He's not gonna take it: Jeff Francoeur's aggressive approach at the plate has made him a leading contender for N.L. Rookie of the Year

Braves hitting coach Terry Pendleton bounces off the top step of the dugout when he sees an opponent having trouble locating a pitch between the on-deck circles.

"Make this guy throw strikes; make him throw strikes," Pendleton preaches.

He is talking to everyone in the dugout except rookie right fielder Jeff Francoeur.

"We just leave him alone," Pendleton says. "We're just going to let him ride this hot streak. Why mess up a good thing? The kid is hitting .340, .350; leave him alone. Let him be aggressive."

"That's what I say, too: Leave him alone," says rookie catcher Brian McCann, Francoeur's best friend on the team. "He was hitting .380, and people were complaining he doesn't walk enough. It's absurd--the dumbest thing I've heard in my entire life."

Francoeur did not draw his first walk until his 131st plate appearance, and it was intentional. In his first 52 games, he walked eight times--three times intentionally.

Yeah, so? That was the sentiment in the Braves' clubhouse. Look at the numbers: .332 with 12 homers and 38 RBIs. Francoeur wasn't called up from Class AA until shortly before the All-Star break, but he has emerged as the leading candidate for National League Rookie of the Year. The Braves, four games back in the N.L. East when Francoeur arrived, entered the week with a if 6-game lead and are closing in on their 14th consecutive division title. Though Andruw Jones has led the charge with an MVP-worthy season, Francoeur has emerged as what a longtime major league scout calls "the best of the best group of young players I've ever seen come into the league (on the same team)."

Besides his offensive production, Francoeur is tied for the N.L. lead in assists among outfielders and, though he has only one stolen base, he has displayed the speed that made him a five-tool prospect when the Braves drafted him with the 23rd pick in 2002. Still, it's his hitting that has been the most impressive.

Pedro Guerrero, a former slugger for the Dodgers and Cardinals, once quipped to a tentative rookie, "Swing hard in case you hit it." Certainly, that is Francoeur's style. He frequently has been compared to Angels free swinger Vladimir Guerrero, though one scout says, "He's not a wild free swinger like Guerrero."

GETTING TO KNOW HIM

What is intriguing about Francoeur, 21, is the league's response to his wide-open approach and the countermeasures he has taken. In his first 39 games, Francoeur hit .359 with a grand total of two walks. Then he drew a walk in each of his next four games but had only one hit in 10 at-bats. That was the start of a 10-game span during which Francoeur went 7-for-30 (.233), his first taste of a slump. As the Brewers' Ned Yost, the second manager to deal with Francoeur, had predicted, pitchers seemed to be adjusting.

Indeed, there is a book on Francoeur now, a blueprint put together by scouts preparing for the stretch run. Francoeur's struggles over a 10-day stretch were a small sample, to be sure, but scouts say they are relevant.

"I've seen him hit a changeup for a home run, a curveball for a home run, but not that real good fastball inside," says one scout who has been following the Braves. "I'm talking about that 92 (mph) and above inside pitch. He can get beat on that."

Not too long ago, Mets ace Pedro Martinez threw a fastball high and inside to Francoeur. It was just 90 mph, but Francoeur swung and missed for Strike 3. He suddenly was being challenged with a fastball inside after more than a month of being served pitches off the plate and in the dirt.

Now he's reacting back. "He's aggressive once he gets in the box," says the scout, "but when he gets two strikes now, he looks more disciplined. He's learning."

Francoeur has started to "spit on" more pitches, baseball parlance for laying off obvious balls out of the strike zone. "I've actually started to walk a little bit--how about that?" he says. "They've made adjustments to me, and now I'm making adjustments. It's going to take time to learn when they are going to let me beat them or make someone else beat them and when I need to have good patience."

Patience never has been a hallmark of Francoeur, one of four Braves rookies who grew up in Atlanta, but that never bothered the club as he made his way through the minors. He is a 6-4, 220-pound run-producing thumper.

"If it was turned loose in his direction, there was a pretty good chance he was going to swing at it, but we never told him to lose some of the aggressiveness," says Brian Snitker, Francoeur's manager in Class A and AA. "The last thing you want to do is temper somebody's aggressiveness. There are enough players we see that we want to be more ready to hit. If they're sitting there waiting on a good pitch and all of sudden it's there and they're not ready, that's a problem."

Francoeur's aggressiveness seemed to catch major league pitchers off-guard. In the minors, pitchers might miss the strike zone by a foot. In the majors, they miss by 3 inches, well within Francoeur's range.