|
Gotta go with the whole thing:
[url]http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=node/724
The full Francoeur: A sabermetric tale from Royals Fanfest
The 27-year-old baseball player in the jeans and cowboy boots had heard this question before.
Jeff Francoeur has spent his career answering it, each time trying to find a new and more optimistic way to explain himself.
The questions started when he was a 21-year-old homegrown prodigy in Atlanta. And they followed him to New York, when he was a 25-year-old trying to get his career back on track. And they followed him to Texas last season, when he was a platoon outfielder for the American League champion.
Hey Jeff, your on-base percentage is hovering right around .300 — is that a concern?
Hey Jeff, are you working on your approach at all, trying to be more selective?
In the simplest terms: Hey Jeff, why don’t you walk?
When Francoeur — and his .310 career on-base percentage — sat down in front of the Kansas City media for the first time last month, the question came flying in within minutes.
“I’ve never heard that one before,” Francoeur said with a smile.
It’s a tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. Francoeur and OBP.
So when Francoeur sat down in front of a collection of Royals fan bloggers on Thursday — as part of the Royals’ inaugural Digital Digest at FanFest in Overland Park — he had to know the question was coming. Of course, Francoeur didn’t know they were bloggers — at least, not until he found his seat at the Overland Park Convention Center.
He knew he was at Fanfest, and that he would be answering questions about his new baseball home, and interacting with fans, and doing all the things baseball players do at these sort of events.
So Francoeur sat down, the bloggers looked down at their notes, and then focused in on one of the poster childs for what so many have deemed illogical baseball thought: the idea that an offense can be productive with a lineup full of guys who lack the basic ability to get on base — or, to put it another way, a lineup of guys that have the innate ability to make outs.
And, of course, the question came out:
Jeff, you swing at a lot of pitches outside the strike zone. Is that part of your approach, or something you’re trying to improve on?
“You know, it’s funny,” Francoeur said, almost reflexively “…I’m sure like anything I get knocked on blogs. I’m well aware — you know, I would be lying if I didn’t say that’s something that I obvious want to work on. And it’s something I want to improve on.
"You know, I just turned 27 last week. You see a lot of guys these days, from Jayson Werth — guys that figure it out when they’re 29 years old.”
Francoeur kept going, jumping from thought to thought, trying to find a way to explain what it’s like to know exactly what your weakness is — and then trying to find a way to correct it.
He’d worked out with Royals hitting coach Kevin Seitzer that morning. They talked about staying up the middle; about maintaining power while working on a sounder approach.
“I’m not a prideful person,” Francoeur said. “I know the things I need to work on. I know my weaknesses. And that’s something that obviously I want to work on.
"I also do know that if I can get back to doing the things I was capable of — (where) I’m a threat in the middle of the lineup and I can drive in a bunch of guys and hit home runs…
“So for me, it’s trying to find that comfort zone; not so much with walks but getting in better hitter’s counts...
“If that includes more walks as the year goes on, I would love that. That’s great. But at the same time, I think I’ll always be an aggressive hitter, but I think there’s a way that I can be a better aggressive hitter.”
This session went on for a few more minutes.
He’s in Kansas City now. And he knows he'll be asked to be a leader. He’s only 27, but he’ll be one of the senior members on one of the youngest teams in Royals history.
He talked about taking third base prospect Mike Moustakas out to dinner; about talking baseball, talking life — the sort of things Francoeur says Chipper Jones and John Smoltz used to do for him.
He talked about being motivated to prove people wrong; about hitting at Kauffman Stadium — a park where homers go to die in the power alleys — and his belief that he can live up to the promise that Royals general manager Dayton Moore saw when he sat in the Francoeur household in suburban Atlanta almost a decade ago.
“Well, if you’ve seen New York, [Citi Field] is the biggest field in baseball — Citi Field is a damn joke,” Francoeur said, a complaint that sounded like a person incredulously complaining about paying $12 bucks for a cinnamon roll at the airport. “I hit a ball off Livan Hernandez 415 feet last year to right-center and it hit the wall… that’s pretty frustrating.”
“…If I get back to trying to drive the ball up the middle, doing that — you hit gaps and you hit home runs — I don’t see there’s any reason I’m not a 20-homer, 40 double guy.” |
Oh, Frenchy!
|
