Comments on: Pondering Jeff Francoeur

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 04 May 2006 20:19:27 +0000

Guess I’m in the minority here. I play fantasy games at CDM and advised a couple of people there to limit Francouer to just home starts and he’s been very good. I admit he needs lots of additional tutelage and reps but maybe we should just bat him 8th because why lose his defense and arm in RF?

By: David

David — Thu, 04 May 2006 17:44:54 +0000

I know a lot of people will not agree with me here, but I think they could do him a lot of good by moving him up in the batting order. One of the problems he has right now is that he has nobody hitting behind him that the pitcher’s fear and thus they are not going to throw him anything hittable. If there is a good bat hitting behind him then he will get better pitches to hit. I would at least move him up to the 5 hole and put LaRoche behind him to give him some type of protection. Of course, he might be better off moving down to the 8 slot so that the pitcher is behind him and nobody fears the pitchers hitting and thus won’t be as worried about getting Francouer out.

By: Trev

Trev — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:11:34 +0000

As Alexis Rios goes, so does Francoeur?

By: Mac Thomason

Mac Thomason — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:03:28 +0000

I was hoping Burrus or Esquivel could make a jump quickly and add some depth, but Burrus is out injured and Esquivel isn’t playing that well. The only outfielders in the upper levels of the system who are are the No-Power Twins, Blanco and Duran. (I wrote about the minors this morning, so I’m thinking that way.)

But I still think Francoeur has to go down, even if that means Diaz/Jordan/Orr in left field. Maybe he’ll press if he’s in AAA, but he needs plate appearances, and the Braves can’t give those to him if he’s putting up a .200 OBP. But who cares about Richmond?

Hey, it worked for Ron Gant.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:39:56 +0000

JC, I’m sure that you’ve read Dave O’Brien’s article at AJC. The Braves have a very limited set of options with Kelly Johnson on the DL. In the past having Furcal and Giles with above average power (30 homers between them) has made up for not having a plus bat in RF. But not this season. I guess the real question is how to balance the need to get Francouer better developed with the team’s mission to be a contender. The way he is batting now is a drag on the team.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:17:46 +0000

Numbers I posted yesterday over at Braves Journal:

Prior to drawing first major league walk:
379/394/734, 10 HR in 120+ PA
Remainder of last season after that (including postseason):
228/281/376, 4 HR, 11BB in about 160 PA
Total line since then including postseason and this season:
213/250/354, 7 HR, 11 BB in about 240 PA

He killed for 120 PA, and has since sucked royally for twice as long. My guess is that yes, the league had a scouting report on him, but it took them a while to figure out just how far outside they could throw for him to not drive the ball.

By: lisa gray

lisa gray — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:38:48 +0000

yeah, even i figured out that pitchers shouldn’t never throw him any strikes since he swings at anything

but he sure is a great fielder – best arm i’ve seen since richard hidalgo

lisa

By: Mark Citrone

Mark Citrone — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:09:27 +0000

JC:

Great post on Jeff Francouer — I couldn’t agree more. Even while Francouer was absolutely killing the ball last year, I was telling everyone that I believe Francouer will eventually post very similar numbers to what Eric Byrnes would produce (offensively, obviously). What are your thoughts on that comparison?

I also agree with it taking a while for the MLB pitchers to find out how to pitch to him. I equate that to what Shane Spencer did in 1998 for the Yankees. It took a while for opposing pitchers to realize he couldn’t hit a non-fastball for his life, but once they did, there was a rapid regression to the mean.