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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > June > 27
Friday, June 27, 2008
No need to panic about Francoeur
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are too many voices dancing inside of Jeff Francoeur’s mind. Some tell him this about hitting. Others tell him that. Later, when the Braves right fielder strolls to home plate, he is thinking so much about things other than the guy standing on the pitcher’s mound that his ears are threatening to explode from his head.
Who’s to blame?
Jeff Francoeur.
Just because folks are talking, you don’t have to listen. And who cares if those folks are your hitting coach with a batting title on his résumé, your future Hall of Fame manager, your teammate with more switch-hit home runs than anybody but Mickey Mantle or Eddie Murray, your prominent high school baseball coach, and your father?
Enough is enough, and Francoeur said as much. Finally.
“The hardest thing for me, especially when you’re young and you’re going through a slump, is knowing who to listen to and who not to listen to,” said Francoeur, referring to the formidable likes of Terry Pendleton, Bobby Cox and Chipper Jones, along with former Parkview High baseball coach Hugh Buchanan and Francoeur’s father, David.
Do the toe tap. No, don’t do it, and place your hands higher. Spread your stance.
If you add those bits and pieces from Francoeur’s growing number of advisers to his habit of studying and copying the mannerisms of successful hitters from the past and the present, well, you’ve got a mess. Francoeur chuckled, while shaking his head and adding, “These are credible people, and they’re telling you something, but, you know, they might contradict each other a little bit. There are different styles and stuff, so the biggest thing is to listen to everybody, take what you want and let the other go in one ear and out the other.”
That is, if Francoeur’s ears aren’t still flying around somewhere after that explosion of voices.
It sounds like Francoeur finally gets it, which means neither the Braves nor their worried followers should panic over Francoeur spending much of his third full season in the majors as clueless after entering a batter’s box. Before the Braves played Friday night in Toronto, their former cover boy for Sports Illustrated was a candidate for the cover of Psychology Today. He had a .248 batting average, eight home runs, 41 RBIs and ghastly results with runners in scoring position.
Francoeur is just 24, though, and remember: He showed his ability to rip for power in his first full season (29 home runs). Then he showed his ability to swing for average last season (.293). He is doing neither now, but his days as a complete hitter are in the near future. That’s because he is learning selective hearing.
It took awhile. “It got to a point where I was changing something every day,” said Francoeur, who also had another problem until recently: He couldn’t rest. “I’ll wake up one morning, and I’ll start thinking about hitting right away. You can’t do that. I’ll get home and start watching ESPN, and a guy is getting a couple of hits, and I’ll be like, ‘What if I put my hands up there like he does?’ You over-analyze everything, and as an aggressive hitter, I’ve never been a guy who has done that.”
So, Jeff, guess what?
Don’t do that.
Just become Jeff Francoeur. “Just see it and hit,” he said, nodding.
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