Jeff Francoeur had another great day at the plate for the Braves today, getting 4 hits in 4 at-bats to raise his batting average this season to .432. That means he's hitting too well right now for any of his deficiencies to matter, but, what the hell, I’ll throw a couple of flags on the field, anyway.

One thing that concerns me about Francoeur is that he’s shown absolutely no plate discipline so far. He's a rookie, yes, and he has only 81 at-bats, of course, but you have to admit, it’s at least a little disturbing when a player goes that many at-bats without drawing a single walk, especially when his minor-league track record suggests a similar tendency to be unselective at the plate.

(Earlier this year, Jose Reyes went 118 at-bats without drawing a walk. I’m praying Francoeur picks up his first walk before that.)

If you’ve watched any of Francoeur’s at-bats this season, you’ll notice pretty quickly why he hasn’t drawn a walk. His approach basically boils down to this – swing the bat as hard as you can. Swing at every pitch, no matter where it is.

I’m exaggerating a little, obviously, but unfortunately it’s not that far from the truth.

Observe his at-bats in tonight’s game. In his 4 at-bats, Francoeur saw 13 pitches. He swung at 10, or about 77% of the pitches he saw. In another game, against the Reds on Aug. 2, Francoeur saw 22 pitches in 5 at-bats and swung at 19 -- that’s really swinging away. Randall Simon, the Swing Master himself, would be very proud.

Just out of curiosity, I checked out the Braves game logs since Francoeur was called up, and I recorded his pitches per at-bat and swings per at-bat in all 21 of his games. (He's played in 23, but he came in only as a pinch-runner in two of those games.) After Tuesday's game, he's seen 290 pitches in 81 plate appearances, and he's swung at 189, 65% of the pitches he's seen.

That figure isn't as eye-opening as 77%, but Francoeur has had 43 at-bats -- more than half his at-bats -- that have lasted 3 pitches or less, including 28 that have lasted 1 or 2 pitches. And, maybe this is just me, but it sure does seem as if Francoeur is swinging at something more around 90% of the pitches he's seeing.