From MIKE PUMA
Still taking it all in after a whirlwind 24 hours, newly acquired Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur arrived at Citi Field this afternoon trying to get Georgia off his mind. “This is a fresh start for me,” he said in his debut news conference. “I’m looking forward to helping this team win by driving in runs and throwing people out.”
The Mets’ freshest addition donned uniform No. 12, took some early practice in right field and prepared to bat fifth in the lineup against the Reds. Ryan Church, whom the Mets dealt to the Braves a day earlier for Francoeur, was expected in the lineup at Colorado.
The trade didn’t change the fact the Mets were 6 1/2 games removed from the NL East lead and a colossal mess, with 11 losses in 14 games and in desperate need of offense.
Francoeur may have a bigger upside than the 30-year-old Church, but that doesn’t change the fact Atlanta grew tired of waiting for the 25-year-old outfielder to blossom into a star and finally pulled the trigger on a deal Friday. In 82 games, he was batting .250 with five homers and 35 RBIs.
Most troubling to the Braves was Francoeur’s 46 strikeouts and 12 walks. His on-base percentage was a paltry .282.
Francoeur spoke with former Braves teammates Mark Teixeira and Tom Glavine about the peaks and valleys of playing in New York and hung up confident that he’s prepared for this newest challenge.
The Mets aren’t asking him to be a savior, just a steady right-handed bat who can bolster this invisible lineup. The Mets haved scored just 10 runs in their past seven games.
Francoeur realizes his expectations, at least in the power department, shouldn’t be too grand playing in this spacious ballpark.
“I’ve talked to David [Wright] a little bit about it and you’re not going to go out here and hit 45 home runs in this park,” Francoeur said. “If you want to do that you’ve got to go 10 miles down the road.”
Jerry Manuel sees the Gold Glove on Francoeur’s resume and hopes that translates into better defense in his outfield, even if it guarantees nothing in the lineup.
“He’s a tremendous defensive player, even though I’m not looking for defense right now,” said Manuel, whose team had been shut out three times in five games. “Against us at times he seemed to come up with big hits.”
Francoeur knows the knock on him is a lack of plate discipline, but pointed to the fact he’s still young enough to change the conversation.
“I’m 25 years old and I still feel the best years are ahead of me,” he said. “That’s not something that I worry about. I got off to a great April this year and had a lousy May and that kind of killed me. But I’ve been swinging the bat a lot better lately.”
With Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes on the disabled list, Francoeur acknoweledged the Mets face a tough challenge. But he also knows there’s another half-season in front of this team.
“It’s been a rough stretch right now up here and I’m looking forward to getting the two Carloses and Jose back and just hopefully I can help out a little bit,” Francoeur said. “You look at 6 1/2 games in [nearly] 80 games, it isn’t that tough when you look at it in the long run.”
