Saturday, July 25, 2009

Let's Make Fun of Two Pretty White Boys Who Smile A Lot

I woke up today and realized I haven't made fun of Jeff Francouer or Furman Bisher lately. I also have NEVER made fun of Tim Tebow and I was wondering how can I fix this. Fortunately good ol' Japanese hating Furman has given me an opportunity to fix part of this and I will fix the Tebow part myself. Francouer failing as an Atlanta Brave was an especially hard hit for Furman because Francouer is white, from the United States and came from the Braves farm system. It is like the Armageddon of failures for Furman. Let's see how he is holding up.

Sad to say, that in this fairy tale, nobody lives happily ever after.

Oh no, the Braves got some type of value for Francouer, they are living quite happily ever after. He's actually hitting better for the Mets and they still hate him.

“The Natural” has been cast off by the team that brought him in from the suburbs, gloated over him through those first two seasons when he was a steady producer, and then, suddenly, when he lost his game, there was no one to help him.

They used him dammit! When he was no longer of use to the team, or was actually hurting the team just by being in the lineup, they traded him. How dare a team look to win games and not keep a player that is dragging the team down with his inability to do his job halfway effectively! This is America dammit...people should be able to keep their job even if they suck at that job, especially if they make millions of dollars in return for sucking.

So Jeff Francoeur went searching on his own. I don’t understand how it came to that.

When there is no one in an entire MLB organization that can help you hit the ball better, that should tell you something about your prospects as a baseball player.

Neither do I understand just why a hitting slump can’t be cured like the common cold.

Apparently Furman is not aware there actually is no cure for the common cold either. I wouldn't expect him to know this, he is young and impressionable, he probably just forgot.

Mark DeRosa was one, rejected by the Braves, signed by the Rangers and under Jaramillo, as the story goes, found a swing that eventually led to a $13-million contract with the Cubs. Then Mark Teixeira passed that way, and need I say more?

Actually yes, you do need to say more. Like get the timeline correct. DeRosa started playing for the Rangers in 2005 and Tex started playing there in 2003. Not to mention Tex was the 5th pick in the draft and was a guy who got a huge bonus to play for the Rangers. He didn't need Rudy Jaramillo's help in any fashion. Mark DeRosa was also a good hitter prior to going to Texas, I think being able to play full time allowed him to get more at bats and get comfortable at the major league level, which allowed him to hit the ball better. Atlanta did not sign him, not rejected him, because they knew they could not offer him an everyday job.

So yes, you could have gotten this all much more correct.

So the season opened, Francoeur’s swing still showed some lack of discipline and his average hovered around .250.

That doesn't sound too bad, but what was his OBP Furman?

2007- 0.338
2008- 0.294
2009- 0.282 (with the Braves)

Yes, he took hitting lessons and his OPS dropped to a pathetic 0.634. How would he have hit without the hitting lessons? He was awful. Just awful and if Rudy Jaramillo and the Braves organization can't fix him, why keep him?

He became a target.

Yes, he was a victim of the organization looking to rid itself of bad baseball players.

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, you wonder. How would Cox have reacted if Francoeur had told him of his Jaramillo plan? What if he had come back to the Braves hitting .300 with a generous sprinkling of home runs? Would he ever have been traded?

If he hit .300 and had home runs he probably would not have been traded. This is an incredibly stupid point to try and prove the Braves did not stick with him or should have done more to help him.

The Braves traded him because he did not have success as a hitter in the major leagues, if he had success then he would not have gotten traded most likely. I don't think the organization would have cared if he sacrificed kittens to hit the ball well, just as long as he contributed to the team in some other fashion other than playing above average defense.

Frank Wren, of course, handled the deal, but it had to be approved by Cox. And there went the hometown hero, who could have been a Clemson Tiger, but chose the Braves and their sweetened pot of $2 million or so. Now, all that remains of that class of golden prospects is Brian McCann.

Furman is still bemoaning the "golden days of the Braves minor league system," which was 2005 apparently. You can't just keep players around because they are from Georgia and came from the Braves' system. I know this is a difficult principle for Furman to accept, but it's true.

So Francoeur was dealt to the Mets and his name is misspelled on the lineup card.

Those fucking New York Mets, insulting Francouer for last the time by misspelling his name.

Big deal. I once walked into the Milwaukee Braves clubhouse and Henry Aaron’s name was misspelled. Besides, Francoeur isn’t easy to spell, anyway.

Nevermind, Furman forgives you.

Nor is it easy to say goodbye.

It was actually incredibly easy for me to say goodbye and it should have been for anyone who wasn't a horny woman or Furman Bisher.

