Great Moments in Jeff Francouer History
From the AJC’s story about how the Braves shuffling their lineup worked wonders last night:
Every batter in the lineup recorded a hit except Jeff Francoeur, including pitcher Jair Jurrjens. And Francoeur got breaks, if not hits. His potential double-play groundball in the second inning drew an error that opened the door to a three-run outburst.
I started to laugh until I realized that, yes, the Rockies’ error that prevented Francoeur from hitting into the DP is truly his best moment in a couple of weeks. And then I cried.
When he was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning, the general reaction was “Good, that’s the only way he can help the team, lean into a few more.” That can’t be a good thing.
Craig – You are aware that “moments” is plural, right?
DREW an error? Since when does the batter have any agency in the commission of errors? I was under the impression that the very nature of an error is that it represents a failure on the part of the fielder, not a success on the part of the batter. “Oh but Frenchy deserves credit for putting the bat on the ball,” an old-school baseball-type might reply, “The key is getting the ball in play in that kind of situation.” Course the response to that is, knowing Francoeur, the ball was probably at his feet or eyes or something. But I guess Jeff thinks errors matter way more than OBP, since, you know, errors are recorded on the scoreboard, righ?
Let me add to your pain and remind of you the Grienke for Franceour trade rumors that were around already.
Yep, Dayton Moore, screwing two franchises at the same time.
The Grienke-Francoeur rumors were all smoke, I don’t even think the two clubs seriously talked.
At this point Francoeur has negative trade value, and the best option would be to bring up Brandon Jones from AAA and go with a strict platoon, both have massive platoon splits so far this year. If Francoeur quits hitting lefties, then just cut him. Either way, he should be non-tendered this year. Unfortunately, knowing the Braves if he hits the emptiest .260 BA in the world, he’ll probably get a raise. Because like Jeff sez, “if OBP were important they’d show it on the scoreboard.”
Jeff Sez would be a good name for a “sabermetric” themed Braves blog. You know, it would be kinda ironic and whatnot. You know how blogs love irony. And snark, I hear good things about snark.
Agreed. Sons of Sam Horn has quite the literary audience, whereas Sam’s grasp of English may be the only thing worse than his idea of the strike zone.
Craig I thought I would pass this link along to you… I think it applies pretty well to this topic. I am definitely going to buy one of these shirts.
http://www.talkingchop.com/2009/5/20/880192/t-shirt-contest-prize-chipper