Since 2017, former MLB player Jeff Francoeur has been working on Atlanta Braves’ broadcasts, taking over from Joe Simpson as their lead TV analyst ahead of the 2019 season. In that time, Francoeur has become quite known for some of his reactions to others’ double entendres. And that led to Braves’ TV voice Brandon Gaudin referencing Francoeur working on the national TBS broadcast (Tom Glavine was the analyst alongside Gaudin on the Bally Sports South/Southeast local broadcast) when a particularly suggestive pitching change happened during the Braves’ home game against the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night:
https://twitter.com/pitchingninja/status/1706848123606258092
Gaudin (who’s new to the Braves’ TV booth this year, replacing Chip Caray) and Francoeur have had plenty of discussions on suggestive topics this season, from increased base size to the “slutter.” And Francoeur has been notable for his reactions to those. So this reference definitely made some sense.
And that certainly was a suggestive combination of pitchers and batter, with Atlanta pitchers Pierce Johnson and Brad Hand and Cubs’ utility player Miles Mastrobuoni. It’s one we can add to the #sensualbaseball files. And the Braves have two games remaining in this series with the Cubs (Wednesday and Thursday nights) before finishing the season with three against the Washington Nationals. So we’ll see if Mastrobuoni comes up again as a broadcast topic of discussion, with or without Johnson and Hand.
Correction: this post initially had Francoeur in the Braves’ radio booth for this game, but he was on the national TBS broadcast.
[Rob Friedman on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.