Why Jason Heyward (baseball) isn’t Jeff Francoeur (football)
Jason Heyward rounds third after his Opening Day homer. (AJC photo by Phil Skinner)
Both were first-round draft picks from the Atlanta suburbs, both right fielders. Both hit home runs in their first big-league games, each against the Cubs. Both were given the Sports Illustrated treatment in the early days of their rookie seasons. But if you ask in the Braves’ clubhouse about further similarities between Jeff Francoeur and Jason Heyward, you won’t find many.
What you’ll hear instead is an admission of a key difference: That one was a football player, while the other is a baseball player.
The intent isn’t to belittle Francoeur, who had three good-to-excellent seasons as a Brave. He hit .300 as a rookie in 2005 and drove in more than 100 runs in 2006 and 2007. But when his early blush of success faded, it spawned a full-blown backlash fueled by a fundamental flaw: Francoeur swung at everything, and when in doubt he swung harder.
That was the football player in him. (Again, we must stipulate: Francoeur was a great high school football player.) A football player believes nothing can’t be fixed by sheer effort. It’s one of the reasons that oft-cited criticism of the Braves in postseason — that they weren’t “emotional enough” — was such a canard. Untrammeled emotion in baseball doesn’t make you Joe DiMaggio; it makes you an easy out.
Baseball is a game of skill and precision, not strength and mass. It’s noteworthy that Heyward, who grew up in a football state, never played the sport. (According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, Heyward’s dad wouldn’t let him.) And here we come to the fundamental difference between the two: Francoeur, who’s a bright guy, always seemed to fall back on raw talent no matter how many coaches he consulted, while Heyward has fused a happier amalgam of ability and analysis.
Jeff Francoeur belts his debut homer. (AP photo)
I saw Francoeur in a playoff doubleheader at Parkview High. He swung at the first pitch five times. He went 1-for-7, the hit being a home run. We contrast this with Heyward, who while playing for Henry County High often left scouts disappointed because he walked too much. In his SI story, Tom Verducci quotes an unnamed Cleveland official — the Indians owned the 13th pick in the 2007 draft, one ahead of the Braves — as saying, “We didn’t see him swing the bat enough to feel comfortable taking him that high.”
It took Francoeur 128 big-league plate appearances to draw a walk; it took Heyward 16. In 70 games as a rookie, Francoeur walked 11 times; in 40 games, Heyward has walked 25 times. One was all exuberance (sometimes irrational); the other is patience personified.
As John Perrotto noted in Baseball Prospectus, when Heyward hit .103 over from Games 11 through 20 the Braves advised him “to be more aggressive early in the count and consider swinging at more first pitches.“ This from the same voices — Bobby Cox and Terry Pendleton — who could never convince Francoeur not to swing so early and so often.
Which only goes to show: A manager or a coach can talk until the cows come home, but it’s difficult for a player to change who he is. Yogi Berra swung at lousy pitches but was good enough to hit them. Ted Williams never had a 200-hit season — Ichiro Suzuki has never not had a 200-hit season — because he refused to swing at anything that wasn’t a strike. (Rule No. 1 in Williams’ “The Science of Hitting”: “Get a good pitch to hit.”)
What worked for Francoeur worked well enough for Sports Illustrated to dub him “The Natural,” but then it stopped working. He’s hitting .219 for the Mets, and his on-base percentage is a lamentable .278. As the ballpark bromide goes: Talent can get you to the majors, but talent alone won’t keep you there. You have to keep adjusting, keep thinking.
As well as Heyward plays the game, he thinks it even better. Last month he walked by Pendleton en route to the batting cage, and the hitting coach asked if, seeing as how Colorado lefthander was that day’s starter, Heyward would like a lefthander to throw to him. “No,” he said. “The last time I hit against a lefty [in BP], I went 0-for-3.”
