stolen.
And you know what? Despite all of his faults, Francoeur still was the author of one of the most memorable Braves moments of the last decade, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that one.
Isn’t baseball about having fun? Jeff Francoeur has fun playing baseball, and I have fun watching Jeff Francoeur play baseball. We could do a lot worse.
