More on Jeff Francoeur
Kenny Doyle put together a nice analysis of the reasons for Jeff Francoeur’s struggles this year at Dugout Central. Unfortunately, his conclusion for how to deal with the problem is essentially grin and bear it until Frenchy figures it out.
While Josh Anderson or Brandon Jones probably wouldn’t do better than Francoeur over the course of 162, they’ve both doing significantly better than Francoeur over the course of the half-dozen or so games they’ve been allowed to play. Sitting Frenchy for a few days, letting him work with Terry Pendleton on his swing, getting out of the public eye, might help break the vicious cycle of frustration that these bad at-bats are causing. Obviously, just stringing together more bad at bats is not doing the job.
Also, remember that a more disciplined approach helped him last year. Though his power numbers dropped off, his batting average put on 30 points. Coming in to this season with some additional muscle and his approach from last year should have primed Francoeur for an even bigger season this year.
Rather than dropping him in the order, another option that might help Francoeur this year would be to move him to the two hole. He’s hitting .230 with runners in scoring position and .105 with the bases loaded. So moving him to a slot in the order where we’re not so dependent on him to drive in runs would have the benefit of taking the pressure off of him while also giving someone who’s a little bit more clutch this year the opportunity to drive in some runs in key situations. After all, it’s not the .250 batting average that’s killing us, it’s the bases loaded double plays.
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