Five hours later, Jason Heyward came to bat with two out in the ninth inning. He took the first four pitches. Then he won the game with an opposite-field single. Jeff Francoeur might well have won the same game — he had some big hits, let’s remember — but he wouldn’t have won it the same way.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
217 comments Add your comment
Bill Robinson
May 26th, 2010
3:38 pm
Good piece, Mark!
ghost of claudell
May 26th, 2010
3:41 pm
Fur Man Bisher. What an ignorant statement. I’ll bet the confederate flag on your front porch that if Heyward was sent to the minors and pouted, whined and cried about it to the press and complained about the entire organization, guys like you would have crucified him as mercurial, lazy and self-serving. Hell, French even floated his own trade rumors to Boston! They only way he could see the field in Boston is if he changed the scoreboard placards on the Green Monster.
Fans like you need to remember that Chipper has publicly mentioned his work ethic, class and team oriented play over the old style that left town when French can’t hit a Lick left town. As for football, gimme a break. Heyward’s a better athlete than French. French looks like he’s running with two left cleats on through knee deep mud.
Dr Richard Handler
May 26th, 2010
3:42 pm
To those who want Jeff to try football. Remember, he is a defensive back or wide receiver prospect. Likely wide receiver because on defense one must welcome and enjoy contact. Jeff does neither.
Paul Hewitt
May 26th, 2010
3:45 pm
There you go again Mark– It’s not Jeff’’s fault.
Jeff can’t hit because of reporters like you writing articles like this.
J
May 26th, 2010
3:46 pm
That’s why Jason is my man crush
the cox man
May 26th, 2010
3:58 pm
Frenchy would be a Superstar in Japan.
Ross
May 26th, 2010
4:06 pm
Francoeur was one of the dumbest baseball players I’ve ever watched – and that includes parts of 5 decades. I can’t believe that he’d be any better on the Falcons’ offense. He’s just not very smart on the field, and when his natural skill is neutralized, he can’t adjust.
In contrast, Heyward reminds me of a veteran already. He has “built-in brains” for the game.
ijudgenot
May 26th, 2010
4:13 pm
The difference between them right now is that Heyward has only played for Cox and Penndleton fo 40 game and will only be exposed to their influence for one year hopefully, while Francouer had 3 years of “swing for it Frenchy” tutoring from Cox. The Heyward single to the left side that won the game was this kid abandoning going for the 3 run homer his manager loves and hitting for the situation presented to him. He (Heyward) was not taught that by Cox or Penndleton he came to the league with that mindset. Unfortunately Francouer was never taught that by either of the two wise men. The feeling was and still is if you play for Cox you should be hitting homeruns instead of singles even if situation called for a hit, any hit to win the game. Luckily Heyward only has 3/4 of year left to listen to that.
FJR
May 26th, 2010
4:13 pm
ghost of Claudell, I’m pretty sure Fur Man Bisher was just trying to flame (race) bait, and you let him succeed. Don’t feed the trolls.
TPic
May 26th, 2010
4:24 pm
Pete, I’ll take your word for it. You and Dawgfan apparently have seen more of him than I have. I stand corrected – thanks for the feedback.
rico43
May 26th, 2010
4:41 pm
The phrase that struck me is that it was Pendleton AND COX who convinced J-Hey to be more aggressive at the plate. Not just Pendleton. This is a smart young player.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 26th, 2010
5:07 pm
Although Mark likes to be humble and tell us that he doesn’t know much sometimes, he actually has a very good understanding of the difference in baseball and football. Baseball is a grind, an endurance test. You can’t play on emotion for 162 games.
Sonny Clusters
May 26th, 2010
5:20 pm
We played football and we played baseball and we was state championship in both. We was what was called multi-talented athletes and we was the smartest two in our class. Sometimes Coach would call us up and let us conjugate for the entire class and that was health class! We was very popular back then and nobody would dare say we had football mentality on a baseball field. We was thinking players and because of that we wore our caps loose and gave our brains room to breathe. When we was almost Clemson Tigers one of us got called to the Braves and we was never the same. We was thinking this morning if we had gone on to Clemson and graduated and opened up a landscape company we would probably have a couple Deeres by now and at least one truck paid for. We was always the smartest in our class.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 26th, 2010
5:30 pm
Sometimes Coach would call us up and let us conjugate for the entire class and that was health class!
