(07-10) 15:24 PDT New York (AP) -- The Atlanta Braves traded Jeff Francoeur and cash to the New York Mets for Ryan Church on Friday in a swap of outfielders who had fallen out of favor with their teams. The deal came with both NL East teams below .500. The Mets have especially struggled to score lately with stars Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado on the disabled list.

Church is hitting .280 with two home runs and 22 RBIs. Solid at the plate and in the field, the oft-injured Church was slowed last year by two concussions.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel never seemed to warm up to him, and seemed particularly peeved after Church missed third base while running home earlier this season in a game New York eventually lost.

The 30-year-old Church is in his sixth major league season and is a career .273 hitter.

The 25-year-old Francoeur is hitting .250 with five homers and 35 RBIs. He was a favorite with Braves fans and management during his first full season in 2006, when hit 29 home runs with 103 RBIs while playing all 162 games.

Francoeur hit .293 with 19 homers and 105 RBIs in 2007, but slumped badly last year and was sent to the minors, a move that he found embarrassing.

Francoeur recently was benched for three games by Atlanta manager Bobby Cox.

----------

Considering how much people have bagged on Frenchy around here (and deservedly so), I find it interesting that the Mets were willing to take a chance. I daresay Francoeur better get his act together fast, or he won't last into 2010 in New York.

Okay, I think this will be interesting because the young A's starter faces a serious offense for the first time in his young MLB career. The Rockies sit first in the NL and fourth in MLB with a .788 OPS, and since they're playing in an AL park that figure is about on target, since they can now add a DH. (Their home/road split is .835 for fifth among home teams and .753 for ninth among road teams). Plus you get another chance to fire a bullet into this dead horse if you want to.

Mazzaro L, 2-3  6 8 5 5 3 4, 2 HRs

I'm sure the same question could be asked of Josh Fields (3B),  but the former Georgia relief pitcher hasn't pitched for West Tenn in nearly two weeks, after a not very good outing on 5/5. He's posted some crazy stat lines all season. I can't find anything on Google News about it. Here's his minorleaguebaseball.com profile:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Joshua%20Fields&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=451661

Thanks for any information. With Morrow's blowup I was hoping that Fields might get some MLB time soon, but it won't happen at this rate.

Here's the inaugural edition of a weekly thread devoted to fantasy questions and manager wanted/league wanted ads for sim and fantasy leagues. Please post all such requests on this thread only.

It's hoped that this can become a clearinghouse for threads that would otherwise swamp the diaries. Those not interested in sim or fantasy, or questions about trades, roster moves and prospect comparisons need not visit.

Thanks for reading. I'll be happy to set this up weekly on Sundays if the idea takes off.

 1. Alex Gordon, 3b
 2. Luke Hochevar, rhp
 3. Billy Butler, of
 4. Chris Lubanski, of
 5. Tyler Lumsden, lhp
 6. Erik Cordier, rhp
 7. Mitch Maier, of
 8. Justin Huber, of/1b
 9. Billy Buckner, rhp
10. Brent Fisher, lhp

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/262906.html

Not too surprising.

Two left fielders with very different 2006 seasons. Cabrera broke out with a nice season filling in for Matsui and showed nice plate discipline and underwhelming power. Kubel fought back from a devastating knee injury after missing all of 2005. I know Cabrera's slated to be the Yanks' fourth outfielder but I haven't heard much about Kubel. Any news on him, his knee or his prospects? Who would you prefer between these two guys and why?

Many thanks in advance, and happy holiday to you and yours.

