Jeff Francoeur went to the eye doctor in an attempt to end his season-long slump. For those who don't know, Frenchy was hit underneath his right eye by a pitch when he fouled off a bunt attempt, and the doctors said his vision would slowly deteriorate. Therefore, he has finally gone to the eye doctor (after doing God knows what else) to fix his hitting. Now, I know how helpful eye doctors can be for athletes, and his day (.320 with five HR and a .553 SLG in 26 day games) and night (.207 with three HR with a .323 SLG in 50 night games) splits indicate that he does't see as well at night.
However, I think most of his problems would be solved by him not stepping in the bucket. Every time he hits, he does that. He steps out, which causes his shoulder and hips to bail early. That causes him to not be able to see the ball as well or reach the outside pitch. When your hips bail early, your power goes way down because a big part of your power comes from your legs. But here's the thing. If Francoeur can't see very well, he might think the slider is a fastball, which would cause his hips to start to clear early in order to turn on the fastball, and that would explain what is going on. Also, for as long as I've known Frenchy, he's always stepped in the bucket, so maybe it is more of a sight thing. However, I think if he kept his shoulder and hips in longer, it would solve most of his problems because he seems to hit the ball, but he always gets under it (another indication of his shoulder because when the shoulder leaves, the hand becomes weaker and unable to sustain power through the swing, which causes pop ups). Actually, he's only struck out 54 times this season (on pace for around 110) which would be fewer than the 130 he has been striking out so far in his career. I hope this works because I think Frenchy has taken a lot of heat for his start this season, and at 24, I don't think he deserves it.
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