AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 16
Monday, April 16, 2007
Has there ever been a windout?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings from Washington, where I’m wondering if there’s such a thing as a windout. Remnants of the nor-easter that hit the Northeast yesterday has winds gusting here at about 40 mph, at least according to my airline pilot.
(And that was nothing compared to the 70 mph gusts that had us sitting on the runway in Raleigh-Durham for an extra hour waiting for a 15-second window to take off. Just here from my college reunion. Not saying which one. Year, that is.)
No rain so far here, so maybe they’ll play. Just wouldn’t want to try to catch a pop-up tonight…or a flyball…for that matter.
So I guess the cold and windy conditions follow the Braves, who seem to be playing well in spite of it….
Upon seeing Jeff Francoeur’s bases loaded walk yesterday, it reminded me how many times already I’ve heard him say these first couple weeks: “This time last year I was 2 for 20-this or 2 for 20-that.” And he was right on. Through his first nine games last year (the Braves just played their 11th game Sunday) he had started 2 for his first 36 last year.
Eleven games into his season last year Francoeur was hitting .208 (10-for-48), and that was after he’d finally begun digging his way out of that hole. His on-base percentage this time last year? .220.
By comparison, through 11 games this year, entering this two-game series against the Nationals, Francoeur was hitting .268 (11 for 41) with a .333 on-base percentage. The walk he took Sunday against the Marlins was his third of the year. He didn’t take his third walk last year until May 26.
He’s still swinging at a lot of first pitches. He still strikes out a lot (10 strikeouts this year. He had 11 strikeouts at this point last year.) But he has begun to discover right field. And he’s taking a weekly walk. He’s making progress.
Part of the problem last year was how few at-bats he got while participating in the World Baseball Classic during spring training. Francoeur didn’t want to blame his early-season problems on that - he calls playing in the WBC one of the highlights of his life and a very proud moment. But it’s pretty clear how well seeing a few more pitches this spring (68 at-bats) is serving him.
Tidbits from the notes group the AJC is a part of (we exchange baseball beat stuff with hacks from papers from all 29 other MLB cities). This is from Larry Stone, who covers the Seattle Mariners for the Seattle Times.
“I’ve got to share with you my candidate for Quote of the Year. It comes from Ichiro, as translated by Seattle Times correspondent Brad Lefton, who speaks Japanese and does a lot of freelance pieces for us on Japanese players.
Unlike the watered down quotes via Ichiro’s interpreter, Lefton always seems to come up with lively stuff. It helps when you’re doing your own translation, I guess. Anyway, without further ado, here’s Ichiro talking, prior to Wednesday’s game, about the anticipation of facing (Daisuke) Matsuzaka for the first time since 2000:
‘I hope he arouses the fire that’s dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.’”
And this from Phil Rogers (no relation, though I call him a cuz) of the Chicago Trib, about Atlanta’s own Michael Barrett, the Cubs catcher who went to Pace Academy, on his way home to Chicago from a trip to Milwaukee.
“Barrett stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kenosha, Wisc. After diners recognized him, he wound up picking up the checks of everyone in the joint. He said he asked himself, ‘What would Jody Davis do?’”
Davis was a fan-favorite catcher for the Cubs.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
