There’s a philosophical debate of sorts among some Braves hitters about home runs. The real-world implications are playing out during batting practices and games.
On one side is first baseman Freddie Freeman, the team leader with six home runs entering Friday. He said he believes it’s counterproductive to think about hitting home runs or work on doing so during batting practice.
“It’s hard enough to hit a round ball with a round bat,” Freeman said before the Braves opened a weekend series against the Phillies. “To say we’re going to go up there and hit home runs, I think that gets you out of whack. Some of the guys in this clubhouse think if you practice it, it might happen.”
At that moment, Freeman smiled and motioned at Jeff Francoeur as the outfielder walked by in the clubhouse. Francoeur and Kelly Johnson each had power surges during the four-game series in Pittsburgh this week after they focused on hitting the ball with power during batting practice.
Francoeur ended a streak of 77 at-bats without a home run this season when he homered against Pirates lefty Jon Niese on Monday, and then he hit another one against lefty Jeff Locke on Thursday. Johnson hadn’t homered in 73 at-bats when he went deep against lefty Cory Luebke on Monday.
Was it cause (trying to homer in batting practice) and effect (actually homering in games) for Francoeur and Johnson?
“I don’t know that it’s that,” Francoeur said. “There hasn’t been much pull home runs and all of that. But I think we’ve taken the approach of driving the ball during ‘BP’ and working on the backspin and really try to hit it out to center field a lot.”
Francoeur’s and Johnson’s homers helped the power-deficient Braves produce their best period of home-run hitting this season. The Braves hit as many home runs (six) in the four-game series at Pittsburgh as they’ve hit all season in 19 games (647 at-bats) at Turner Field. Outfielder Mallex Smith hit two home runs Tuesday, and catcher Tyler Flowers hit one on Wednesday.
While Freeman said trying to hit home runs doesn’t work for him, he does believe the Braves have benefited from a different approach.
“I think we’ve been turning it a little loose in batting practice and getting more free and easy instead of just hitting a little line drive to left field or right field,” Freeman said. “I think you can just free up your swing a little bit, but I don’t think you can just try to hit a home run because it doesn’t work for me. If I try to hit a home run, I’m going to swing and miss, ground out. But if I just try to hit the ball hard up the middle that’s when you create the backspin, and it can go out if you catch it.”
Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said that with the offense struggling, it’s possible for hitters to try too hard to hit home runs. He said usually when players hit home runs they report their swings as a “perfect, effortless thing.”
“When you are struggling to win games and struggling to score runs, everybody wants to be the guy to get you off the mat,” Snitker said. “It becomes counterproductive to try harder instead of just relaxing and letting it flow. One guy gets it, relaxes the next guy and all of a sudden you’ve got a (home run) streak going.”
The Braves left Pittsburgh with 15 home runs on the season, fewest among the 30 major league teams and well behind the Phillies (31). The Braves ranked last in runs scored despite ranking somewhat better in batting average (tied for 22nd) and on-base percentage (27th).
Francoeur said the Braves are capable of powering up.
“Driving the ball, I think that’s the key, especially in this day and age with how good pitching is,” Francoeur said. “I think you’ve seen, we go out and get 10 hits, but if they are eight singles it’s tough to win a ballgame. I think you saw some power from us in Pittsburgh, and hopefully that will continue. If we do that I think you’ll see us win a lot more games than we have.”
