What Made Adam Jones Change? WBC?

[sportsfan8703]

The guy is walking more, having more patient AB's, and playing a deep CF.  Right now he's on pace for 56 BB's, which would best his career high by 17.  He has a career high .345 OBP, which would normally mean he was batting .310.  Jones commented that he's playing deeper in CF because that's where the numbers say he should play.  So he's made two huge changes that people have been critical of him for years.  

So what changed?  Jones himself obviously gets the credit, but did the WBC get to him?  He got to practice with another team for like a month.  That's different coaching.  Seeing how players from other teams play.  

Tino Martinez was the hitting coach for the USA in the WBC.  I'd be interested to see how much Tino worked with him.  Here's the complete list of WBC coaches:

"General Manager Joe Torre and Field Manager Jim Leyland lead Team USA's staff. Also on the coaching staff is Tom Brookens (bench coach), Jeff Jones (pitching coach), Marcel Lachemann (bullpen coach), Tino Martinez (hitting coach), Willie Randolph (third base coach), Alan Trammell (first base coach), Mark Reed (BP catcher) and Roly DeArmas (BP pitcher)."

http://web.usabaseball.com/article.jsp?ymd=20170119&content_id=215507672&vkey=news_usab

Adam Jones's stats

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jonesad01.shtml

 

[Can_of_corn]

I'm going with his poor defense performance last year made him more willing to make changes in his defensive approach.

As for the walks, he's had stretches like this before, let's see if he sustains it before we get overly excited.

[Frobby]

Ask this question if Jones is still walking a lot three months from now.    He had 9 walks in 29 games last Sept./Oct.    He typically goes through streaks where he is more disciplined or less disciplined.    It's too soon to look at 7 walks as representing some sea change in his approach.  

[webbrick2010]

I think he really tries to get on base in the one or two hole. If/when he goes back to hitting in a power slot is when the starts swinging for the fences

[backwardsk]

I believe his defensive positioning is related to observing Fowler's success last season.  Jones is a smart guy.  He knows FA is coming up.

[LA2]

I've been glad to see him situationally shoot hits to the opposite field as well, but, as with the walks and less reckless swinging, he's had periods of doing and abandoning it before, too. I just hope he chooses his spots correctly more often than not.

[CaptainRedbeard]

Maybe he's been watching the two best defensive CF in baseball (Kiermaier and Pillar) playing in the same division and realized that maybe he should play more like them?

[Just Regular]

I agree it is a good change, though I think he probably enjoyed Kiermaier being "too deep" on Smith's little league HR!

[Aristotelian]

I remember in 2015 about this time I posted about AJ's apparent change in approach. At that time, he had a bunch of walks and had really elevated is pitches per AB. Then he quickly reverted to same old Adam. I do like his approach so far this year and would love for him to sustain it, but I am not terribly optimistic. I do think batting him leadoff or #2 does put him in more of a table-setting mode.

[Tx Oriole]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm going with his poor defense performance last year made him more willing to make changes in his defensive approach.

As for the walks, he's had stretches like this before, let's see if he sustains it before we get overly excited.

I sure hope he does.