Met of the Day: Jeff Francoeur (2009)

Jeffrey Braden Francoeur was born January 8, 1984 in Atlanta Georgia. He was a high school baseball & football star in Georgia, winning two straight state titles in both sports. He was about to sign with Clemson where he was going to play defensive back as well as baseball. Instead, Francoeur got drafted first round by his hometown Braves in 2002, the 23rd pick overall. He moved up through the Braves organization very quickly and in July 2005 was called up to fill in for an injured Brian Jordan. In his first game he hit a three run HR, and stayed hot batting over .400 in his first month. In the outfield his great arm gave him 13 assists in only 67 games, third best in the majors.

In his first full season he played in every game hitting 29 HRs driving in 103 runs, with 24 doubles & six triples. He hit .260 and struck out 136 times, as a free swinger. The next year he improved to .293 driving in over 100 runs again, as his HR total fell off a bit to 19. Defensively he was great winning his first Gold Glove award. In 2008 he struggled to .238 with only 11 HRs and 71 RBIs. Once labeled the face of the Braves franchise and “The Natural” on the cover of Sports Illustrated he was traded to the Mets in 2009. On July 10th he was traded for Ryan Church, who was an experiment that never worked out in New York.

After arriving in New York he was one of the few bright spots in a horrible year. In his first game at Citi Field he had two hits and drove in two runs against the Reds. A week later he hit his first HR, and would hit 5 HRs with 20 RBIs in his first month. At the end of August he had a seven game stretch getting eight hits driving in eight runs going into early September. He finished the season hitting .311 with 10 HRs, 20 doubles, & 41 RBIs at Citi Field.