As far as the picture goes, we see Francona in his lefthanded stance with another blurry background.
Francona began 1982 on the bench as a pinch
hitter and did not get his first hit until May 10th. A week later the Expos
moved Tim Raines to secondbase and gave Francona the LF job and he responded
with a three-hit game. He continued to hit well for the next month until he tore his knee up when his spikes
got caught in the Busch Stadium warning track. Unfortunately, his injury
sidelined him for the rest of the season. He hit .321 in his limited time, but
only 3 of his 42 hits went for extra bases. With Raines back in left for the
'83 season, Francona was mainly a pinch-hitter with periodic starts at
firstbase or rightfield. He struggled to find his stroke, as his average
hovered around the Mendoza line most of the year before a hot September raised
it to .257.
The
left-handed Francona started at first base in '84 and showed the hitting
ability the Expos had longed for and was batting .346 when another knee injury wrecked his season
in June. This time Francona was running down the first base line when he tried
dodging a tag from Pirate pitcher John Tudor and felt his knee pop. His 136
OPS+ in 223 plate appearances was by far his career best and in fact the only
time he was over 100.
The Expos
were cautious with Francona the following year and limited him to a pinch
hitting role but he ended up starting almost everyday in August in September.
His production was disappointing as he posted a .267/.299/.349 line in 296
plate appearances. Francona left Montreal for the Chicago Cubs as a free agent
in '86 and after a month at AAA was used as a pinch hitter. He batted an empty
.250 in 124 at bats and after the season he left to play with the Reds. He was
even less productive in Cincinnati as he batted .227 in a part time role.
Francona signed with the Indians for the '88
season and spent the first half of the year at AAA. Called up for the second
half of the season, he DH'd against right handed pitchers and batted .311. As
impressive as that seems Francona walked just 5 times in 222 plate appearances
and had just 9 extra base hits. He played for the Brewers in '89 and batted
just .232. Four hitless at bats and four weeks into the '90 season the Brewers
released Francona. He spent the rest of the year playing for the Cardinals top
farm team and retired after the season.
Flipside: Amazing to think that Francona
could play 93 games for Denver in '81 and hit just one home run despite playing
half his games in the thin mountain air.
Oddball:Francona toed the rubber in a 5/15/89 Brewers / A's game. Mopping up
in the bottom of the 8th, southpaw Francona coerced fly balls from Terry
Steinbach and Tony Phillips. With two outs he caught Stan Javier looking at
strike three and kept the Brewers deficit to ten runs.
History: Francona's career started with great expectations and
he had two seasons cut short by injuries while batting 300+. It's hard to say
how his career would have progressed without the knee injuries. He didn't
display any patience or hit for any power even when he was healthy. For his
career he hit .274/.300/.351 in 10 major league seasons. It all worked out in
the end as his managerial career has been much more successful than his playing
career.
Francona's playing career was a living, singles-hitting argument against the effectiveness of batting average as a tool for measuring offensive effectiveness! He was doing some pretty good things in 1984 though -- I remember the game in which he tore his knee. Pretty grim stuff...
ReplyDeleteYeah I've always felt making it in the big leagues as a left-handed thrower was pretty tough. Unless the lefty is a pitcher, the player better be a power hitting firstbaseman, or good enough to play outfield.
ReplyDelete