NEW YORK – It's been 2 ½ months since the Braves gave Freddie Freeman an eight-year, $135 million contract, the largest in franchise history. If anyone questioned the wisdom of a team with payroll constraints signing a first-year-arbitration player to such a long and lucrative deal, chances are they haven't questioned it lately.
Freeman hasn’t merely picked up where he left off in his career-best 2013 season, he’s taken things to another level in the first few weeks of the new season. The first baseman hit his team-high fifth home run Friday against the Mets and entered Saturday batting .390 and leading the major leagues in both slugging percentage (.729) and OPS (1.200).
Angels superstar Mike Trout led the American League in both categories at .676 and 1.076 before Saturday.
Freeman’s .471 on-base percentage ranked second in the majors behind the Phillies’ Chase Utley (.484). And since going 0-for-4 on opening day at Milwaukee, Freeman was 23-for-55 (.418) with five doubles, five homers and 12 RBIs in his past 15 games, with a .500 OBP in that torrid stretch.
Hitting coach Greg Walker says Freeman is most low-maintenance hitter he’s worked with, because of a simple, short swing he’s honed since his days taking batting practice off his father at age 7. The left-handed-hitter has always focused on hitting the ball to the opposite field.
Freeman and Walker agree his no-fuss swing enables Freeman to avoid the extended slumps that affect so many other players, particularly young players. He has only three hitless games all season, and none consecutively.
“I have that base swing, going to left-center,” Freeman said. “I can get back to that quickly. Like (Friday), first couple of at-bats I felt like I was cutting everything off, and I was able to – once (reliever Gonzalez) Germen came in and he had that change-up, it made me think of, like, stay back and hit the ball up the middle. I think that locked me back in.
“And if you’ve got the base swing, it’s what Chipper (Jones) always says – and (hitting coaches Greg) Walker and (Scott) Fletcher always say – if you’ve got the base swing of going to left-center, you can always get back to that. And I think that’s the biggest key for me the last couple of years, is being able to make that adjustment in-game and if I do have an 0-for game I can get back to it. I might go 1-for-4, but as long as I can just keep those multiple 0-for’s down….
“I think having that base swing to left-center is definitely a big key.”
The Mets would probably be surprised to hear that Freeman ever has a bad series. In his past 39 games against the Mets before Saturday, he hit .340 (52-for-153) with 11 doubles, 12 homers, 40 RBIs and a .396 OBP.
