#7

RF Jeff Francoeur

Well, I was right about Frenchy having an improved season. At first, I didn't particularly care for his improvement last season. I thought he didn't do enough to improve the way I originally wanted. However, I then realized that the fact that he improved is still a good thing. His average rose and his plate discipline improved. Francoeur got his Gold Glove because of his arm, but his arm is already one of the best in the game, so I'll let it slide.

The best part is that Jeff is 24 years old and he's getting better. Here's to him putting everything he has learned all together for 2008.

AVERAGE - 7.5 - Francoeur improved his average by focusing less on power and more on contact (.337 BABIP, a 53 point increase from 2006).

POWER - 8 - Playing a full season with his improved batting, he had 40 homers and 19 home runs. At 23 years of age, that is pretty impressive.

BASERUNNING - 3.5 - Although Francouer doesn't steal many bases at all, he is a little agressive in trying to take bases. He was 10-28 in going from first to third, 12-20 from second to home and 2-5 from first to home. However, he was out advancing once and doubled off twice.

THROWING - 10 - He has one of the best arms in the majors already. Enough said.

FIELDING - 8 - Francouer gets to a lot of balls, and whatever errors he occurs, it is usually due to being unable to field a ball cleanly. Fortunately, he doesn't do that too often.

TOTAL - 37 (B+) - Just think, if Francoeur was able to run the bases better, he would rate just as well as Chipper or Teixeira. ;)

BP: .283/.330/.473, 22 HR, 86 RBI, 8 SB
BJH: .288/.333/.475, 22 HR, 98 RBI, 5 SB
RW: .297/.335/.486, 25 HR, 107 RBI, 4 SB
SN: .279/.314/.451, 22 HR, 100 RBI, 4 SB

Sam: .285/.336/.479, 27 HR, 105 RBI, 7 SB