Jeff Francoeur lost a lot of weight. While I don’t think being bulky was his problem, I’m glad to see he’s once again working to improve his game:
“It’s hard to think you need to change when stuff is going good. (The bad) hit me so fast, I went from one extreme and not listening to anybody to listening to everybody. Then I’ve got 15 things running through my head, and I’m so (messed) up I’m completely lost.”
So now Francoeur is keeping it simple. He listens only to a favorite coach from his minor-league days, Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, and Hall of Famer George Brett. They talk about minor adjustments, nothing huge, and about being smarter in at-bats to push his walks to maybe 50 in a full season.
He is humbled, searching for answers and desperate to improve while most of the baseball industry watches with skepticism, and, well, doesn’t this sound an awful lot like the team he’s now playing for?
Fifty walks from Francoeur would be fantastic. Let’s take 2009 as an example, since he played a full season. Jeff walked 23 times that year, so we’re talking about adding 27 walks, so his at bats would drop to 566. That would give him 158 hits to keep his batting average about .280, but his OBP would rise from .309 to .339. Instead of being an out machine, Francoeur would be a bit above average in getting on base.
The boost might even be higher, as better plate discipline means he might lose fewer hits, as making contact outside the strike zone doesn’t usually lead to good results. Will it happen? I doubt it, bad habits are tough to break. Sammy Sosa pulled it off, but he was a rare exception.
Hat tip, BBTF.