Ryan Church: What He Brings to The Braves

The past few seasons for Ryan Church have been plagued by injuries. This season he has two home runs, 22 RBI, .280 avg., 26 runs .332 OBP. Francoeur has shown more power, but Church has been a pretty good player for the Mets this year. But the question is, what can he give the Braves that Jeff Francoeur can't?

When Jeff Francoeur was drafted, there was a lot of pressure on him to live up to the hype. In his first two and a half seasons, he did. He was being that 20 home run, 100 RBI, and .280 hitter they expected. Then it all turned around on him. This season, has five home runs, 35 RBI, .250 avg., 32 runs and .282 OBP. The Braves were getting fed up with his pitiful play. So they acquired Ryan Church.

Ryan Church has never been considered a superstar, or thought to have the potential to be one. Church is a 30-year-old, left-handed outfielder from Santa Barbara, Cali. Nobody knows if he could ever hit 20 home runs and drive in 100 runs because he the only years he was healthy enough to do so were the years that he just started playing in the bigs and was adjusting to big league pitching.

Ever since I heard of the trade, I have been thinking about what Ryan Church gives to the Braves that Jeff Francoeur hadn't. He probably won't put up some of those numbers that Francoeur put up in his best years with Atlanta, he is five years older, and he is no better with the glove.

They have similar talents, but Francoeur puts up a little bit of better numbers when he's at his best. The one thing that came to mind was consistency. Church can hit for a decent average, play good defense and hit for decent power. Nothing to great but decent. That's all I ask of Ryan Church.

My hope is that Church can reignite his career in a Braves' uniform and hit 20 homers and 100 RBI. Not this season but maybe in the near future. It definitely might not happen considering his best season was when he hit 15 home runs and drove in 70 runs while hitting .270. I don't expect much more from Church. At the most a bit more of everything. But only time will tell.