That was legal back then?
Flo-Ri-Duh!
May 26th, 2010
5:32 pm
Francouer went for the money. He made more in his first contract with the Braves than he would have made for an entire career in the NFL and he can still walk without a limp. He did the right thing.
reason
May 26th, 2010
5:43 pm
“What if” the Braves were really serous about winning, “What if” they stop playing a guessing game, and really apply themselves to putting together a real team, that would stay together for more than a couple of years and become a winning team with a real hitting coach, and a manage who thinks “who” is on first when “who” on second, “what” is on first and so on.
“What if” the line up as left intact for more than a couple games and “What if” if the Braves front office knew what they were doing. So you see “What if” isn’t. Where is the wrong of both playing baseball, way too much is put on Heyward, he is an outstanding player for new but has only been in the big leagues for 3 month by the time the Braves staff finishes with him he’ll may be worse than Francoeur.
Everyone should leave Francoeur along and stop comparing peaches to oranges.
Heyward should NOT LISTEN TO PENDLETON OR BOBBY……………………………….
Einsteindawg
May 26th, 2010
6:19 pm
While I’m glad we no lomger have Frenchy, I think he could be an above average (much better than Melkey or McChoke) IF he had a legitimate hitting coach. TP is nothing more than Bobby’s goober eatin’ buddy. Which one weighs the most?
Paddy O
May 26th, 2010
6:27 pm
Bud Kilmer – a legend in his own mind, and apparently at reading Francoeur mind. With fans like him, who needs enemies.
Paddy O
May 26th, 2010
6:31 pm
The failure thus far is simple: there should be no frenchy v. J Hey – Heyward would be playing left, and Francoeur right. The big problem was trading him to an intra-divisional foe, and then trading him for nothing. The assumption that he never adapts is relatively foolish, plus, if he hits 250 with 25 HR and over 80 RBI for the next 10 years, he probably would have a career better than 80% of players who make it to the majors.
Paddy O
May 26th, 2010
6:39 pm
The butthole redneck braves fan. Never happy, always critical, and personally insulting. The great reason that, not just community wide, not just state wide, not even just nationally, but globally, Atlanta is known as the very best place to play post season sports.
Bye Bye Bobby
May 26th, 2010
7:22 pm
OMG. Have you seen Fred Hickman on Sport South? He has porked up over the years. I remember when he was skinny. I guess it happens to the best of us if you don’t lay off the groceries. LOL.
Trey
May 26th, 2010
7:30 pm
Sonny Clusters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
About time, I haven’t seen your posts in a long time, how you been?
Mark Bradley
May 26th, 2010
7:50 pm
Thanks, Hillbilly. But it’s not humility. Actually I don’t know anything.
Mrs. Catie Francoeur
May 26th, 2010
8:11 pm
I love me some money. Too bad it is all over after this season for Jeffy and me. Course Jeffy has earned more this season than most of you chumps will earn in a lifetime. So what if he is a garbage ballplayer.
DZ
May 26th, 2010
9:07 pm
Francoeur who?
Larry
May 26th, 2010
9:34 pm
The downside for both players is they were plagued by the most boring, average manager in the game–Bobby Cox.
CaptainMudderland
May 26th, 2010
10:00 pm
Probably best to give the Frenchy legacy a rest….he has moved on and Jason has moved in–let the guys represent their respective teams with their special talents evaluated and highlighted by the baseball professionals. As far as I am concerned, no journalist I have read has seen an MLB backdoor slider come their way on a 2-2 count with the bases loaded in the ninth…let the frenchman “219″ in peace.
