Garrett Jones rises from obscurity to power
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtIGg35beY00yBEDmmTIApkRvLYF?slug=sh-garrettjones040810
PITTSBURGH – Eleven years buried in the minor leagues is enough to suppress
anyone’s sense of self-importance. Garrett Jones(notes) is on a record home
run tear for the Pittsburgh Pirates, yet he is as candid and accommodating as
someone getting by on a $30,000 salary in a nondescript midsize city, which
he did from 2005 to 2008 toiling on a Triple-A treadmill for the Rochester,
N.Y., Red Wings.
So maybe it shouldn’t have been shocking that shortly after hitting his
third home run in three games this season and 24th homer in 84 games since
the Pirates promoted him last July, Jones gladly revealed to Yahoo! Sports
the secret to his unlikely rise to power.
He gives away half of home plate before even stepping in the batter’s box.
The other half, well, that’s his.
“Before, I’d just go up to the plate and swing as hard as I could and hoped
I’d hit it,” he said. “I really didn’t have a plan of attack and that’s
what hurt me.
“Now I’m going up there and picking a side of the plate, expecting the
pitch either inside or outside. Especially in the big leagues where there is
great pitching, you have to pick a side of the plate and hunt that side. Then
if the pitch is there you have to capitalize on it.”
Don’t laugh. It works. Jones and the best hitter in baseball, Albert
Pujols(notes), were the only players to slug over .600 against both inside
and outside fastballs last season.
Witness Jones’ first at-bat Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Clayton Kershaw(notes), perhaps the best young left-hander in baseball,
started him with a fastball on the inside part of the plate, right where
Jones was looking for it, and the ball landed over the center field wall for
a three-run home run.
In the season opener on Monday, Jones anticipated a pitch from Vicente
Padilla(notes) on the inside half in the first inning and drove it all the
way out of PNC Park and into the Allegheny River. Figuring Padilla would be
more careful in his next at-bat, the left-handed Jones looked away and
flicked a pitch on the outside corner over the wall in left field.
If it’s that easy, why did it take him until he was 28 years old to figure
it out? After getting promoted last July, Jones became only the second rookie
in major league history to hit 20 or more homers with all of them coming
after June 30. And only four players – all established stars – hit more
home runs than Jones the last three months of last season.
“Some guys develop later than others and some guys just need an opportunity
with the right team,” Jones said. “It’s a combination of things. It’s
just a matter of time for some guys. For me, it came down to having an
approach and a plan at the plate.”
Nobody in Pittsburgh is quite sure what to make of this unheralded player
with the nondescript name and singularly remarkable power numbers. Fans here
are so accustomed to disappointment and false hope – the Pirates haven’t
had a winning season since 1992 – that Jones is treated almost like an
apparition, a phantom slugger who could levitate out of right field and
disappear without warning into the Allegheny River like one of the baseballs
he deposits there.
Baseball people are still in the eye-rubbing stage as well. Opponents are
only now affording Jones the respect due a hitter on an otherworldly power
pace. Scouts who ignored him for years must prepare reports suggesting he be
pitched around. According to Inside Edge, Jones led baseball in batting
average once he got ahead in the count and was second in slugging before the
count reached two strikes. His specialty is hitting fastballs on the outside
part of plate.
His strategy to hit the outside pitch only when looking for it is especially
appropriate considering that for so long he was on the outside looking in.
Jones hit 158 home runs in 1,038 minor league games, big numbers possible
only for a player unwanted by the major leagues. Drafted in 1999 by the
Atlanta Braves and released in 2002, he was picked up by the Minnesota Twins
and languished in the system behind Justin Morneau(notes) at first base and
Michael Cuddyer(notes) in right field. Rochester is a Twins’ affiliate, and
Jones was there so long he could have been elected mayor.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire liked his power potential, but others in the
organization didn’t think he made enough contact and doubted his defensive
ability. Jones’ batting average rose and his strikeout total dropped, but
his only taste of the big leagues came in four short stints in 2007. When he
delivered a walkoff home run to win Rochester’s season finale in 2008, he
figured the Twins would make him a September call-up.
He figured wrong, the last in a long line of disappointments, and he left the
organization as a minor league free agent. His best opportunity had come and
gone a year earlier when it appeared the left field job was open in
Minneapolis. But the Twins made a trade they have since regretted, sending
pitcher Matt Garza(notes) and shortstop Jason Bartlett(notes) to the Rays for
outfielder Delmon Young(notes), who in more than 1,000 at-bats since the deal
has hit one fewer home run than Jones has hit in about 325 at-bats with
Pittsburgh.
“I felt that if I’d had a shot I definitely could have competed for that
spot,” Jones said.
Instead, it was one more year at Rochester before free agency. He tried to
hook on in Japan but no teams were interested. He had minor league offers
from the Cubs, Marlins and Phillies, but signed with the Pirates because they
offered the path of least resistance to the majors. It was either that or
quit, and Jones enjoyed the game too much to give up.
“I always believe that if you do well enough the team you are with will call
you up, and if not another team will see you and like you and give you a shot,
” he said. “So I always had that in my mind and never really got too stuck
in a rut.”
It took another half-season in Triple-A – this time with the Pirates’
affiliate in Indianapolis – before getting his chance last July. He homered
in four consecutive games beginning July 10, and on July 17 he hit two out,
going deep against reigning Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum(notes) in the
first inning and homering again in the 14th to win the game. His 10 home runs
in July led baseball. Jones was indeed a big leaguer.
“I was just enjoying each moment and not even realizing what I was doing
because after what I’d gone through with the Twins, you never know when that
moment could end,” he said.
By season’s end, he’d become the second rookie ever to hit more than 20
homers with all of them coming the last three months. The identity of the
other player to accomplish the feat is a sobering reminder that Jones isn’t
proven yet.
Kevin Maas hit 21 home runs after a July promotion to the New York Yankees in
1990, more homers than Mickey Mantle or Lou Gehrig or Yogi Berra hit as
rookies. Four years later the Yankees cut him. Pitchers quickly adjusted to
Maas, found his weaknesses and he couldn’t respond.
Does the same fate await Jones? Is he a legitimate late bloomer or a fluke?
“Everybody keeps asking, when is he gonna stop?” Pirates manager John
Russell said. “And I’m kind of getting tired of it because the guy
continues to do well.”
The Pirates point not to Maas as a reference point, but to Mike Easler, who
didn’t get an extended opportunity until he was 29 with the Pirates and went
on to have eight productive seasons.
Jones isn’t thinking about Maas, Easler or anyone else but himself. And he’
s taking it day to day. After waiting so long, he’s savoring every moment of
his deliverance from obscurity to power.
“I’m feeling relaxed and am just going to keep it going as long as I can,”
he said. “I know there will be ups and downs. Right now I’m feeling OK. I’
m in a good place.”
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