Jeff Francoeur Update

Another month has passed and little has changed in the slightly-above-replacement level career of one Jeffrey Braden Francoeur as he followed up a good July with a poor August. He will continue to be inconsistent for as long as his career lasts because he has yet to show any desire to have plate discipline and swing only at pitches he can drive. Of the 170 qualified hitters, only five hitters see less pitches per plate appearance than Francoeur. Of those five, only Placido Polanco is a worse hitter, but Polanco is a middle infielder, not a corner outfielder so he can get away without producing much at the plate.

I could write about the other failings of Francoeur, however, today I am going to be positive about his career and talk about his clutchiness. You can read more about clutchiness here and here.

Given the hitting numbers Francoeur has put up, he could be expected to add -0.71 OPS wins, but in reality he has added a win probability of .82 in situations with a leverage index of 1.1. Multiplying the win probability added to the leverage index and then subtracting the OPS wins gives Francoeur a clutchiness of 1.61 so his hits have come in big spots. It is too bad they are so infrequent.