The Braves are in the midst of an identity crisis

ATLANTA — Go out to any Little League field this summer and watch baseball as it's meant to be played. Watch the joy and wonder of kids playing a game that's captivated America as long as any has.

Difficult as it might be to believe, that's also the way baseball is supposed to appear at its highest level.

Even in the major leagues, it's still meant to be fun — visibly fun.

But what happens when that notion fades, or even vanishes? What happens

when young guys, burdened by the weight of external and internal expectation, tighten up and fog out the fun? What happens when their smiles turn to furrowed brows and scowls?

It's a reality, and one that can sink players' careers and, in some instances, teams' chances of winning.

This is a frustrating fight the Atlanta Braves are having right now with a few of their young, homegrown products.

After a tremendous amount of early success, the South's flagship team looks at 25-year-old Jeff Francoeur and 27-year-old Kelly Johnson and wonders if they're consumed by self-destructing thoughts or capable of pulling themselves out of their exceptional ruts.

"When it becomes such a stressor that the joy is taken out of it, then it's hard to succeed," Atlanta general manager Frank Wren said. "I think both guys have good makeup, they're good people, they know they can be quality major leaguers.

"But they've gotten into a situation where I think it's eating at them. When it starts eating at them, it starts tearing down their confidence. When that happens, you've got to figure out ways to rebuild it."

And how does one do that, exactly? If you have the answer, baseball teams would gladly shower you with the millions it would save in eating the contracts of players who lose their luster.

What is it? Waiting? Giving up? Praying?

"It takes time and patience," venerable veteran Braves manager Bobby Cox says. "That's all I can say. Unless they're just blessed, that's what it takes. It's time and patience."

That goes for the manager, too.

Cox is known, more than a lot of managers in baseball, as a guy who will pencil his everyday guys into the lineup in spite of some pretty gnarly struggles.

But every man — and an organization — has a tipping point, and both Francoeur and Johnson have skidded past that in the past couple of seasons.

Learning to fail

The Braves recently hosted two of the game's more storied franchises, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Johnson was on the pine for the series finale against the Yankees on June 25, in part because the left-handed-hitting Johnson was held out of the matchup with New York left-hander Andy Pettitte.

But, the following night, with Boston right-hander Josh Beckett on the bump, Johnson was again out of the order.

Same thing the next day against Tim Wakefield, the veteran right-handed knuckleballer.

Johnson was back in Sunday against Brad Penny, but the point had been made that Johnson needed time off.

Martin Prado, who's stepped in for Johnson lately, had the game-winning hit in Tuesday's game against Philadelphia with a 10th-inning hit. Afterward, Cox said he'd wrestled the second base job from Johnson.

In 67 games, and 233 at-bats, Johnson is hitting .215. Despite being a left-handed hitter, he's batting an NL-low .176 against right-handers.

Johnson is 1-for-26 going back from Thursday to June 16. He hasn't had a multi-hit game since June 3.

It's not Johnson's first pronounced pro slump. He started his major league career with a 1-for-30 dud. And he said his minor league career began in Macon, Ga., with a 1-for-25 skid.

The amicable Texan is one of those players that would live in the cage until he figured something out. But he knows that fixing yourself, on so many levels, is myth.

"Mentally, you can drive yourself absolutely nuts with how you're going to break out," said Johnson, a 2000 draft pick who hit .287 and .276 the past two years. "I look at some guys who've been here a while. When they get going bad, it doesn't even faze them. They're not trying to go in the cage any extra. That's something for me to learn from."

Where's Johnson in that learning process?

"Um," he said, "I've still got a lot to learn. It's just keeping that confidence up."

Frenchy's fame

And then there's Francoeur, the hometown hero that fans want so desperately to love. But it seems they can't stomach riding his offensive roller coaster, a machine driven by swinging at bad pitches.

After a May (.229 in 28 games) that reminded many of last year's one-man horror show — the one that got him sent down to Double-A Mississippi — Francoeur rebounded some in June.

Through Wednesday, he had four multi-hit games in his past nine starts. He's up to .251 for the year.

As much as Johnson's struggles have been internally examined and re-examined, the microscope facing Francoeur is at least 100 times more concentrated. His every shimmy and shake is noticed by virtually everyone inside Turner Field.

Francoeur burst onto the major league scene in 2005, hitting .300 with 14 homers in his first 70 games.

Francoeur hit a three-run home run in his first game.

He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was in the mix for the National League's rookie of the year honor (he finished third). He was included on the roster for the 2006 World Baseball Classic, a sign that the game was anointing him one of the stars to watch.

All of that just fanned the flames, sparked by the young, gifted, good-looking kid from nearby Gwinnett County.

