{"id":58901,"date":"2023-06-24T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=58901"},"modified":"2023-06-24T09:56:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T13:56:36","slug":"astros-pitcher-j-p-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/24\/astros-pitcher-j-p-france\/","title":{"rendered":"J.P. France Baseball Profile 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a slew of injuries to their 2023 starting rotation, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/05\/25\/healthy-yordan-alvarez-2020\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Astros<\/a> own a record above .500 in 75 games. With Jos\u00e9 Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr., and Luis Garcia going down, the Astros responded by calling up some of their top and lower-ranked prospects. Players like Hunter Brown, Brandon Bielak, and J.P. France made their major league debut between April and May, for example.<\/p>\n<p>France, a 432 overall draft pick, emerged in early May and continues to pitch in the Big Leagues. In eight games as a starting pitcher, he owns a 3.42 ERA, .230 BA against, and ~8% BB. While his 19.3% strikeout rate is relatively low, France countered with a 45.1% ground ball and 35.9% hard-hit rate. His HH% currently ranks in the 70th percentile, according to Baseball Savant.<\/p>\n<p>Up to this point, he relies more on putting balls in play and generating soft contact than racking up K&#8217;s. Nonetheless, he&#8217;s been effective.<\/p>\n<p>As a rookie, France features a ~93 mph fastball (44%), ~86 mph cutter (16%), ~80 mph slider (15%),\u00a0 ~82 mph changeup (13%), and ~76 mph curveball (11%).<\/p>\n<p>What specifically though, makes him a viable starter? Let&#8217;s dive into Astros&#8217; pitcher J.P. France and find out.<\/p>\n<h2>Player Profile on Astros&#8217; Pitcher J.P. France<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Debut numbers \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6urwpUIuyb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6urwpUIuyb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Houston Astros (@astros) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/astros\/status\/1655053385442238465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Splits (RHB\/LHB)<\/h3>\n<p>Facing right-handed batters, J.P. France owns a .257\/.316\/.505 line in eight starts. Against left-handed batters, he offers a much stronger line, at .192\/.265\/.274. It&#8217;s also worth noting that he&#8217;s given up seven home runs against RHB, but only one against LHB.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, he features reverse split tendencies early on this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Exit Velocity, Barrel %, and Sweet Spot %<\/h3>\n<p>In eight starts, the average EV against France is 88.9 MPH. While this ranks in the 53rd percentile as mediocre, it&#8217;s not bad by any means. In fact, top starters like Gerrit Cole of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/06\/al-cy-young-race\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Yankees<\/a> and Zac Gallen of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/04\/nl-cy-young-race\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> currently own an EV of 89.2 and 91.2, respectively. So he&#8217;s limiting a fair amount of hard contact, with the exception of giving up a home run every now and then.<\/p>\n<p>Before discussing the next two topics, keep the following in mind.<\/p>\n<p>According to MLB, the launch angle&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For a ground ball is less than 10 degrees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>For a line drive, it&#8217;s 10-25 degrees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>For a flyball, it&#8217;s 25-50 degrees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Anything above 50 degrees is a popup<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Barrel % (eight to 50 degrees) uses a wider range for launch angle compared to the Sweet Spot % (eight to 32 degrees).<\/p>\n<p>The Barrel % uses an exit velocity of 98 mph or higher, whereas the Sweet Spot % goes from 95 mph and up.<\/p>\n<p>Since most home runs take the form of fly balls and favor a higher EV, a hitter&#8217;s Barrel % is often associated with HR compared to the Sweet Spot %. Conversely, SwSp% tends to do a better job of measuring the impact of line drives and ground balls.<\/p>\n<p>Moving on&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>France&#8217;s barrel rate stands at 8.5% per batted ball. This currently ranks in the 41st percentile as slightly below average.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, his Sweet Spot rate stands at 31.7%. Although there is no corresponding percentile rank, compare it to Gerrit Cole (34.1 %) and Zac Gallen (40.1%) thus far. Other honorable mentions include Shohei Ohtani (34.0%), Marcus Stroman (27.9%), and Shane McClanahan (34.5%) this year.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not surprising then to see a correlation between France&#8217;s high 1.5 HR\/9 and lackluster barrel rate. Although not every barreled ball is a home run, many fall into this category.