Has Francoeur learned his lesson?

Originally published on Feb. 19, 2009

Maybe Jeff Francoeur is smarter than some folks give him credit for being. He walked up to the line but didn’t actually cross it, avoiding arbitration with the Braves by agreeing to meet them halfway the night before his hearing was scheduled.

In canceling his flight to Phoenix, he gets to make $3.375 million this year and doesn’t have to sit through a laundry list of everything that went wrong for him last year, which was just about everything. Considering how fragile his ego appears to be, that’s a very good thing for the young right fielder.

Unfortunately, avoiding the hearing doesn’t erase the memory of last year, when he hit only .239, left men in scoring position in seemingly every at-bat and was sent to the minors for a forgettable Fourth of July weekend. He didn’t handle any of those things well and, in the process, lost his “golden boy” status with the fans — and possibly with the club.

There’s a “Braves way,” and Francoeur has yet to show that he’s mature enough to embrace it. There’s hope this decision signals a change in that and that he’ll bounce back from a tough year with a new swing and a new attitude. After all, there’s never been any question about his talent, only about his head and his perspective.

The one thing that would help Frenchy the most is to stop focusing on himself and pay some attention to the people who are trying to help him. He needs to come to terms with the fact that his physical ability will only get him so far and he can learn a lot from Chipper Jones, Terry Pendleton and his old buddy Brian McCann.

If he can put last year behind him and grow up enough to realize he doesn’t know it all, the hits — and the fans — will come back.

For the record, I was never all that excited about the idea of Ken Griffey Jr. as a Brave, so his about-face doesn’t really bother me. Although I do think someone should take the “Kick Me” sign off Frank Wren’s back — and soon.