Julio Franco

[ultimate7]

It has been reported that his agent is asking for a 2-year contract, he may not be back with the Braves next year.

[Gantry]

What the fuck is he thinking? 

[ultimate7]

Good point Gantry, he should be pushing for a 5 year deal

[Shooty]

This thread is a modern day classic after only 3 posts.  Bravo sirs, Bravo.

[ultimate7]

I think you are giving us far more credit than we deserve, but I'll take it.

Here's the text of the blip from today's Chicago Tribune

"Chuck Berry, the agent for 47-year-old Julio Franco, has been asking interested teams for a two-year contract. It's not clear if Franco is going to stay with the Braves"

[OctoFranco]

What a guy.  You know he's not asking for a multi-million dollar deal or anything, he just loves the game and wants to be assured of the opportunity to play it as long as possible.  And also maybe finally play a season for the first time in a decade in which he doesn't have the pressure to succeed-or-retire floating over his head the whole way through.  I as a Braves fan would by no means be offended or upset if he was able to land a multi-year contract elsewhere, although that would almost have to be in the AL.

Go go Julio!

Edit: and in other active RBI'er news, Clemens' agent says the Rocket won't make a decision about next year until January or February, and that if the 'stros want a decision now, they should assume "not playing."  I'm sure he's all talk though.

[Big Hath]

If I were Julio, I wouldn't use the bathroom at my agent's office/restaurant/home.

[Shooty]

I think you are giving us far more credit than we deserve, but I'll take it.

I have low standards.

[fknmclane]

His agents name is Chuck Berry.  For some reason, this is extremely humorous to me.

cue GDavis posting about urinating on women

[Big Hath]

I already made a Chuck Berry joke

[fknmclane]

I already made a Chuck Berry joke

Damnit!  Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop taking stupid pills.

[OctoFranco]

Both Roger Clemens and Julio Franco have been denied arbitration by their respective organizations...  This could be bleak...

According to the Clemens article, the Rocket could only come back with Houston if he signs on a date later than 1. May, 2006.  This does not look very promising to me.

On a perhaps brighter note -- the following blurb from the Franco article:

Franco's representatives told the Braves that another team had provided a two-year offer. The Mets have previously expressed interest in the first baseman, who made his Major League debut in 1982.

And then there was one?...

[ultimate7]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2253190

Sounds like the Mets are close to signing Julio for $2 million for 2 years

[BDawk]

Why not? They've signed everyone else in fkn baseball.

[BeefMaster]

It's official - 2 years, $2.2 million.

[JoeDirt]

Conan O'Brien just did a joke about Franco...'cept he called him Juilio Fronk-o.

[ultimate7]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/offbase/051214

If you scroll past the Albert Belle stuff, some interesting stuff about Franco's age.  I also thought the stuff about Olerud was interesting

[OctoFranco]

It had not occurred to me that Julio's never seen a WS.

Also I would like to add that Franco is the only major leaguer who was born before Castro came to power in Cuba.

[BDawk]

It had not occurred to me that Julio's never seen a WS.

Yeah, he's not even allowed to watch it on TV

[Man of Steal]

Naturally my favorite part of the article:

That helmet prompted the widespread but unfortunately false story about Rickey Henderson meeting Olerud when he joined the Mariners in 2000 and supposedly saying, "Hey, I played with a guy in New York who always wore a helmet," with Olerud supposedly replying, "That was me." Olerud says the story isn't true, though acknowledged it certainly sounded like something Rickey would say.