But then a bit of humility and reality set in for Francoeur, who dipped below .250 in the 2006 season before surging to end the year at .260, with solid power numbers (29 home runs, 103 RBIs).

Francoeur enjoyed a steadier 2007, with a career-high .293 average to go with 19 home runs and 105 RBIs.

But then came 2008.

The Big Wonder

Francoeur says everyone goes through it, pointing out different names from around the league. But not many have to face the flames like he did.

A year ago this weekend, Francoeur was sent down to the minors.

"Oh, it was one of the toughest decisions I've ever been involved in," Wren said, again referencing the idea of enjoyment in baseball. "It got to the point where Jeff wasn't having any fun."

After a quick stop that included seven hits, Francoeur was back. He ended the year at .239 in 155 games.

"I knew how tough this game was," Francoeur said. "I used to hit .270 in the minor leagues, .280. I wasn't going to turn into a .360 hitter all the time. There are few very people who have success and stay successful here. It's like anything."

Now comes the wondering. Maybe you'd call it The Big Wonder.

Is this just who Francoeur is? And, if so, can the Braves continue to pay him the $3-plus-million he'll earn in this and future seasons?

Amid trade rumors, which have calmed for the moment, it sounds as if Francoeur is finding a peace with his fate, no matter what.

"I'm not worried about it," he says, without even specifically being asked about his future. "Trade rumors and all that? I'm not worried about that. I know the type of player I am, and whether I play right field here or somewhere else, that's all that matters to me. I want to play in Atlanta, but it's not the only place to play."

Francoeur also said a lot of people also forget that he's only 25.

In general terms, Wren said making career-altering decisions about young, homegrown players is among the most difficult things that front-office types do.

"You're fond of them as players, fond of them as people," Wren said. "You just care about them and you want them to succeed. But the overriding mission is to win games. So, when those two don't mesh, that's when it gets difficult."

Wren says he thinks it's fair to judge players after four years in the majors. He says that's enough time for pitchers and hitters to make all the necessary adjustments. That's when you know what you've got, he says.

Well, here we are in Francoeur's fourth full year.

Familiar territory

Francoeur and Johnson are tough subjects to broach with hitting coach Terry Pendleton. The 1991 MVP has taken a lot of grief for not being able to level out Francoeur.

But Pendleton gets all of this. After all, he lived it.

Like Francoeur, Pendleton was sensational in his shortened first season in 1984, hitting .324 in 67 games.

But he batted .240 in 149 games in 1985 and .239 the following year in 159 games.

"It's tough when you know in your heart you can swing the bat and the results aren't showing up on the field," Pendleton said. "They tell you one thing, but they're going to worry about it. They might try not to show it here, but once they get home they're going to feel it or tell mom or dad or sister or brother or whoever it may be."

Pendleton is taking it hard as a coach, too.

He acknowledged the difficult off-season situation in which Francoeur told him he planned to work in the winter months with regarded Texas hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo.

"To be perfectly honest, my pride was hurt, to a certain extent," Pendleton said. "I thought I could assist in getting him where he needed to be. But Jeff and I talked about it. He felt like he needed to do it during the off-season and that's what he chose to do. We left it at that. But I felt like I could help him get it right."

Francoeur said he's now using a combo of tips from Jaramillo and Pendleton.

Here's TP's take.

"The key with Jeff, and others may say different, is to keep things simple," Pendleton said. "Just get in batter's box and swing at strikes. It's that simple to me."

Believing again

The reality is the Atlanta Braves aren't hitting as well as they should. And, as a result, they're not winning as many games as they should.

Even at 37-40 through Wednesday, Atlanta is just three games out of first in the woeful National League East.

Fair or not, Francoeur has become the focal point for the team's offensive woes. The same thing happened a summer ago.

"Last year, to add to everything, we just sucked," Francoeur said. "We weren't very good last year. That didn't help anything. Everything was kind of magnified."

Last season was the first, since Atlanta won its 14 consecutive division titles, that the club wasn't at least in the mix in the summer months.

This year's providing a bit more drama, but the hitting has not kept up with the team's starting pitching.

Atlanta has scored 4.2 runs a game, 23rd in the majors (worst in the NL East). Compare that with a 3.49 ERA for the team's current starting five (Javier Vazquez, Jair Jurr-jens, Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami and Tommy Hanson).

So, is Cox correct? Is patience the main ingredient in the whole recipe? Or, is there a recipe at all?

What do you do with struggling twenty-somethings who burst onto the scene with such vigor, only to begin a slow or sudden fade?

For the players, it can all be encapsulated in one word: Belief.

"I think there's a level of mental toughness that has to come over guys," Pendleton said. "I just know there was a day when I walked in and said, 'OK, let's go do this thing.' "

And that's when the smile returns. That's when the game becomes fun again, when you're a kid one more time.

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com.