The title works better if you know geography, which is why I guess it works so poorly for me. But hey, we could have done a riff on the exciting sub-culture of “ty”ing knots… which I’m sure would have turned into a nautical or sexual conversation, which isn’t a terrible place to go depending on your Google search string. Unless your search string was “Ty France Fantasy” in which case I’ll begin my hand-written (typed?) apology by actually writing about him. Crazy times, I know!
Recently and currently considered a potential sell high candidate due to his scorching hot start to the season, I’ll go ahead and spoil this post right now establishing that Ty France is a legit Major League baseball hitter and actually is not French. Yeah, I looked it up. What, you ain’t never met Johnny America? I mean, I haven’t either, but it’s a legit hypothetical (technical term). And this is all not to say you shouldn’t sell high, you can still sell high and not lose even if what you sold still remains at high value. It’s like math but with words… basically this: if you selling high dog, best be getting proper value, dig? (I learned most of my finance from Wu-Tang.)
So Ty France has had a wonderfully hot start, producing a .366/.446/.620 triple slash with five homeruns and 21 runs batted in. His BB% stands at 9.6 with a 10.8 K%, both career-best marks. Last week he was so great (18 hits, two doubles, four home runs, 15 RBI), he actually shared AL Player of the Week honors with eventual Hall-of-Famer and newest member of the 3,000 hit club Miguel Cabrera. I know that’s not the be-all litmus we use and base our decisions on, but still, not a bad feat. Just like how your mom doesn’t have bad feet. But you know, talking about a litmus, there’s generally a really great one, and that’s France’s past results.
They say what is past is prologue, and while I don’t know who they are, the idiom is apt in that Ty France always could hit, just no one noticed that much. And who could be blamed? After all, we are talking about a college prospect that was drafted in the 34th round back in 2015. But since the very beginning, sans a middling 2017, France has hit at every level and done so with the peripherals that are propelling his current success. A .299/.378/.451 slash in A-ball at age 22 with a solid .269/.346/.415 Double-A follow up and then with a resounding handling of Triple-A in his age 24 season, where he produced a .372/.454/.713 line. He hit 27 home runs in just 348 plate appearances. Perhaps a symptom of the offense-friendly Pacific League, but the basic point is, France could rake, and not just the leaves. But again, if he was always this good… why wasn’t he always this good?
Well, a few things, first, as mentioned previously, despite his production and ability to mash in the Minor Leagues, his short stints with the Padres were quite forgettable. As a fringe defensive player, France would have to depend on his bat to stick to a lineup and that just didn’t happen. In addition, in the past few years, he’s noticeably added more muscle to his frame now that his moonlighting at the corner and middle infield days are over. And the last factor is something we’re all familiar with; health.
It’s no secret that Ty France can produce numbers that any sabermetric-enthusiast can be happy with, but he does so with a lower than normal walk rate. This is in part due to his aggressive nature at the plate, something that is also helping fuel this strong start, but at the same time, this aggressive nature hurts him in that he’s always had a propensity to get hit by pitches, which directly led to a wrist injury last season that subdued his numbers and has no doubt affective him throughout his career. While that may just be simply who he is, it’s nice to see what he can do when not dealing with something that’s either impactful or nagging. Definitely should have used the mom joke here.
So what you’re seeing here is a player who can hit, who is now in his prime, and who is also healthy. These are all essential ingredients for a stellar and perhaps career-peak period for Ty France and even a superstar-type year for the 2022 season. Yes, he will regress, yes he won’t always mash the ball at this rate, but he’s here to stay and here to produce until he isn’t. So just as long as he keeps his wrist in good shape and name in the lineup card, truly we may just be seeing past become prologue in real-time. And if so, I can’t wait to see how this story turns out.
Probably French. But what do I know?
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him on Twitter @jaywrong.
