Jeff Francoeur has been a pleasant addition to the NY Mets. In numerous articles, I have read that he has a football mentality, and despite initial reports that he didn’t want to play for the Mets, he admits he welcomed the trade. He felt he needed a change in scenery: "It's been good to get out of Atlanta, get to a new place and get going. I'm just glad to be here. It's a great opportunity to come up to a big city, to a team that's expected to win. I know it's a little tough right now, but I'm sure there are brighter days ahead."
Francoeur has had a resurgence since joining the Mets. He credits not only hitting coach Howard Johnson, but also teammates David Wright and Gary Sheffield. He said Sheffield helped him make an adjustment with his grip on the bat - to use his top hand more. In Atlanta, Francoeur said he used to seek out both Chipper Jones and Brian McCann, but McCann is a lefty hitter, and Jones primarily bats left-handed. He has found that being able to talk to fellow righties Wright and Sheffield has paid dividends. When speaking of the HR he hit off Jon Garland yesterday, Francoeur said, "It's helped. That slider, I was able to get the foot down and put a good swing on it. Those are things I wasn't doing a couple weeks ago.”
Francoeur also had the opportunity to show off his cannon right arm yesterday. On a single to RF with a runner on 2B, Francoeur charged the ball, and unleashed his Howitzer, throwing a bullet to homeplate, holding the runner at third. The crowd went wild. A nice little calling card.
In a season filled with injuries, poor play, and plummeting placement in the standings, Jeff Francoeur has been that beacon of light in the fog of this 2009 season.
Sources: Brian Lewis - NY Post, Peter Botte - NY Daily News,
Jenny Vrentas - The Star-Ledger
2 comments:
When he was with the Braves Francoeur was one of my favorites. However it was obvious that something had to be done to get him hitting again or his career would be in jepardy. I am glad to see him doing well for the Mets.
aboutsportsandlife.blogspot.com
The early returns on Church-for-Frenchy looks like a win for Omar. I honestly hope Church, at .229, 1hr in only 36 at-bats, gets it going and has success in his career(preferably somewhere other than the NL East). But, Francoeur is tearing the cover off the ball right now and is making Omar look like he just might know what he's doing. Wasn't everybody complaining in spring training that they wanted a power-hitting right-handed corner outfielder?
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