Free agent lefty Jeff Francis is drawing interest from at least five clubs, tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick: the Pirates, Mariners, Brewers, Astros, and Rockies.
Francis, 30 in January, posted a 5.00 ERA, 5.8 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9, and 47% groundball rate in 104 1/3 innings this year for the Rockies. Baseball Prospectus' SIERA stat suggests Francis' work was more deserving of an ERA around 4.00. Francis missed all of last season after having shoulder surgery in February of '09, and had some lingering issues this year. The Rockies declined his $7MM club option earlier this month. If Francis' shoulder checks out, many teams will have interest in plugging him into the back end of their rotation on a one-year, incentive-laden deal.
If Francis is healthy he could be a solid buy for an N.L. team
I don’t see who would be interested Ina 5.00 era. Hopefully the dodgers are.
I could see him signing with the Pirates because of Hurdle. I just hope this doesn’t turn into a Dayton Moore/Braves or MacPhail/Cubs sort of thing.
I don’t think it will. Moore and MacPhail are the personnel guys, Hurdle is the manager…he might give input but he’s not going to be shaping the roster. But yeah I see the Pirates being a good fit
I’d love to pencil him in behind Blanton in the Phils’ rotation.
He was actually pretty good last year. 3.88 FIP. He should be an attractive, cheap option for the back of many rotations. I hope the Rockies can retain him.
Would be good for the Pirates.
who wouldn’t be good for the pirates?
Oliver perez
that was a good one shawn K haha
No… he’d be good off the bench or maybe in a platoon role.
Another LHP with a high ground ball rate with a well below-average infield defense. In Pittsburgh, unless they make an acquisition at 2B or SS in FAs and are able to move Alvarez to 1st and Walker to 3B, Francis would only be another Maholm/Duke to the Pirates.
Yeah, I think they need more flyball/strikeout guys like McDonald and Ohlendorf. Javy Vazquez could fit, and I’d like De La Rosa or Chris Young as well. At least one of those three and I’d be happy.
de la rosa would be great im not a vasquez fan tho id rather him pitch against us in another uniform than be in are uniform.. to many reasons but chris young could im always in for a jermey bonderman tho i think it be good. Im not sure cause i was playin 2k10 on xbox360 and his fastball was only 90 tops id thought he was a 95 plus guy hope he can get that up again..
2B is fine neil walker is okay there i do agree of SS cedeno doesnt cut it.. they should get brandon wood from the angels just throwing that up in the air tho ?? alvarez could go to first base and maybe they draft rendon or could they possibly sign beltre probably not but it be pretty nice 3B beltre 1st alvarez 2B walker SS wood possibly Lf tabata center cluth right jones/ free agent maybe trade idk its starting to come together as a decent team to put on a field every night and its going to get better so the light appears to be shining very soon.
The Pirates have been in the dark for WAY to long….its time for a change in NL Central standings. Vasquez, C. Young and JDLR are all very interesting targets with JDLR being the only one expected a decently big contract (In Rockies and Pirates terms at least) this offseason. I am praying he does come back to Denver however but to be honest if he was to go, I’d be happy to see him team up with Hurdle in Pitt.
I agree, Neil Walker is OK at 2B, but he has much more experience (maybe not at this level) at 3B and we could find a better player like Orlando Hudson to come in and play 2B. I would also like to see the Hardy signing and move Cedeno to 2B. Cedeno isn’t terrible, but when he starts to go bad, he goes really bad for quite a while. Also, please never mention Brandon Wood ever being a Pirate. He was a great prospect at on point but he is one of those guys that is great in AAA and terrible in the Majors. He hasn’t hit above .200 in any season his fielding isn’t even that great. Ideally this season I would like to see:
1B – Alvarez
2B – Hudson/Cedeno
SS – Hardy/ Cedeno
3B – Walker
If I can get to see one of those lineups and maybe in a couple years move Walker back to 2B when Rendon is ready (I am assuming he will be our pick) then I would be more than happy.
francis to seattle is more a natural fit than pittsburgh
he’s from victoria which is just up the road and across the border (and then a ferry ride!)
like Michael Saunders there is a nice marketing connection there (not exactly an Ichiro-like connection, but every team likes to have “area” players)
whoops, Saunders is Victoria, Francis is Vancouver (North Delta)
so scratch the ferry ride but you add even a few more carloads bodrer-crossing south for his home starts
He´s perfect for the M´s, a lefty who lives close to Seattle and is a ground ball pitcher with the protection of Safeco and the best defensive outfield in the MLB, Go Mariners…
Especially if he can get away from Coors and pitches in a pitchers ballpark. Definitely worth a 1 year deal that is incentive heavy.