Jeff Francoeur Update
In the excitement of certain life events, I woke up today and realized that I had done the unthinkable. I had forgotten to write up the final Jeff Francoeur update, which has become a monthly item on this blog. For those expecting something exciting and thought-provoking, turn away now because Francoeur did what he has done for the whole season and for most of his career. Basically, he sucked as for the umpteenth month he hit worse than he had the previous month. During the month of September and one game in October, Francoeur batted .245 BA/.297 OBP/.427 SLG after hitting .266 BA/.322 OBP/.459 SLG in August. Francoeur finished the season with a line of .260 BA/.293 OBP/.449 SLG, embarrassingly low batting totals for a corner outfielder.
To further drive home the final nail into the coffin that is Francoeur's mediocrity, Francoeur was last among qualifying right fielders in batting average, last in on-base percentage, and to his credit he was 11th out of 19 right fielders in slugging percentage. With his hits and walks coming so few and far between, his slugging percentage really was not as valuable to the Braves as it could have been, but that is the price a team pays for having Francoeur on the team. Every now and then, he will come up with a big hit, but at the end of the season, his highest value will have been as an out-maker.
Unfortunately for the Braves and shame on Bobby Cox for letting this happen, but Francoeur has the second-highest number of at-bats for right fielders and the eighth-highest number overall so not only was his mind-numbingly bad during the season, but he was still allowed to use up too many of the Braves' plate appearances. It is one thing to have a below-average player; there are plenty of those in the major leagues. However, to allow this player to play, one who contributed -14.1 runs below an average right fielder, is both unforgivable and a case of piss-poor management. There does not seem to be any reason why the Braves would continue to stick Francoeur out in right field so there may not be many Francoeur updates next season unless the Braves have stopped caring about fielding good regular-season teams.
To further drive home the final nail into the coffin that is Francoeur's mediocrity, Francoeur was last among qualifying right fielders in batting average, last in on-base percentage, and to his credit he was 11th out of 19 right fielders in slugging percentage. With his hits and walks coming so few and far between, his slugging percentage really was not as valuable to the Braves as it could have been, but that is the price a team pays for having Francoeur on the team. Every now and then, he will come up with a big hit, but at the end of the season, his highest value will have been as an out-maker.
Unfortunately for the Braves and shame on Bobby Cox for letting this happen, but Francoeur has the second-highest number of at-bats for right fielders and the eighth-highest number overall so not only was his mind-numbingly bad during the season, but he was still allowed to use up too many of the Braves' plate appearances. It is one thing to have a below-average player; there are plenty of those in the major leagues. However, to allow this player to play, one who contributed -14.1 runs below an average right fielder, is both unforgivable and a case of piss-poor management. There does not seem to be any reason why the Braves would continue to stick Francoeur out in right field so there may not be many Francoeur updates next season unless the Braves have stopped caring about fielding good regular-season teams.
posted by David at
4:37 PM
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