Denny Matthews said before Wednesday’s game that Jeff Francoeur had hits in 21 of his last 26 games and batted .330 over that span. So how come Frenchy is hitting the ball better? According to Jeff, it has to do with getting his hands in a better starting position. Before this hot streak, Jeff was taking his hands back, and that was causing him to be late on the fastball. Now Francoeur is starting with his hands farther back and is now on time.
The worst place a hitter can be is in between: late on the fastball, early on the off-speed stuff. When a hitter is late on the hard stuff, he starts earlier in an effort to catch up. If the pitcher notices this, he will switch to off-speed pitches — now the hitter is early.
Jeff says that since the adjustment, he is now right on time on fastballs but still has his hands back when he gets a different pitch.
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Lee Judge. Why does everyone keep picking on poor ol' Jeff Francoeur (.270/.309/.398 on the season, and while we're cherry picking, .239/.257/.254 in June. That adjustment is working wonders!)?
