24-year old righty swinging RF Jeff Francoeur had a year he would like to forget in 2008 with the Braves. Francoeur has played in 151 games this season for the Braves and he is 138 for 581 (.238 avg, .653 OPS) with 67 runs scored, 11 homers and 68 RBIs. The Braves really hope that Francoeur can rebound to the levels he was producing in his first two full seasons in the major leagues. He played in 324 games in 2006-2007 and he was 357 for 1,293 (.276 avg) with 167 runs scored, 48 homers and 208 RBIs. If Francoeur has another season like 2008 the Braves will look to replace him in the starting lineup for 2010 if not before.

Due to injuries Martin Prado has gotten to play much more than the Braves envisioned that he would and he’s made the most of it. Prado has played in 65 games for the Braves this season and he is 58 for 178 (.326 avg, .859 OPS) with 26 runs scored, 2 homers and 28 RBIs. It will be interesting to see if the Braves let him compete for the starting job at 2B next season or not.

Lefty starting pitcher Chuck James had surgery last Friday to repair a tear in his rotator cuff which will likely cause him to miss the first half of the 2009 season. It was dumb for the Braves to let him try to pitch through this injury as he had it way back in spring training. James started 7 games for the Braves this season and he was 2-5 with a 9.10 ERA and a 1.89 WHIP. He also allowed 10 homers in only 29.2 innings this season for the Braves as he paid for pitching hurt. Hopefully both James and the Braves have learned their lesson and will listen to the doctors next time.