Jeff Francoeur is One Cool Mother

Jeff Francoeur is a strange fellow. Loaded with tools, saying Jeff Francoeur is shorthand for both “gritty hardnosed ole time baseball” and “bonehead jerkbag can’t take a friggin’ walk.” He may not hit right handers as well as he should or ever live up to his lofty rookie season hype, but keeps getting starting jobs because a) at least 10 teams a year start players that shouldn’t be starting and b) he’s just so damn likable. It certainly helps that he has a rocket arm, too.

But all of that, other than his kindness, is out of Francoeur’s control. It’s not his fault that he’s so very, very good at baseball that he gets to play professionally, but not good enough to be a superstar. It’s also not his fault that some men overvalue his talents while another group undervalues his production. He just goes out, swings as hard as he can, and goes home to count his millions of dollars.

Like Craig Calcaterra though, I am slowly falling in love with Francoeur. Over at The Hardball Times, Bojan Kopriva has a must read involving the Oakland A’s, bacon, heckling, and money ball (by that I mean a hundred dollar bill wrapped around a baseball). I dare you to go read the article and come away without understanding Dayton Moore’s mancrush or without purchasing your own powder blue Francoeur number.