-I am officially becoming annoyed with the media's obsession with Tim Tebow. I actually don't hate Tebow, which is odd since I do hate the University of Florida and pretty much anything that is related to the school. I don't know why, I have never liked the school. There have been two controversies this week concerning Tebow.

The first is SEC VoteGate.

The assembled media in the Wynfrey Hotel ballroom are trying to find the perp among the league's coaches. The crime against football reason: failing to vote for Florida's Tim Tebow as the first-team all-Southeastern Conference quarterback.

How dare someone not vote Tim Tebow first team All-SEC! Tim Tebow is a Christian man of God, by not voting for him you are pissing God himself off. Tim Tebow delivers babies for underprivileged mothers and steals orphans from poor villages and then drops them on the doorstep of wealthy and famous celebrities...then stares down the celebrity until they formally adopt the baby. Who would dare smite Tebow and not vote for him?

Well, it turns out it was Steve Spurrier who did not vote him for him, but it was an "oversight." Damn right it was, even Steve Spurrier is afraid to piss off Tebow and God.

What is the media's fascination with Tim Tebow? Who cares if someone did not vote for him first team All-SEC?

Nobody wants to admit publicly he didn't vote for Tebow. But somebody didn't.

I thank God/Tebow that Steve Spurrier stood up and said he did not vote for Tebow...but then he bitched out and said it was an "oversight." Have some balls and say you did not vote for Tebow and voted for Jevan Snead, who is actually a great quarterback in his own right, though he doesn't smile as much or have a camera in front of him as often when he is doing good deeds.

"Will it give me a little bit [of motivation]?" Tebow asked. "Yeah, I guess. But I have enough that gives me motivation right now. I honestly think it's funny."

Yeah, the fact Spurrier thought you were the second best quarterback in the SEC should really motivate you to prove him wrong. I have always thought it was a little egotistical for a player to get offended when people don't vote that player an unanimous choice for any All-Conference team. How big can your ego be that you can't accept there may be someone as good as you in the conference?

The Tebow-mania is overboard because everyone ignores the fact there are great skill players all around Tebow who can make him look good, guys like Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin....they have made Tebow's job a lot easier in the past. Tebow is great but his great teammates get ignored.

I got my Sports Illustrated for this week and Tebow was on the cover. I don't hate him but I am over all this adulation he receives.

The second controversy stirred up almost as much heat. Want to hear something else about Tebow that makes him so great? He's a virgin. I am not sure everyone heard about it.

It doesn't matter if the question what out of line or not, my favorite part is where reporters will write an entire column saying the question did not matter and was out of line...yet it is important enough to write an entire column about. Here is what Tebow-mania turns people like Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline into, when he should be covering the SEC meetings and talking football:

His latest job is with AOL Fanhouse. The site currently employs some of my favorite writers. Clay Travis is not one of them. Not now, because it sickens me to be reminded again that journalism has become a hobby instead of a vocation. Radio talk-show hosts who have never set foot in a locker room call themselves "journalists." Give an out-of-work linebacker an analyst job, and suddenly he's the "media."

Yes, I am not sure this is entirely an appropriate response to the question that was asked. This sounds a little bit like an off the topic rant...but this is what Tim Tebow does to sportswriters. It turns them into angry yellers who rant off topic. Who cares if Tebow was not affected by the question, when you can use that question to go off on a tangent?

But he wasn't done:

Nice day at work. Rest up and come back fresh tomorrow, Clay. There will be plenty of chances on Friday to ask a player if he has herpes. I'm sure the public is dying to know if Lane Kiffin ever "read" Playboy or if Les Miles watches HBO after midnight?

Somebody needs to take a nap.

Dan Wetzel wants us to all know that Tebow is in fact perfect.

The gushing from the media through the years – the latest being a Sports Illustrated cover appearance this week – is well-earned.

What can anyone say though? What’s his negative – that he’s too earnest? He’s too polite? Does Tim Tebow do anything wrong?

I think Tim Tebow is 1,000 times more mature than most college students and I applaud him for making choices to help out those less fortunate and do whatever he chooses to do in his personal life, but isn't this a bit much?

I find it fascinating the media is so fascinated with Tim Tebow. I am not even going to talk about the comment Thom Brennaman made during the National Championship about how "five minutes with Tim Tebow will change your life."

There is a difference between having respect for a college football player and fawning all over him. I think it has gone more to the "fawning over Tim Tebow" side of coverage of late. What is it about this smiling God fearing guy that turns sportswriters into little teenage girls gushing over the newest boy band? Other than the fact he is perfect of course...