1. Stephen Drew, ss, Tucson (Diamondbacks)
   
2. Jered Weaver, rhp, Salt Lake (Angels)
   
3. Howie Kendrick, 2b, Salt Lake (Angels)
   
4. Chad Billingsley, rhp, Las Vegas (Dodgers)
   
5. Andy LaRoche, 3b, Las Vegas (Dodgers)
   
6. Matt Kemp, of, Las Vegas (Dodgers)
   
7. Chris Young, of, Tucson (Diamondbacks)
   
8. Adam Jones, of, Tacoma (Mariners)
   
9. Jason Hirsh, rhp, Round Rock (Astros)
   
10. Carlos Quentin, of, Tucson (Diamondbacks)
    
11. Felix Pie, of, Iowa (Cubs)
    
12. James Loney, 1b, Las Vegas (Dodgers)
    
13. Anthony Reyes, rhp, Memphis (Cardinals)
    
14. John Danks, lhp, Oklahoma (Rangers)
    
15. Erick Aybar, ss, Salt Lake (Angels)
    
16. Rich Hill, lhp, Iowa (Cubs)
    
17. Miguel Montero, c, Tucson (Diamondbacks)
    
18. Chris Iannetta, c, Colorado Springs (Rockies)
    
19. Edinson Volquez, rhp, Oklahoma (Rangers)
    
20. Joel Guzman, 3b/of, Las Vegas (Dodgers)

Claimed by the A's on waivers from the Cubs. Boy, has his star fallen:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2006/09/05/sports/s154541D76.DTL

Wonder if he can carve out a place for himself on this staff. Surely as a long reliever at least, if he can regain his control (and a semblance of conditioning).

Was extremely disappointed that the SD-Hou game was not carried on the cable package. I saw he had the one bad inning, but it seemed like he was dancing on the edge a bit as well. Any opinions? I guess he was marginally better than Garza, considering they went on back to back nights and they had been compared here earlier. Thanks in advance.

He's here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/05/17/sports/s134451D08.DTL

Let's see how much worse that Pierzynski trade can become.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/26/sports/s172800D82.DTL

Highly Touted Prospect Throws Bat at Ump
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

(04-26) 17:28 PDT Pawtucket, R.I. (AP) -- Durham Bulls outfielder Delmon Young threw a bat into the chest of the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes in the first inning of Wednesday night's game at Pawtucket.

Young argued with the umpire after taking a third strike on a 1-and-2 pitch. The umpire ejected Young, who then threw his bat and hit the umpire in the chest.

Replacement umpires have been working all minor league games this season because the regular umpires are on strike. Bill Wanless, a spokesman for the Pawtucket Red Sox, said minor league teams are not releasing the names of umpires while the regulars are on strike.

Young, 20, is the younger brother of Detroit Tigers outfielder Dmitri Young. He was voted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' minor league player of the year last season and the 2005 minor league player of the year by Baseball America.

The Devils Rays selected Young with the first overall pick in the 2003 amateur draft.

Just curious -- what game did you start with and what do you play now, what drew you to them, do you play any other sports, are you still cards-and-dice or have you gone computer (and why or why not). If you've moved on to the PC, is there anything you miss about the analog days? (I do miss the feel of cards and dice in the hands, but I do have to admit that rapidity, ease of play and automated statkeeping far, far outweigh that nostalgia.) What different games have you played, and how would you rate their strengths and weaknesses? Do you play both stat-based games and arcade-type sims? Are the stats realistic with those Madden-type games?

I know this is a lot of questions but I'm just curious if there are any sort of shared experiences, and I love hearing about different games even if all I've played were Strat (all sports except hockey, many years ago), then Pursue the Pennant for a few years and now DMB for the last couple. I still get a huge kick out of visiting this eBay page on sports games:

http://toys.listings.ebay.com/Modern-1970-Now_Sports_W0QQfclZ1QQfromZ1883QQsacatZ1180QQsocmdZListing ItemListQQsspagenameZmeQ3afQ3acat

Thanks for reading. Good luck to all this season.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/07/MNG90HJF4N22.DTL

Pretty devastating article.

The excerpt (from Sports Illustrated) says Fainaru-Wada and Williams based their narrative "on more than a thousand pages of documents and interviews with more than 200 people, many of whom we spoke to repeatedly."

Here's the link with the SI excerpt:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/03/06/news.excerpt/index.html

 1. Jeff Clement, c
 2. Adam Jones, of/ss
 3. Kenji Johjima, c
 4. Chris Snelling, of
 5. Matt Tuiasosopo, ss
 6. Asdrubal Cabrera, ss/2b
 7. Shin-Soo Choo, of
 8. Emiliano Fruto, rhp
 9. Clint Nageotte, rhp
10. Rob Johnson, c

Wow, not much pitching at all, but when you graduate the best pitching prospect in years, maybe that's to be expected. Seems rather thin, though.