frank james
May 26th, 2010
10:12 pm
If I was Jeff I would go play travel ball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KenDog
May 26th, 2010
10:22 pm
Been thinking about Mark’s comments about Frenchy and I thought of something interesting. I too saw Jeff play high school football at Parkview, and he was great. When I was in high school in suburban Chicago in the early 70’s the best high school football player I ever saw was Quinn Buckner, who was Illinois Mr. Football his graduation year. I’m sure you all remember what happened to Buckner – All American basketball guard (he was also Illinois Mr. Basketball his senior year – how often does that happen in any state?) at Thornridge H.S., then the same at Indiana University (also my alma mater) and All-Pro with the Celtics. Possibly the best defensive guard I have ever seen play the game. Yet both could have easily played college/pro football. It seems like the alternative choice worked out better for Buckner, yet I wish Frenchy the best.
frank james
May 26th, 2010
10:29 pm
Boy Larry did Bobby release you. You are showing your ignorance by your comments about Cox. He is a Hall of Famer. I’m glad you don’t vote. Ask the Cubs how hard it is to win a Division or a World Series. Oh yea that is right when you don’t win it is always the managers fault. I may not agree with Cox all the time, but he has done a great job. There is so much behind the scenes that you have no clue about.
wardo
May 26th, 2010
10:40 pm
You failed to mention anything about the defense of these two players. I am very happy to see that our new right fielder knows who and where the cut off man is. Frenchy was undisciplined at bat and in the field. A high school super star that has never gotten any better. When he cried about his demotion I knew he wouldn’t be long for Atlanta. That was his chance to show that he was a man and that he was dedicated to getting better. He was unwilling to get better. He thought he knew it all. I am happy to see Jason in right field for the Braves.
Coach (2011 or Bust)
May 26th, 2010
11:13 pm
Jeff, you could have just said one has a brain and uses it, while the other has a helmet on his.
J-Hey Kid
May 26th, 2010
11:13 pm
Would Frenchy sue some tiny t-shirt company for using his nickname on a shirt? I don’t think so. Heyward needs to focus on the game and not on a company called SportsCrack.com
http://www.ajc.com/business/marietta-web-retailer-sued-536108.html
fayncdawg
May 27th, 2010
12:09 am
If Strawberry didn’t get in Frenchy’s face and cuss him out (and thus Frenchy’s negative reaction to the pep talk), then Frenchy will probably be cut by the Mets before June. Hitting .219 is one thing. Being perceived as overly sensitive to critics won’t cut in NYC! Hey, couldn’t Georgia State use a TE for their upcoming football season??
ReddJonn68
May 27th, 2010
12:10 am
J-Hey is the future of the Braves. Just remember one thing every time you see this guy’s uniform dirty, we are in the “Game” mark it down !!! What it shows me is no matter how much Cox tries 2 blow this season, J-Hey is gonna do any & everything make it too the post season in his first year, reminds me of Justice & Chipper their rookie seasons only much better !!! Not to long ago when Chipper was coming into the league, he was touted as an outfield or shortstop starter, with good speed, knee injuries ended all that. Keeping it real.
fayncdawg
May 27th, 2010
12:17 am
BTW, when a 20 year is BY FAR the best offensive threat on a veteran batting order, YOU GOT BIG PROBLEMS!! I doubt if the scenerio was for J-Hey to be a greta threat and Glaus and Chipper do no better than Frenchy. All three (Glaus, Chipper, and Frenchy) need to be cut by June!
ReddJonn68
May 27th, 2010
12:24 am
Any player in high school who has had the blessing to play multiple sports, should not be ashamed that they didn’t excelled in one sport over another. I had the opportunity & played in 4 varsity sports. I was good at 2, & average at 2. We played sports til the street lights came on & always gave 115% !!!! I don’t really fault Francoeur 4 being what he truly is, thats why you have SCOUTS.
Mitchell
May 27th, 2010
12:41 am
Said that a long time ago M-Brad. He chose the wrong sport. Simple as that.
I’ll say this for Jeff though… he has really great hair.
You ever get a good look at that hair? It’s good hair I tell ya. I wish I had hair like his.
I guess I’ll just leave it at that.