<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, his Sweet Spot % is much better as he&#8217;s limited a fair amount of hard contact from line drives and ground balls.<\/p>\n<p>[metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=&#8221;mlb\/j.p._france\/player_174802&#8243; size=&#8221;350&#215;300&#8243; site_id=&#8221;lastwordonsports&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>Walks<\/h3>\n<p>France averages three walks per nine innings. Yet, that number may be lower at times since starting pitchers tend to go five-plus innings without finishing the game. Moreover, in eight starts this year, he&#8217;s only walked 16 out of 197 batters faced, compiling an 8% BB. In terms of throwing strikes, out of 731 pitches, he&#8217;s thrown about half of them in the zone.<\/p>\n<h3>WHIP<\/h3>\n<p>The average WHIP is around 1.30. France&#8217;s WHIP is slightly better, at 1.20 in eight games. Since he doesn&#8217;t walk a lot of batters, most of the damage comes from base hits.<\/p>\n<h3>Leading Off The Inning<\/h3>\n<p>This measures how many times a pitcher, on average, gets the lead-off out in an inning. For example, France produced a .152\/.204\/.465 line in eight starts (Baseball Reference). On average, then, he&#8217;s retired four out of five batters leading off the inning (including walks and hit-by-pitch). While this pace probably won&#8217;t last, a .204 OBP against hitters is impressive nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from taking some pressure off the pitcher, getting the lead-off out in an inning usually puts the double play in order with runners on base. As a result, pitchers can now get out of many tough situations with a ground ball.<\/p>\n<h3>RISP<\/h3>\n<p>With runners in scoring position, France held opponents to a .214\/.273\/.429 line in eight starts. So roughly one out of five players had a hit against him.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, with runners in scoring position and two outs, France held opponents to a .200\/.294\/.400 line.<\/p>\n<p>Evidently, J.P. France does a good job preventing and minimizing damage, for the time being.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Summary on Astros&#8217; pitcher J.P. France<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>So far this season, Astros&#8217; pitcher J.P. France relies on control, minimizing walks, and putting the ball in play to get outs. But, it&#8217;s not simply about him giving up contact, but reducing hard-hit balls to limit singles and extra-base hits.<\/p>\n<p>Look for IP, BB, W, ERA, and WHIP as his primary means of production. Be wary of HRA and his K rate.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo credits:<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>Players mentioned:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/u\/urquijo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Urquidy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcculla02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=garcilu05,garcilu04,garcilu03,garcilu02,garcilu01,garcia032lui,garcia030lui,garcia029lui,garcia028lui,garcia023lui,garcia022lui&amp;search=Luis+Garcia&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Garcia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=brownhu01,brown-006hun,brown-007hun,brown-004hun&amp;search=Hunter+Brown&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Brown<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bielabr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Bielak<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/francjp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">J.P. France<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colege01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gerrit Cole<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/galleza01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zac Gallen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stromma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Stroman<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcclash01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane McClanahan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a slew of injuries to their 2023 starting rotation, the Houston Astros own a record above .500 in 75 games. With Jos\u00e9 Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr., and Luis Garcia going down, the Astros responded by calling up some of their top and lower-ranked prospects. Players like Hunter Brown, Brandon Bielak, and J.P. France made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4628,"featured_media":58981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,1071],"tags":[6447,611,5519,6446,3911,3912,3445,285,2178,1820],"class_list":["post-58901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-brandon-bielak","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-hunter-brown","tag-j-p-france","tag-jose-urquidy","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-luis-garcia","tag-marcus-stroman","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-zac-gallen"],"modified_by":"Troy Brock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}