13 comments:

  1. I wish the articles on Tebow would end. I have a strange love for that man and I want to feel like it's only me. Dammit. Universally loved. Oh well. For the record, I think he will be a useful NFL player and would be thrilled if the NYG drafted him to play TE or something.

    BGF...Let me tell you about Frenchy...I love him. Why? Because he's literally the 2nd best player in the Mets line-up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so driven crazy by those Tebow articles. The media is under his spell and it is ridiculous. It's like he is their teen idol or something.

    I am interested to see what he can do in the pros, I have to admit, but I don't exactly know where he does fit in. I feel like the TE position would be wasting some of his ability...maybe not though, he has to get the ball somehow.

    I don't want to be mean but with all the Met's injuries, Frenchy being the second best player in the lineup doesn't mean that much. I still have nightmares about some of his at bats.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BGF...that is entirely the point. He does have power and talent and the Mets have none of that right now. I know the boys over at BBTF crushed the trade for the Mets but I welcomed a youngish guy with pop. I know he's ATL's boy but I hope he succeeds here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, I do hope Frenchy succeeds, I watched a special last night on his and McCann's rise to the big leagues together and remember when he hit better for the Braves.

    I hope he does well, just not against the Braves. His time here was done. As much as Furman Bisher would love to mourn it, it was time for a change.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think Furman was saying that hitting slumps can't be cured, like the common cold can't be cured, and he doesn't understand why. What I don't understand is why the sentence was so poorly structured. The fact that he thinks that Braves didn't try and help him, when there were multiple articles about such help being given, is pathetic. Almost as pathetic as Frenchy being unable to utilize new techniques for more then about 3 days.

    As for DeRosa, I don't understand all the love for him. Nice player, average hitter. I guess if your organization has little to nothing at third or second, then he'd be a good get, but he isn't all that special. He had a career year in Texas, and this is surprising why? Texas is the best hitting park in the AL, surrounded in a lineup full of good hitters. Paying guys for what they do in Texas is kinda of like paying guys for what they did in Coors field from 95-2001.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It was an oddly structured sentence, the one about the cold. I figured he wasn't that stupid but I try not to underestimate how stupid people can be.

    DeRosa is a nice player but notice the Cardinals still had to go out and get Holliday because DeRosa is a good hitter and super utility guy but he is not quite what everyone wants him to be. He is so valuable because he can play so many positions on the field.

    ReplyDelete
  7. On a very slightly related note, our local (Huntsville, AL)sportswriter who covers SEC football wrote an article this week and explained why he didn't vote on the media's all-SEC team. He said he didn't even know the names of five SEC linemen or of two defensive backs. Since his job is, as stated above, SEC football, I found this pretty depressing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Holy crap. Are you kidding me? Let's see if I can do this off the top of my head and it's not even my job. Does this guy still have a job? If so, how?

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Huntsville Times is in the process of "re-imaging" the paper, having canned the older journalists, and going more for the 14-and-under-demographic. Mark McCarter is the name of the writer, and he would love to be Woody Paige, Jay Marrioti, et al. His columns bounce between "Nick Saban is the Greatest Coach EVAH!", and "I Wish Ordinary People Understood Sports Like Me". He occasionally writes about the Braves in the off-months, but for him, its been downhill since Chuck Tanner left.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's an interesting demographic to go after. I was not even aware the 14 and under demographic bought newspapers. I guess they do.

    You have to love Nick Saban loving articles, and I am sure he loves them too. You would think he could name two OL and 2 DB in the SEC...guess not.

    I think he may be the only one who is disappointed Chuck Tanner was canned many years ago. I actually read an article about Tanner a few years ago, he is still involved with baseball.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I thought Tanner was a horrendously bad coach, but a lot of the sports writers really loved them. He would take as much time as they wanted to regale them with colorful baseball stories, as opposed to someone like Earl Weaver, who might stick their head in a toilet. They ate that stuff up, and helped prolong his career by gushing over him. Never mind that he spent 300 years in baseball and never grasped that your lead-off hitter should get on base more than average.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am not sure which is more embarassing for Chuck Tanner, that his record as the Braves manager or the fact he was replaced by the completely inept Russ Nixon. Those were just some god awful Braves teams. He did have success with the Pirates but he didn't stand a chance with those Braves teams.

    Ken Oberkfel, Andres Thomas, Rick Mahler, and who can forget the immortal Zane Smith. I remember in 1990 when the big free agent pick up was Jim Presley. I am so glad the Braves are so on top of things now...they get better players and are still mediocre, but I feel good about it.

    ReplyDelete