Skip to main content

Explaining Jeff Francoeur's Struggles



In August of 2005, Jeff Francoeur was put on the cover of Sports Illustrated after a torrid start, it was one of the most amazing starts to a career and his month-long streak was far more impressive than what Jay Bruce did in the first week of his big league career. “The Natural” was the title given to him by the popular sports magazine and the baseball community silently gave him the title shared by Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.

Closing in on three years later, Francoeur line is: (.239, 8, 41); inspiring attention in a very different way. I will take my turn at explaining what is up with Francoeur in two ways:

  1. It is important to remember that outside of the first month of his career, Francoeur has not been the type of hitter that Fred McGriff would endorse. He does not work counts well, he is inconsistent with all aspects of the game, yet still the guy has a great deal of potential and I think everyone can see that. Players that do not work counts well generally will be held back from stardom over the course of their careers because they swing at pitches that great hitters lay off. Francoeur has done incredibly well for a player that averages 33 walks per season in 670 plate appearances. This lack of patience is something that would absolutely crush an average player and the fact that he hit .293 last year shows the talent that Francoeur has. This season he looks too slow though, his bat speed and his outfield play make it seem as though there is no quick fix to this issue because he potentially lost agility in the offseason with the weight added to his frame. What has surprised me is that the strikeouts have not shot up above his career averages leading me to believe that there may be something else with him.
  2. I identify Francoeur as an inconsistent hitter that can go months of being hot or cold. Players that endure prolonged streaks strike me as having some makeup problems that can be linked to confidence in themselves and with their swing. Francoeur is from this area and to have people from his home telling him that he is struggling has got to be difficult, plus to have the onus of being “The Natural” can really hurt the development of a twenty-four year old outfielder. It would be very reasonable to imagine how difficult it is to deal with failure after some of the successes that he has enjoyed early on in his career.

Now is the time for Jeff Francoeur to mature as a hitter and show that he can get through his problems both mentally and with his approach. This has the potential to be a season long slump because it is becoming a combined issue of physical and emotional nature from my opinion. If he breaks out of this slump this season, it will be because he is doing something new as his approach that has been thoroughly exposed in 2008. Great hitters adapt and improve over time; we will see how great Francoeur really is or if we all had greater expectations.

Comments

~JB said…
Good assessment. I don't think you're far off about how streaky Frenchy is.

Here's the thing. We ALL know he's got talented and what he can do. Same with Andruw Jones. What makes these two athletes so disappointing at times is knowing what they're capable of.

You wouldn't be hard pressed to attribute most of these struggles to plain ol' mentality. Working counts. Getting out of slumps. Just being a young big leaguer on the road takes some mental fortitude. I really do think he'll snap out of it. I just in my gut know he has more than he's contributed this year. He did start hitting the ball a little bit harder in Toronto which is a good sign but when you're struggling, no matter how hard you hit the ball, it's an out somehow.

good post though. We'll see how he shapes up.

~JB

PS I read your post @ Braves Blast. Also good work.
6/30/08, 3:35 PM
Dan said…
Thank you for your input. In my heart of hearts, I think that he has the chance to become a very good player. Just the fact that he is 24 years old, already with 3 years of experience is huge. Young players run into these problems from time to time, how they bounce out of them is what separates average from great.
6/30/08, 4:09 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florida Marlins Analysis

After watching the Florida Marlins in living color over the past four days, I feel fairly confident when I say that they are in for some rough days over the next couple of months. There is absolutely talent on this team. Note that Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez are all-stars and they have a top end of the rotation starter in Scott Olsen. From my viewpoint, this team has been kept afloat from the unlikely success of many players. Jorge Cantu, Luis Gonzalez and just about every single pitcher on their staff. The Marlins are a group of recycled veteran castoffs that have gelled incredibly well for the first two months of the 2008 season. The reason why I feel that this team is about to nose dive to fourth place is simply that they cannot expect all of these players to continue their unusual success all at the same time. Also, when you look at what internal support they have coming to them there are a couple of talented young pitchers returning from serious arm problems (Josh Johnson and A...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting a Job in Baseball

I figure that it is time to write an update with respect to my professional development as this blog is intended to shine some light as to how young professionals can get into Major League Baseball using my anecdotal stories as an example. The Waiting Game I recently went on a two week vacation to Egypt and the Dominican Republic. When I left, I had no job offers, few leads and no reason to feel hopeful that anything was coming. Yet I still had the feeling that when I checked my phone each night for messages that I would have good news. Before going to sleep in a timezone that was 7 hours ahead of the east coast, I would turn my cellphone on for five minutes to try and catch a signal to see if I had voice messages. The nerves making my stomach turn over each day that I either did not receive a message or there was no signal for the phone to pick up as we sailed along the Nile. After returning to Cairo, where cellphones work with ease, the message finally came through to me on January 7...
5 comments
Read more

2009 MLB Free Agents

Potential Free Agents for 2009-2010: Catchers: Josh Bard BOS Michael Barrett TOR Henry Blanco SD Ramon Castro CWS Jason Kendall MIL Jason LaRue STL Chad Moeller BAL Bengie Molina SF Jose Molina NYY x-Miguel Olivo KC Mike Redmond MIN Brian Schneider NYM x-Gregg Zaun TB First-Basemen: Hank Blalock TEX Russell Branyan SEA Carlos Delgado NYM Nomar Garciaparra OAK Jason Giambi COL Aubrey Huff DET Nick Johnson WAS Adam LaRoche ATL Kevin Millar TOR Greg Norton ATL Robb Quinlan LAA Matt Stairs PHI Mike Sweeney SEA Jim Thome LAD Chad Tracy ARZ Second Basemen: Marlon Anderson NYM Ron Belliard LAD Jamey Carroll CLE David Eckstein SD Orlando Hudson LAD Felipe Lopez MIL Mark Loretta LAD Third Basemen: Adrian Beltre SEA Geoff Blum HOU Joe Crede MIN Mark DeRosa STL Pedro Feliz PHI Chone Figgins LAA Troy Glaus STL Jerry Hairston NYY Mike Lamb MIL Melvin Mora BAL Juan Uribe SF Shortstops: Orlando Cabrera MIN Juan Castro LAD Alex Cora NYM Khalil Greene STL Ramon Martinez LAD Miguel Tejada HOU Corner Out...
Post a Comment
Read more