TommyJack
May 27th, 2010
2:06 am
“The intent isn’t to belittle Francouer”. You coulda fooled me, Bradley.
sad brotha
May 27th, 2010
5:02 am
Francan’t? He is still in the Major Leagues? That guy gets more passes than a barfly at Johnny’s Hideaway! At least now he is New York’s 5 MILLION DOLLAR BUST!
JDub in GA
May 27th, 2010
7:18 am
I remember Maddux saying his strategy was to make balls look like strikes and strikes look like balls. That’s a trap that Francoeur has fallen for from day one. We’ll never know, but I believe that Maddux in his prime would have owned Frenchy (as he did most hitters) but that Heyward would have given him fits. Speaking of match ups, I can’t wait until Heyward and Strasburg square off for the first time.
Terry Harper
May 27th, 2010
8:11 am
I have to say, the media coming up with J-Hey as a name is beat. Too American Idolish. We in our family call him Hey-Hey. Much cooler. Much cooler name for a cool guy. Not prefabricated like the rest of American these days. A little closer to a Fat Albert mantra.
PS – Hey Hey is the coolest right fielder for the Braves since Claudell Washington.
Dr. R
May 27th, 2010
8:13 am
Absolutely spot on, Mark. Football people don’t understand baseball and the baseball mentality. It’s why so many local fans don’t understand why Bobby Cox is a great manager. They think the Bill Parcells model is what makes for a great coach/manager/leader, but that approach doesn’t work in a game you play every day, and one that requires the PLAYER to think. In football, the coaches do most of the thinking and decision-making for them. It’s why fans blast Cox every time something goes wrong, as if he can draw up a play to make a pitcher throw strikes or a hitter lay off bad pitches. Baseball is a player’s game; football is a coach’s game. And when it comes to a guy like Francoeur, he needs someone to do the thinking for him because he doesn’t have what it takes.
hatfieldgeoff
May 27th, 2010
8:21 am
Mark, I agree that Francoeur was a great athlete and a very good high school football player, but to say he is the best you have seen in Georgia since 1984 is a bit over the top. Your entitled to your opinion, but Francoeur was not very speedy. He would have been a solid player in college, but I don’t think he would have been a star at Clemson (particularly at Safety or Wide Receiver where he played in high school) and I certainly don’t think he would have played in the NFL. I believe he made the right choice to play baseball. It is just, in some ways, unfortunate that the game of baseball came so easily to him that he never had to adjust until he got to the majors. Now he just doesn’t really know how to approach making changes. I hope he turns it around but I don’t seem him in the majors in 5 years.
John Tucker
May 27th, 2010
8:37 am
Francouer is a good guy whose talent has been wasted because he is unteachable and has absolutely no plate discipline.
Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders could play both baseball and football very well. Francouer’s declinne had more to do with his inability to adjust his stance or swing to cover the plate and his predictable bad habits of swinging early and hard at almost every pitch he saw.
While he listened to anybody and everybody and sought to try any suggestions, he only confused himself and did not know his own swing well enough to analyze the advice he got and adjust to what the pitchers were doing to strike him out.
Braves babied him too long insteasd of designating him for assignement iin early 2008. Mets will not be so generous.
Terrence Moore
May 27th, 2010
9:26 am
man my posts sure aren’t lasting long up here….guess a brutha can’t even post anymore
Mark Bradley
May 27th, 2010
9:26 am
How many times do I have to clarify? I did not say Jeff Francoeur was the best high school player ever. I didn’t say he was the greatest pro prospect ever. I said, and I meant, that he was the greatest high school player I’d seen in Georgia.
SHO-NUFF
May 27th, 2010
9:52 am
Maybe, if Jeff had listened to TP’s advice on hitting, he could of developed into a great hitter and still be a Brave.
SHO-NUFF
May 27th, 2010
9:54 am
Oh yeah, 199th!
Skeezix
May 27th, 2010
9:58 am
I much prefer Jason’s approach at the plate and believe he will have a greater career than Frenchy as a hitter. Frenchy is a better RF with that rifle arm of his. I think Frenchy will end up having a good season–he will figure it out and make adjustments as all good athletes do. I also wish he wasn’t a mutt.