Jones Baseball Development

MLB Draft combine is going on! This is where you show off your tools!

Teams will take a chance on someone with raw tools! This is why strength and performance training is so important!

A lot of elite baseball players get passed on every year because they lack a super power of a tool. It’s sad but it’s the hard truth.

You don’t want your tools to peak at HS or College, you need room to grow and peak when you are at the highest level😎

Be protectable with an absurd amount of talent ⚡️💪🏾

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonesbaseballdevelopment/p/the-3-step-method-that-made-me-elite?r=8cs87n&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=title

So many ways to advance your approach! It’s easy to say look fastball and adjust! That works, but you have to be STINGY!!! ⭐️

Look fastball in a specific spot, knowing if they paint a pitch for a strike you still get 2 more!

Are you chasing off speeds in the dirt, try looking for anything up in the zone, and take anything below the knees.

Are you late on Fastballs, look to pull a ball to the pullside gap!

Everyday coaches may not tell you to look to pull, but if you haven’t touched a fastball in awhile, looking to pull a FB will actually get you on time and you’ll end up working the middle of the field. 🫡

There are many ways to be successful in this game. And sometimes changing your mechanics isn’t the way, sometimes changing approach isn’t the way, everything is dependent on the hitter and the situation 😎

If the best player in the world can run a hard 90, there is no reason any kid, college player or professional player for that matter can’t!

Mike Trout hurt his hamstring running hard to first base in a game with the Angels down 8-1 in the 8th inning - and "that's what Mike is wired to do," said manager Kurt Suzuki.

(via MLB's Rhett Bollinger)

"How can you tell a guy not to play hard?... That's what makes Mike, Mike. He plays the game hard. He sets the example for everybody."

Before hitting the IL this week Trout had just one day off all season. The 3-time MVP is batting .234 with 17 HR, 36 RBI and a .866 OPS.

🛑STOP focusing on the results and focus on the process and the routine. ✅

The hard part, is trusting it, especially when everyone around you may put pressure on you to produce results.

If your in the box saying to yourself

“I can’t strikeout, I need a hit right now” that won’t help push you towards the results your looking for or give you any more confidence

But if you think

“I’m smashing this, I’m the best hitter out here”

Which one will actually help you?

⚾️BALL IN DIRT READS! 👀

Perfect it and you will be a game changer! The best base runners anticipate them, they understand the counts when they thrown.

A killer that I learned in pro ball that I took and RAN with literally and figuratively was as follows.

Run through a checklist before you take your lead.

1. Get sign from coach
2. Get pitchers time to home from previous pitch
3. Check where infield and outfielders are positioned
4. If you are NOT stealing! Your only job is to look for a ball in dirt and get a great secondary!

You MUST practice it to be great at it. In a perfect world, you read the arch of the pitch before it gets to home and you are off before it touches the ground and there is a no throw😎

How guys get out
- They are told to run on ball in dirt, but they get a bad read and go when the catcher is reaching for the ball.

Practice it, have your coach bounce CB’s and your goal is to read and go before the ball bounces.

That’s how you become a threat on the base paths, then pitchers will throw more heaters or start leaving the offspeed up for your teammates.

⚡️🏃‍♂️💨

📚Learn to read hops as an infielder!

Need to build some rhythm! 🕺

A coach at MLB Urban Youth Academy taught me this trick when I was in HS.

Think of your favorite song🎵 , and imagine the ball is bouncing to the beat, you will instinctively try to catch the ball on beat with a short hop!

Great way to learn how to move smoothly 🌊

Give it a shot👍🏾

I challenge all youth baseball players to watch the college World Series! You can learn so much!

Few key points: SPEED KILLS

- Infield in, OU hits a high chopper, baserunner at third reads height and scores with no throw!

- OU baserunners are buying their hitters fastballs because GA pitchers don’t want the runners to steal!

Great baseball being played

Stay on the fastball even when you’re getting thrown more offspeed!

Once you get caught in in between pitches you will start being late on the FB and then waayyy early on offspeed because you’re not giving your eyes time to recognize the pitch!

Need help with pitch recognition, start looking away, this can help you stay in rhythm while you naturally see the ball deeper because you need to on outside pitches.

Lacking confidence, find ways to tap into that success you’ve had! It’s in there, the tough part is finding the confidence when the darkness is there!

That will separate you from others🧠💪🏾