Jared Jones had made just one big-league appearance when my colleague Ben Clemens wrote on April 2 that we should all get irresponsibly excited about the rookie right-hander. Little has happened to change that opinion. When Jones takes the mound this afternoon for the sixth time in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, he will do so with a 2.79 ERA, a 3.19 FIP, and 34.8% strikeout rate. Moreover, his fastball has averaged 97.3 mph, occasionally reaching triple digits. Following his second start, I caught up to the flame-throwing 22-year-old at PNC Park to get a first-hand account of his arsenal and development path. Among the things I learned is that he was especially raw when the Pirates drafted him 44th-overall in 2020 out of La Mirada (CA) High School. “I didn’t know how to pitch when I signed,” Jones told me. “I just threw fastballs, and throwing hard in high school is a lot different than throwing hard in pro ball. Guys in pro ball can hit the hard fastball, especially if you don’t have anything else.” Jones did have secondary pitches prior to getting drafted, originally a curveball “that wasn’t very good,” and then a slider that went from “just okay” as a young prep to “pretty good” by the time he’d graduated. Even so, he was admittedly more thrower than pitcher — someone whose elite arm strength allowed him to “just throw fastballs by guys.” Velocity came naturally to the now-6-foot-1, 180-pound righty. It also came early. “I was in my sophomore year of high school when I hit 97 [mph] for the first time,” explained Jones. “I’ve been a hard thrower for a long time.” His understanding of pitching metrics is another story. “To be completely honest, I don’t know what my pitches did in high school,” said Jones, who currently relies heavily on his heater-slider combo, mixing in the occasional curveball or changeup. “I just threw them. I didn’t know what vertical break or horizontal break was until my first year of pro ball. They showed me things like [TrackMan data] and I had no idea what it was until I started asking questions. I had no idea what the analytics were, or what they meant. “I don’t think too much about them now,” added Jones. “I’m a competitor when I’m out there pitching, I don’t really think, ‘Is my fastball moving this way? Is my slider doing that?’ I just go out there and compete. That’s just who I am. I’m a fiery competitor.” Make that a fiery competitor continuing to enjoy success at the big-league level. With each and every start, the level of excitement Jones elicits is becoming less and less irresponsible.
RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Victor Martinez went 22 for 52 against Chris Sale. Vic Power went 14 for 29 against Bob Grim. Vic Wertz went 7 for 11 against Satchel Paige. Vic Davalillo went 9 for 11 against Bennie Daniels. Vic Roznovsky went 6 for 9 against Mel Stottlemyre.
Jerry Narron wasn’t afraid of going against the grain when he managed the Cincinnati Reds from 2005-2007. Now a coach for the Los Angeles Angels, the 68-year-old former big-league backstop — much to the consternation of the day’s talk-radio wags — would occasionally put a basher in a table-setter spot in the batting order. OBP was the method behind the madness. “When I started managing, in the minors in 1989, I tried to make out my batting order by on-base percentage,” explained Narron. “Then, when I managed the Reds, I’d sometimes put Adam Dunn in the two-hole. Everybody said, ‘What in the world are you doing, putting Adam Dunn in the two hole?’ I’d say, ‘Well, he’s a power guy and he’s going to get on base for us.’ With Dunn, I knew that it was going to be a base on balls, a strikeout, or a home run. I caught some heat on the Cincinnati talk shows, but it worked out okay.” Dunn logged a team-best OBP in the three-year span while slashing .248/.379/.527 with 120 home runs and a 129 wRC+. His 327 walks were second-most in the majors during that span, while his 527 strikeouts led all players, That was overall. When batting second in the order, which he did 188 times, Dunn’s on-base percentage was a lofty .441. Dan O’Brien was Cincinnati’s GM in 2005, and Wayne Krivsky held the role in 2006-2007. As for the front office member whose input helped prompt the atypical move, his name might come as a surprise. “The guy I talked to about doing it was doing some analytics stuff and video scouting for us at the time,” explained Narron. “It was [current Reds GM] Nick Krall. I loved talking with Nick before he was the big dog. I mean, there was the manager getting some information from one of the lowest guys on the totem pole. I think the talk shows probably would have died if I told them who I was getting information from.”
A quiz: Fergie Jenkins has the most pitcher WAR (53.6) in Chicago Cubs franchise history. Which underrated former Cub has the second-most pitcher WAR in franchise history? The answer can be found below.
NEWS NOTES
The Atlantic League season got underway on Thursday, and the results included a combined no-hitter. Parker Markel and a pair of relievers combined to allow just one baserunner — that on a walk — as the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars topped the York Revolution 4-0. SABR’s Oral History Committee will be hosting a live Zoom interview with Dave Righetti on Thursday May 9 at 8pm EST. More information can be found here.
The answer to the quiz is Rick Reuschel, who was worth 47.0 WAR pitching for the Cubs from 1972-1981, and again in 1983-1984. All told, the non-Hall of Fame right-hander amassed 68.2 WAR over his 19 seasons.
Left on the cutting-room floor from my recently-published interview with Chicago Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks was his answer to this question: When in your career do you feel you were at your best? “I felt like I was at the top of my game in 2016,” Hendricks told me. “My stuff was playing the best — how it was grading out — and my command was very good. From day one of that season it seemed like I was able to put every pitch where I wanted it. I also feel that I was able to read swings really well. It was just a special year. We played such unbelievable defense, which is a huge part of the game for me. Everything kind of came together, both for me and the team.” Hendricks went 16-8 with an NL-best 2.16 ERA over 190 regular-season innings in 2016. He subsequently started Game 7 of the World Series and allowed two runs, one of them earned, in four-and-two thirds innings in a contest the Cubs went on to win 8-7 in 10 innings.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
James Naile is 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA over six starts with the KBO’s Kia Tigers. The 31-year-old former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander has fanned 38 batters and issued three free passes in 36-and-two-thirds innings. Seong Ho Cheon is slashing .357/.396/.450 in 139 plate appearances with the KT Wiz. The 26-year-old second baseman leads the KBO in hits (46) and triples (3). Yuki Yanagita is slashing .342/.495/.456 in 105 plate appearances for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 35-year-old outfielder is a nine-time All-Star who has hit .313/.410/.539 over 13-plus NPB seasons. Tatsuya Imai is 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 35 innings for NPB’s Seibu Lions. The 25-year-old right-hander went 10-5 with a 2.30 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 133 innings a year ago. Bo Takahashi recorded his first NPB win on Thursday as Seibu beat the Orix Buffaloes 3-1. The 27-year-old right-hander from Presidente Prudente, Brazil pitched in the Arizona Diamondbacks system from 2014-2019 and in the Cincinnati Reds system in 2021.
Which third baseman is/was better, José Ramírez or Scott Rolen? I asked that question in a Twitter poll a few days ago, and the results suggest that…
