The Frenchy Psychoanalysis Era Continues

Yesterday’s win was nice, with a few things that made me nervous early on, but seemed to right themselves by the end. At first, Huddy’s high pitch count was worrisome. He was getting his outs, but he was just throwing way too many pitches, and it’s the Nationals, so you’re going to get outs either way. But he really tightened up after the first few innings, and ended up going for seven with a relatively low pitch count overall.

Frenchy had a bad start, too, but came away with 5 RBIs in the end. Chop-n-Change has a nice comparison of his numbers so far this year with those from 2006 and 2005, which show that he’s really not being much more patient. And this quote from the AJC coverage of the game is a little concerning:

“I was very frustrated with myself after my first two at-bats,” said Francoeur, who drove in five runs twice before, including last May against the Nationals.

“Four straight balls to Andruw, I let that pitcher out of that inning real easy. I think I swung at a 51-foot pitch my second time, struck out. And really got 0-2 on some bad pitches on my third at-bat. But it took me that to really lock in and get focused.”

Does he really need to keep failing several times before he can calm down and remember how to work a pitch count? Is that what he’s saying? Did he learn nothing from his great final at-bat on Sunday? Why can’t he just keep previous “frustration” (such as most of his 2006) in mind instead of continuing to make outs until he remembers how to hit? It should be pretty exciting to see him hitting over .300 early in the season, just as a nice confidence boost to get him started, but if he’s gaining confidence without really changing anything . . . that ain’t good.

While we’re beating up the Nats, the Mets are beating up the Phillies. And they’re also, ah, well, see for yourself:

They’ve cloned him! And speaking of Frenchy, I would fear for his life if the Mets actually cloned David Wright. He tends to act like an eight-year-old superfan in the presence of Frenchy. I had a laugh about it last year during one series with the Mets, when we were sitting along the third base line. DW bounced all over Frenchy every time he got to third, talked his ear off, and practically gave him a back rub during game play. At the game on Sunday, Wright ran all the way over to Frenchy in the outfield at the start of the national anthem, and stood out there yakking away through the whole song.

He looks a little confused and nervous about this wax figure business. Like he’s really glad he’s holding a bat, just in case he sees that thing blink.