Rarely is the question asked: is our Jeff Francoeur learning?

Less than a year ago, Jeff Francoeur famously said “If on-base percentage is so important, then why don’t they put it up on the scoreboard?” Never mind that OBP had long been on the scoreboard in Atlanta.

As evidenced by that quote, my problem with Jeff Francoeur wasn’t so much that he never seemed to be able to take a walk. It was that he was ignorantly defensive about the very notion of taking one. He never wanted to learn plate patience, and the one time the Braves took a hard stand on the matter -- sending Frenchie to the minors to work on it -- he pouted to the media about it and was called up three days later.

But then I open up my virtual copy of the New York Post this morning and see this:

“One of my big goals is to have better pitch recognition,” said Francoeur, who hit .311 as a Met. “Sometimes you try to say it doesn’t bother you to swing at a bad pitch, but it does. I’m human. I want to get better because I know if I can get better at that the rest of my game will follow. If I can mix in 50-60 walks, I become a totally different guy.”

I really, really want that to be a genuine goal for Francoeur. Because despite the fact that he plays for the Mets and despite the fact that he drove me crazy for most of five seasons as a Brave, he could be an absolutely electrifying player if he was somehow able to show even a moderate amount of selectivity at the plate.

(thanks to Steve Nolan for the heads up)