This kid seems like a whole lot of intrigue based on a present hit tool, unique size, monstrous power, stunning athleticism, and a whole lot of ambiguity from development time lost to injury. The upside of Spencer Jones, to me, looks like Joey Gallo who can actually hit, which would be one of the best players in the Majors.
Here's some detail about his athleticism and power.
Article on Jones' athleticism:
https://theathletic.com/3389573/2022...spencer-jones/
https://lodensports.com/use-case/mlb...tlier-athlete/
The crazy part about it to me is that this analysis of him being in the top 1% athletically of thousands of tested athletes is that that is without taking his size into consideration. To be clear, he testing on speed, strength, and quickness puts him in the elite of the elite athletes, AND THEN he's 6'7", 220 lbs.
Here's some detail about his athleticism and power.
Article on Jones' athleticism:
https://theathletic.com/3389573/2022...spencer-jones/
He’s becoming the player we thought he would, the bat speed, I mean he hits some opposite-field ground balls that infielders don’t even think about getting in front of. Exit speeds of 115, just incredible strength for his size. The guy runs around the field with his shirt off and you just know he’s a different cat.”
Pajak had a good idea of that when he was with USA Baseball and Jones was 16. Since then, Pajak has teamed up with Sean Campbell, who launched the Prospect Development Pipeline for USA Baseball and has scouted for the Padres and Pirates, to create Loden Sports. Their mission is to provide a higher level of athleticism evaluation while developing customized training plans to maximize performance and safe development for athletes of all sports and levels.
They’ve tested more than 10,000 athletes at this point, digging in on things like gait analysis, lower-half symmetry and agility (using a reactive-lights test), and Pajak had the idea of re-testing Jones to see how five years and 35 pounds of muscle have changed him. He reached out to Jones’ agents at CAA and flew from Raleigh to Nashville to spend a day with Jones last month in advance of the Draft Combine.
“He’s a freak athlete,” Pajak said of his simplified conclusion. “Usually, guys are high in power and low in speed, or vice versa. He’s high in both.”
Pajak wrote a piece about Jones on lodensports.com, calling him an “outlier athlete” with a Loden Score of 9 out of 12 — “a feat accomplished by fewer than 1 percent of elite, physically mature athletes,” Pajak wrote.
Pajak had a good idea of that when he was with USA Baseball and Jones was 16. Since then, Pajak has teamed up with Sean Campbell, who launched the Prospect Development Pipeline for USA Baseball and has scouted for the Padres and Pirates, to create Loden Sports. Their mission is to provide a higher level of athleticism evaluation while developing customized training plans to maximize performance and safe development for athletes of all sports and levels.
They’ve tested more than 10,000 athletes at this point, digging in on things like gait analysis, lower-half symmetry and agility (using a reactive-lights test), and Pajak had the idea of re-testing Jones to see how five years and 35 pounds of muscle have changed him. He reached out to Jones’ agents at CAA and flew from Raleigh to Nashville to spend a day with Jones last month in advance of the Draft Combine.
“He’s a freak athlete,” Pajak said of his simplified conclusion. “Usually, guys are high in power and low in speed, or vice versa. He’s high in both.”
Pajak wrote a piece about Jones on lodensports.com, calling him an “outlier athlete” with a Loden Score of 9 out of 12 — “a feat accomplished by fewer than 1 percent of elite, physically mature athletes,” Pajak wrote.
The crazy part about it to me is that this analysis of him being in the top 1% athletically of thousands of tested athletes is that that is without taking his size into consideration. To be clear, he testing on speed, strength, and quickness puts him in the elite of the elite athletes, AND THEN he's 6'7", 220 lbs.
- So, is it any surprise at all that he put 22 balls in play this spring with an exit velocity over 110 mph?
- Or, that nearly half of the balls he put in play this year came off the bat over 100 mph (45% to be exact)?
- For people tied into baseball analytics, it’s pretty common knowledge that as launch angle increases, exit velocities tend to decrease – yet, Spencer averaged 99.1 mph on balls launched between 26-45 degrees (categorized as fly balls).
With less than 1% of the elite, physically mature athlete population scoring a Loden 9 or higher, it is hard to imagine that Spencer Jones isn’t one of the best athletes in the entire draft class. Couple his outlier raw athleticism with his size and you have a size-power-speed combo usually reserved for the upper reaches of basketball and football. It is no secret that baseball is seeking a higher caliber of athlete to inject excitement into the sport… we can’t help but wonder if Spencer Jones wasn’t born in Southern California, a baseball hotbed – would he have been playing tight end for Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney instead of patrolling right field for Tim Corbin?
Comment