Adam Jones’ Breakout Season

August 5, 2009 BY Alex Eisenberg 2 Comments

I’ve been sitting on this article for a while now. Admittedly, I wanted to wait until Adam Jones got hot again before publishing it.

Jones is a reminder to be patient as a player with his tool set develops. Not everybody hits right when they’re called up. There is an adjustment period that often times follows.

Jones had his true break out season in 2007. Prior to that year, Jones was putting up good numbers (especially for his age), but nothing at an elite level. In 06′, his power blossomed — the contact he made was harder and the balls he put in the air traveled farther.

But there were concerns. He struck out too much. He didn’t walk enough. His pitch recognition needed to improve. He needed to stop swinging at pitcher’s pitches.

It’s something he made progressions with at the MLB level in 2008, but he’s taken it to a different level in 2009. He’s not swinging at breaking balls in the dirt or eye-high fastballs as often as he once was and as a result his strikeout rate is down and his walk rate his up. While he’s still not walking much, he’s swinging at better pitches, pitches that he can turn on. I expect the walk rate to creep up as he continues to get experience.

Jones hasn’t done much to his swing over the years, but one instruction given to Jones by Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley was for Jones to “wait on the ball”, something he didn’t do consistently.

Ideally, the hitter waits on the ball as long as possible before unloading prior to contact. The benefit of waiting on the ball, or letting it travel deep into your hitting zone is that it keeps you from getting too far out in front, too handsy with your swing. Instead, you allow the hips and hands to turn together using the front leg as a base in which to turn on. The longer one waits on the ball, the more time you get to recognize the pitch type and location. It’s something I always look for when evaluating hitters at any level.

*Credit to MLB Advanced Media

Overall, Jones’ swing is very simple. He’s quiet in his set up, takes a small stride forward, and just unloads like hell on the ball. He’s explosive. You see the torque he generates between his torso and hips and how he proceeds to turn the hands and hips together.

Jones is a quick-twitch guy, with fast and strong wrists. He’s able to accelerate the bat through the hitting zone with ease and he gets extension just prior or at contact, which is a byproduct of waiting on the ball.

Jones isn’t done developing. He still gets himself out at times by swinging at a low-and-away slider or an eye high fastball. When he swings at bad pitches, the contact he makes obviously becomes softer. He still gets jumpy in the batters box and won’t allow the ball to travel as deep as it needs to, which often leads to him putting the ball on the ground. The number of ground balls he’s hit has actually been up this year. That lowers his potential power output.

However, these are things that will improve with experience. When all is said and done, Jones will be one of the key blocks that turn the Orioles back into contenders in the AL East.

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