My Hate/Love Relationship With John Franco

He never was necessarily a world beater, nor did he always inspire confidence, but as a kid back in the late ‘90s, his “grission”, for a lack of better words, made him cool. He came across to me as the stereotypical blue-collar New Yorker (the mentioned pizza joint) and where better a place to be that kind of guy on the stereotypical blue-collar New York team. Like wine, I’ve liked Franco more since he stopped pitching, and more time has passed since the last precarious position he pitched the team into. He’s not outspoken, he has possible mob connections…What’s not to like (possible Kazmir silliness aside)? I remember around 2006 or 2007, he had his own little show on the FAN (I don’t think it was a long-term thing) for a few weekends, and he was pretty good on the mike.

John Franco in the booth would be pretty cool. It’s already pretty crowded up there, though.

She is a real looker. On the first day of orientation, I was in the middle of campus and I saw John Franco walking through campus. I almost died and went to heaven.

When I think of my favorite Mets, there are very few that I think of before John Franco.

I agree with James in my perception then, and ex-post analysis now. I just didn’t like the guy, and I would add to the “Hate” side of the ledger his role in ostracizing Rick Reed.

i was too young to figure out why they wanted Franco over Randy Myers, but i remembered him being pretty good on the Reds so it wasn’t such a big deal in my adolescent mind. as a player, he was generally good (in my mind) until he started getting hurt. the end was kinda pitiful, but it was really nice to see him come back and pitch again after major injury. one of the few bright spots that season.

i dunno if he’s a true HOFer, but i do think he should have gotten more consideration than he did. then again, i think Keith Hernandez is a HOFer, so i’ll just stop typing now.

I could have some fun building a chart like that. I think Bonilla would be a consensus below the line player, as would Benitez and Louis Castillo. Above the line would be Dykstra, Keith Miller, Agbayani, Todd Hundley and McMichael. I love Beltran, but I think we know on which side he sits with most fans, unfortunately.

for all that implies, good and ill.

All-decade mis en scene team:

70’s: Jerry Koosman
80’s: Darryl Strawberry
90’s: John Franco
00’s: Steve Trachsel

In Shea with my little brother. In my mind that is what Billy Wagner did every day. Too bad, because Im quite certain that he didn’t pitch every day.

Maybe all closers are.

touch ’em all, James….you deserve it.

but my other favorite mets of the 90s were Todd Hundley, Fonzie, Rick Reed,

 I think a lot of the hype either way with Franco (whether you love him or hate him) has to do with how overrated closers were as role then and even now. From my father and from announcers, journalists, other fans etc. I was conditioned to believe from a pretty young age (I also starting following the mets and baseball in around ‘91) that closers were one of the most important players on the roster and key to a teams success. I think that we are learning that you don’t need an ace to be an effective late inning reliever. I love how in ‘Moneyball’ it describes Beane’s strategy of taking decent pitchers (ie; Isringhauses) turning them into closers, letting them rack up a bunch of saves and then selling them off for much more than there true value. I definitely bought into the whole closer hype in the 90’s and even into the 2000’s. My favorite player was Gagne (who I still think had the two best consecutive t years of any modern closer) and I held Franco and other met closers to a higher standard because I believed that the role was so important. Since I’ve come across AA which exposed me to Sabermetrics and the Bill James philosophy I’ve been able to more objectively evaluate players. Looking back I think that Franco did a good job but there were probably cheaper options who could have delivered the same result.

Franco never got a hit, never drew a BB, never had a successful [ sic ] sacrifice bunt. He struck out a cool 60% of the time (small data pool notwithstanding — 9 k’s in 15 PA’s).
Franco did get 3 hits with the Reds, the last in 1989.

Just sayin’. I’m not sure how this factors into the hate/love equation. And of course, Jeff Innis never got a hit either.