I've been busy doing org stuff to set up this new 30-team DMB league (one team left, hint) and haven't been able to do much draft research or sorting.

I do have a spreadsheet someone put out of all the players on the disk with some rudimentary rankings, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any list on the Web that would list the most "valuable" properties counting both current production and age, much the same way that Bill James came up with a factor for approximate value some years back. Any of the current roto lists that have Clemens, etc. near the top of the pitching lists just aren't as helpful.

Thanks in advance.

1. Alex Gordon
   
2. Billy Butler, of/3b
   
3. Justin Huber, 1b
   
4. Chris Lubanski, of
   
5. Jeff Bianchi, ss
   
6. Luis Cota, rhp
   
7. Chris McConnell, ss
   
8. Mitch Maier, of
   
9. Donnie Murphy, 2b
   
10. Shane Costa, of

1. Bobby Jenks, rhp
   
2. Brian Anderson, of
   
3. Ryan Sweeney, of
   
4. Josh Fields, 3b
   
5. Jerry Owens, of
   
6. Robert Valido, ss
   
7. Ray Liotta, lhp
   
8. Lance Broadway, rhp
   
9. Francisco Hernandez, c
   
10. Sean Tracey, rhp

... as well as candidates for the waiting list. Two 15-team leagues, begin drafting 40-man rosters via chat and phone next weekend. Solid leadership group with a fairly experienced core of managers. We aim for playability, fun, competitiveness and collegiality. Will be glad to send the constitution to anyone who's interested. Any questions, please let me know. Thanks for reading. dullatron at yahoo dot com.

Those of you guys in sim leagues, if you've got some form of offseason free agency with bidding between teams and "contracts," can you please send me the specific clauses in your constitution or other league documents that pertain to this issue? (Or post them here.) You can email me at dullatron at yahoo.com.

I'm in a DMB league now with no free agency as well as joining a new league which has plans for free agency, but our ideas for the new league are pretty simple (protect a certain number of players before the MLB season to implement judgment and foresight into the process -- this is the MLB season that Brandon Inge finally went off, and you didn't sign/protect him before the season? sorry -- and the free agency draft order is according to improvement in victories over the past couple of seasons, so building and getting better is rewarded and discourages dumping games to get a good rookie draft pick).

These ideas may well work, but I'd just like to hear about free agency structures from other leagues, especially if "money" is involved -- how is it earned, etc. I'm thinking a base income like $50 million per team plus a certain amount like $500K for every win over 40 and a certain amount for a playoff appearance might work.

In addition, we have a minor league draft scheduled down the road. But doesn't that just eventually devastate the rookie draft (in our case, anyone unowned who appeared in MLB the previous season)? I also fear it will widen the chasm between knowledgeable owners and casual ones. Was this an issue that anyone had to deal with?

Thanks in advance. I hope I've offended no one by my diary.

He starts against the Reds and Ramon Ortiz today. From his stats at minorleaguebaseball.com, I don't see a lot that tells me that he's ready for this jump -- relatively mediocre strikeout rate, no other ratios that jump out at you. He could surprise, of course, but Ortiz has been pitching well of late. But the Pirates are certainly skewing younger of late. I'm sure he'd love to keep up with Duke ...

UPDATE: Game postponed. Guess he'll get another shot at Milwaukee and Doug Davis on Tuesday, or maybe they'll hold off.

Here's to you, kid. Good luck today. I hope most of us here are pulling for you, like an old flame. Once you get beyond the hurt and the anger, that is. But it wasn't your fault. Go get 'em.

Move made after Sunday's game, according to the AP story. Quite an overdue move performance wise, though with Brower's past versatility and usefulness, it's understandable why the move took so long. Real curious to see how Foppert does and in what role.

Tomorrow's news tonight:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/17/GIANTS.TMP

Nice piece on the kid and his fight with benign tumors. I sort of question Felipe's yardstick by which to measure players, however. Radar gun? Forget it. Fondly buys flowers for the wife? He's getting the ball.