Astros signed Franco to 1-year, $700,000 deal. Pretty God signing considering its fairly cheap and the guy is old but still could get lefties out better than Gallo. He brings alot of passion similar to Clemens. Link doesn't work but its a headling at www.chron.com http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3005463
Astros sign pitcher Franco to one-year deal By JOSE DE JESUS ORTIZ Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle The Astros have signed pitcher John Franco to a one-year, $700,000 contract to serve as the club's situational lefthander, providing veteran leadership for a bullpen that sorely lacked a veteran presence. Franco, 44, held lefthanders to a .173 (13-for-75) average in 2004 while going 2-7 with a 5.28 ERA for the New York Mets. Franco split the first 21 years of his career pitching for the Cincinnati Reds (1984-89) and the Mets (1990-2004). He is second all-time in appearances with 1,088, trailing Jesse Orosco. Franco is the all-time leader in saves among lefthanders with 424 saves, and is second overall to former righthanded reliever Lee Smith (478). The four-time All-Star has never served specifically as a lefthanded specialist, but manager Phil Garner and general manager Tim Purpura signed him with the understanding that he would be the lefty specialist. Franco, who is 90-86 with a 2.84 ERA in his career, briefly considered retiring after the Mets let him go. But he found some interest on the free-agent market. Longtime Astros coach Matt Galante, a New York native who has returned to the organization after three years coaching for the Mets, helped recruit Franco. "Johnny wants to still pitch," Galante said. "He never had the role that we have for him. If (Franco) pitches against lefties like he did last year, he's going to help us in that role. The other thing he brings is the veteran presence. He pitches with a lot of guts, a lot of heart and location. Location is this game."
Yikes! I was looking around for info, trying to remeber whether Franco was the guy who was a freak about karate (it was Randy Myers, whom I always used to mix up with Franco) when I found this sitecalled the RBI Hall of Shame. The John Franco entry is as follows: Hope none of the goombahs in the clubhouse have a beef with him, or fughetaboutit.
A 5.28 ERA and another year older? I don't know if he is really bullpen help. He may be ok as a lefty specialist, but we still need some bullpen help that can pitch a full inning. Gallo had a lower ERA than him last year.
He will ONLY be a lefty specialist. Gallo gave up a higher avg. to lefties than he did to rightys last year.
Yeah exactly. John Franco is very effective against left handers and that's what we need him for. That is one thing we were definently weak in last year...not only the bullpen bad...it had trouble getting out the lefties.
The only thing that would faze a right-handed batter is a right-handed pitcher who throws sidearm... and even then, that might not be enough. Left-handed batters hardly ever see that much left-handed pitching (on average, most teams have only 1 LH starter, if that)... whereas right-handed batters face right-handed pitching almost exclusively. That being said, our right-handed specialist is Brad Lidge. He's also our left-handed specialist. Frankly, he could strikeout a guy with 8 arms and 8 bats.
