by Chris Cwik | CBSSports.com (5/21/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur collected three hits Monday.
Francouer hit two singles and a double during the game. He scored one run and added one RBI. Francoeur has struggled to begin the year, hitting .226/.264/.316 in 133 at-bats.
Jeff Francoeur to lose playing time
by Chris Cwik | CBSSports.com (5/14/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur will attempt to work through his slump on the bench.
Royals manager Ned Yost said he would start Jarrod Dyson in center and Lorenzo Cain in left while Francoeur attempts to get through his struggles. Francoeur is hitting just .226/.266/.322 in 118 at-bats this season. Both Dyson and Cain have gotten off to strong starts, and Francoeur may have trouble finding his way back into a starting role.
Manager denies platoon deal for Jeff Francoeur
by Bill Passonno | CBSSports.com (5/11/2013) After outfielder Jeff Francoeur returned to the starting lineup Saturday for just the second time in the past four games, Royals manager Ned Yost emphasized that the struggling veteran is not in a platoon situation. Francoeur entered the game against the Yankees hitting just .125 with one extra-base hit during the month of May, and had sat in favor of Jarrod Dyson in two of the previous three games.
"It’s not a platoon. Frenchy is going to play (Sunday) against (Hiroki) Kuroda," Yost told the Kansas City Star. "Whoever starts is the starter. It changes day to day for no reason other than that this guy is hot or because of the matchup."
Jeff Francoeur putting hits together
by Ed Gauna | CBSSports.com (5/5/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur hit safely for the sixth time in the last seven games Sunday against the White Sox. He went 1 for 5 with a run scored in the 6-5 win.
The 29-year-old doubled in the fifth inning and came around to score when Alex Gordon reached on an error three batters later.
Francoeur has gone 8 for 26 (.308) in the previous seven contests with four RBI and five runs scored.
Jeff Francoeur has four RBI in six games
by Michael Hurcomb | CBSSports.com (4/17/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur's RBI single in the fourth inning Wednesday against the Braves proved to be the difference in a 1-0 victory. It was Francoeur's fourth RBI -- all coming in the past six games.
Jeff Francoeur's numbers don't add up
by Michael Hurcomb | CBSSports.com (4/14/2013) You take a look at Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur's slash line (.238/.273/.381/.654) through 11 games and it looks eerily simiar to his 2012 numbers (.235/.287/.378/.665). That would lead you to believe we should expect another down year from the 29-year-old slugger, but I'm not totally convinced.
I feel Francoeur is just off to a slow start. Some numbers that intrigue me, per FanGraphs.com, is Francoeur is making just 70.9 percent contact with pitches inside the strike zone and 66.3 percent contact rate, which has led to a career-high 19.6 percent swinging strike rate. Francoeur's career strike zone contact rate is 85 percent, contact rate is 78.9 percent and swinging strike rate is 12.4 percent.
You can definitely see he is way off his norms and to me that signals Francoeur is due for a positive market correction, which makes for a good buy-low candidate. Now, he's still going to hurt Fantasy owners because of his strikeout rate, but if you are scouring the waiver wire for outfield help, then Francoeur could be a promising candidate.
Jeff Francoeur hits safely in five of six games
by Michael Hurcomb | CBSSports.com (4/8/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur enters play Monday having hit safely in four straight games and five of six. He's batting .292 (7 for 24) with no RBI, but he has one walk, two doubles and three strikeouts.
Francoeur has also grounded into a pair of double plays, has one stolen base and has accounted for four runs.
Jeff Francoeur starting opening day
by Jeff Lippman | CBSSports.com (3/31/2013) Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur gets the start on opening day against Chris Sale and the White Sox, reports the Kansas City Star. Francoeur will bat eighth for the Royals and manager Ned Yost.
The 29-year-old Francoeur hit .266 this spring over 79 at-bats with three homers, 14 RBI and a stolen base. One of the best fielding right fielders in the American League, Francoeur hit just .235 last year over 148 games for Kansas City. He hit 16 homers and drove in 49 runs.
Francoeur puts in work
by Michael Hurcomb | CBSSports.com (2/27/2013) MLB.com reports Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur put in a lot of work this offseason after coming off a tumultuous 2012 season at the plate. Francoeur said he stayed in touch with new hitting coach Jack Maloof. He received a weekly program from strength and conditioning coordinator Ryan Stoneberg. He also talked about diet and training with teammate Alex Gordon. Francoeur ended up dropping 5 percent of his body fat. He also began hitting earlier in the offseason. "I started hitting Nov. 1," he said. "I've never done that before, but when you stink like I did last year, you had to start somewhere. So I watched a lot of film in October and tried to look at things I wanted to accomplish." Francoeur seems happy with the results. "I feel really good where my swing's at," Francoeur said. "I'm not the type of guy that I can just roll out of bed every day and, like Billy [Butler], your swing's there. Mine takes repetition, takes a lot of practice and for me, luckily, I've been able to repeat my swing every day, and I think that's something I'm going to have to stay on top of all year."
