Jeff Francoeur produced another 0-fer, and now has a slash line of .230/.295/.393. He’s like that friendly obese friend who has spent a lifetime eating fast food, then goes on a two week crash diet in an attempt to change his ways. Everyone around him is excited and supportive, happy that the all-around good guy is getting his act together. Then one day you drive by Wendy’s, see him sitting in the front window with three Baconators and realize it’s just not meant to be. Yes, Frenchy has loads of potential but after 3,000+ plate appearances actual results are expected.
– James Kannengieser, Amazin’ Avenue.
In May, Frenchy has a .296 OPS. Not OBP, OPS. Tiny sample and all, but that’s abysmal.
Yes, Francoeur was good for the last few months of the 2009 season and excellent for the first couple weeks of 2010. But every day it looks more and more like that success was the exception and the rest is the rule.
After all, the Frenchman’s .230/.295/.393 line is awfully similar to the .239/.294/.359 mark he posted in 2008 and not terribly off the .250/.282/.352 pace he maintained with the Braves in 2009 before the trade. The May stats represent a small sample. The bulk of his career does not.
Like James suggests, it doesn’t make him a bad guy or a bad teammate, it just makes him a bad person to count on for production out of a corner outfield spot.
Judging by the eye and the stats, he’s been good in right field, but not good enough to compensate for his complete lack of offensive production. At some point soon, Chris Carter should see some starts against right-handed pitchers. And again, that’s not to call Carter a savior. It’s just to assume he can at the least be something better than an offensive black hole.
Why get on Francoeur and give Jose Reyes a pass? Pretty simple, really: Besides the fact that Reyes competently fields a defensive position, there’s no overwhelming evidence to suggest Reyes is anything like this bad of a hitter.
He has posted OBPs around .355 with some power in every season since 2006, and smart money says Reyes returns to at least that level — if not better — when he finds his stroke. He missed most of last season and a big chunk of Spring Training. Unless he’s injured again, Reyes is likely still sorting things out. And Jerry Manuel’s not doing Reyes any favors when he forces his new third hitter to give up strikes.
Tedquarters 
Just can’t afford Jerry’s blunders with all of these close games. Reyes has proven that he is not good at sacrificing, yet he asks him to do it two games in a row. A groundball to the right side or a deep flyball to right field gets the same result as a bunt, and a basehit wins the game. With Reyes batting lefty, there was no reason to give up the out there. And he should have walked Uggla to face Carroll and create a force at every base.
Totally disagree on walking Uggla due to Nieve’s control problems.
Fair point, but the control problems should also have been part of the equation (as we saw) in deciding to have Nieve pitch around Uggla with breaking pitches. I’d prefer to make the crappier player beat us there, even if it means you are throwing just fastballs to avoid a bases loaded walk.
But I digressed. Frenchy sucks. We all knew that last year, and we all still suspected that this year. Fun guy to root for and he’s got a great arm, but he’s nothing more than an out-machine at the plate. Hopefully, Pagan can stay healthy, and Beltran can slide over to right to help his knees.
This will be really interesting to watch.
The beat writers have a near-obscene level of love for this guy — led by Kevin “That’s my stance” Burkhardt. There still hasn’t been a single article in the MSM about how horrible he’s been for more than a month.
Francouer’s going to have to be epically bad for the rest of the year for the Mets not to get killed for letting him go in the offseason. And he has been epically bad for a month now.
But I can still picture Burkhardt chaining himself to a Mets locker in protest of his buddy’s departure.
Is F-Mart! ready for the big time? Is there another hitter out there who can…well…hit? Is Animal ready for a full time RF gig? Can Murphy come back and play RF?
At the very least, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Frenchy/Animal platoon in RF. Might as well try and create one solid RFer instead of pretending that Frenchy alone is the answer.
I realize Francoeur has looked pretty bad for the past couple of weeks, but can’t you give him at least one chance to slump on the Mets? As you pointed out, he was really good through the end of the season after getting traded to New York, and he was great the first few weeks of the season. Three months worth of at bats is not an aberration, either.
Also, everyone keeps saying that this slump started with that 20 inning game against the Cardinals. Not the case. I just looked it up. He got 7 hits, including 4 for extra bases, and drove in 5 runs during that big home winning streak. He was no longer on fire, but he didn’t look anything like awful.
I’m not making excuses for the guy, but I think this slump really got going after that game in Philly when he got plunked on the elbow. I mean, it hasn’t kept him out of the lineup, but a bruise like that, right over a joint?
Just saying, he leads the National League in outfield assists, he’s third on the Mets with 19 RBI, which is great for the seven or eight hole, where he’ll probably be all year, and he seems to have turned around the mood in the clubhouse. At least give him a shot at turning it around offensively before you dis the guy and say he’s done.
I think Frenchy is playing hurt. In the last two games in Florida I notices his elbow had a brace on it whereas before with the long sleeves from the cold weather no one knew and he merely wore an elbow armor pad for a few at bats.
What I’m surprised you aren’t picking up on is that he’s striking out not being able to catch up to fastballs which for his career makes no sense. He’s striking out on high fastballs which is his bread and butter.
This leads me to believe he’s playing hurt and his swing is suffering. Your left elbow is essential to bat speed which looks much slower compared to before he was hit (twice) in the elbow.
It doesn’t make sense with the way he was hitting the second half of last year, but it does make sense with his 2008 season. He’s a good fastball hitter when he knows a fastball is coming, but I have heard him admit during this slump that he’s guessing too much. It certainly could be a physical/mechanical problem, but it could just as easily be the same pitch-recognition issue that’s plagued him for most of his career.