Jeff Francoeur was one of the hottest prospects in baseball when he first broke into the big leagues. One of his biggest problems over the course of his entire career, however, has been his on base percentage. This is mostly thanks to his propensity to strike out... very frequently. He has almost 4 times as many strikeouts as walks in his career, and his career OBP is a rather pedestrian .312.No worries, though. Francoeur isn't terribly concerned with that. In fact, OBP isn't even important. Not to Francoeur, at least.
"If on-base percentage is so important, then why don't they put it up on the scoreboard?"
Well, that's a good question, Jeff. Funny thing about that whole scoreboard thing. In case you didn't notice, there happens to be a monstrous scoreboard in Turner Field that displays various statistics whenever players come to the plate.
One of those stats happen to be... that's right, you guessed it: on base percentage. For example, Marcus Giles' OBP when this picture was taken was .368, which is 56 points higher than Francoeur's career OBP. Check it out:
I don't think I actually need to explain the importance of on base percentage, but come on Jeff. If you're going to open your mouth and try to bash a stat, at least try to be accurate. Make fun of fielding percentage or something.
If John Madden was a baseball commentator, he would let Jeff Francoeur know the facts. To win baseball games, you have to score runs. And if you don't get on base, you can't score.
So congratulations, Jeff Francoeur. You are the Major League idiot of the week. Now go work on that OBP, alright big guy? Thanks.
Jeff Francoeur is an idiot [Shyster Ball]
Atlanta Braves Scoreboard [Travel Blog]
Plate discipline so important nowadays [ESPN]
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