Francoeur Shows Off New Batting Stance with Home Run
Apr. 6, 2009
By Paul White
USA Today
It sounded like an Oscars-night acceptance speech.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur rattled through the names as he was about to run out of time: Texas Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, Braves hitting coach Terry Pendleton, teammates Chipper Jones and Brian McCann, former Brave Mark DeRosa.
It was vintage high-energy Francoeur, but the 25-year-old insists he's a changed man. A home run on the first pitch he saw this season — in the second inning of Atlanta's season-opening 4-1 victory at Philadelphia — certainly provided some instant validation for the player who clearly is his team's nominee for most important player.
"He's a huge key for us," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We're predominantly left-handed. We need that right-handed bat badly."
Francoeur's other three at-bats — a lineout, a groundout and a strikeout — were as encouraging to him as the home run off Brett Myers, one of three the Braves hit in the first two innings to account for all their runs.
"I wanted to work some counts, get some good at-bats," Francoeur said.
He saw 14 pitches in his three plate at-bats after the home run. That's a pace that would lead the league most years in pitches per plate appearance. Remember, this is the guy who averaged 3.49 pitches per plate appearance last season. Only four of the 72 NL players with 502 or more plate apperances were in and out of the batter's box more quickly than Francoeur. This is the guy who needed 34 games to get his first major league walk back after a July 2005 call-up, who has 204 walks and 694 strikeouts in six pro seasons.
But he still drove in more than 100 runs in both '06 and '07 despite the free swinging.
"Frenchy's swinging so much better," Cox said. "It's there. He just got in a funk (last year) and couldn't get out of it. His first two years, he drove in 100 runs with the same swing."
But Francoeur realized pitchers had figured him out, were capitalizing on his aggressiveness so much that not only did his batting average drop 54 points from 2007 to 2008 but his on-base plus slugging plummeted from .782 to .653.
Escaping that funk was Francoeur's mission from the time he and Jones talked in Houston during the final series of the Braves' dismal 72-90 2008 season.
"I don't want to be known as a guy who just drives in runs," Francoeur said. "I want to be one who scores 100, drives in 100. Chipper told me some combination of 200."
Jones has hit the 200 combo eight times in the past 13 seasons. Francoeur's best total was 189 (105 RBI, 84 runs) in 2007.
"I've worked my butt off since Nov. 10," Francoeur said.
That was the day he went to Jaramillo.
"I took seven swings off the tee," Francoeur recalls. "Then he said, 'We've got to get rid of your high school metal-bat swing."
Francoeur needed to open up his stance so he could better recognize pitches. He finally understood that, while his internal motor runs non-stop, patience is a virtue at the plate.
He spent three days with Jaramillo in November, three more in February. In between, he worked with Pendleton, spent so much time in batting cages with Jones, McCann and DeRosa that he's now confident, "if I get out of line, (Jones and McCann) will yell at me."
No yelling so far, though Jones like accuse Francoeur of still being an overgrown kid.
"I knew you were talking about me when you said, '8-year-old,' " Francoeur said to Jones after Sunday's game.
They both laughed — because they could.
"That was a big swing of the bat," Jones said of Francoeur's home run. "He's ready to atone for some of those spots he failed in last year. This game's not a lot of fun when you stink at it."
