It’s been less than a week since Jeff Francoeur signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Royals, but he predictably already has local media members in Kansas City writing the same type of overly glowing prose and outright fluff about him that became commonplace in Atlanta and New York.
Yesterday the Royals held a press conference to introduce Francoeur, after which Terez Paylor wrote the following introduction to an article in the Kansas City Star:
With a smile on his face and a brand-new No. 21 home jersey on his back, the newest Kansas City Royal plopped into a chair next to general manager Dayton Moore and proceeded to field questions from reporters Monday. Five minutes in–and several laughs later–one thing about Jeff Francoeur became perfectly clear: He does not lack personality, enthusiasm or (most important) hope about the future.
Seriously. Here’s a little more from the same article:
These are the positive things that players typically say during introductory news conferences, especially when it’s the offseason and it’s the Royals. But as Francoeur talked on this day, it’s hard not to believe him or Moore when they insist that better times are ahead.
Seriously. When it comes to people to trust “when they insist that better times are ahead” Dayton Moore and Jeff Francoeur would be pretty close to the bottom of my list, since one is a mistake-prone general manager of a consistently horrendous team and the other is an exceptionally overrated player who has the lowest OPS in baseball among all corner outfielders during the past three seasons. But hey, that’s just me.
Paylor goes on to make passing mention of Francoeur’s terrible on-base percentage, but mostly just brushes it aside because, after all, he “was once considered to be one of the best prospects in baseball.” As if that’s at all relevant for a 27-year-old with more than 3,400 plate appearances under his belt.
Francoeur is far from the worst player in baseball–although he ranks up there when teams insist on playing him every day–but the real source of the mockery he receives from folks like me is that the media members covering him on a daily basis can’t seem to avoid getting caught up in his sparkling personality and ability to give them good quotes. He’s a career .268/.310/.425 hitter who managed only a modest one-year deal to sign with his fourth team in seven years, yet the focus always seems to be on anything but his performance.
That must be one hell of a smile.
