TRENTON- Tyler Jones had a tough month of June for the Thunder, even as the team was streaking their way toward one of the two Eastern Division playoff spots. The big righty, who has now inherited the de facto closer role with Trenton, had always been one to trust in his own assessment of his mechanics. But he recently...
TRENTON- Tyler Jones had a tough month of June for the Thunder, even as the team was streaking their way toward one of the two Eastern Division playoff spots.
The big righty, who has now inherited the de facto closer role with Trenton, had always been one to trust in his own assessment of his mechanics. But he recently need the help of some video cameras, and his pitching coach Jose Rosado, to help him fix his delivery.
"As you guys know, baseball is a game of ups and downs," Jones said. "I had some downs there, and Rosie and I worked on a few things. We watched some film, and I was kind of getting away from my mechanics."
"I was leaking forward, and just not being in time," Jones said. "It is the same thing for pitchers and hitters. You can pick up on little things you are doing differently. So I just did that work with him i the film room, and got on the field and did some sides, and tried to stay confident."
"I had a really good year last year and have had success in the past," Jones said. "One of my favorite quotes, that one of my coordinators used to tell me, is 'You are never as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad as you think you are.' I knew I was better than what I was showing. I was just trying to right the ship."
Jones has definitely benefited from the film sessions, as his numbers after the adjustment show. For the month of July, Jones has allowed just one earned run, to lower his ERA from 4.50 to 2.87. He is 1-0, with two saves, and a 0.75 ERA in his seven outings in the month, and is now 5-2, with six saves on the season.
"Not only was I now commanding the ball well, but my velocity was down for the month of June," Jones said. "When you really look at the tape, pitching is all about repeating yourself. For a guy who throws hard like me, it is about getting on you r back side and exploding forward."
"When you pick your leg up and leak forward, you lose all that momentum, and all that power, from your back side" Jones said. "So that is really one of the main things that we picked up on video, the I was leaking and rushing to the plate, which caused a lot of things. I am not getting the power from my legs into my pitch, it makes my arm not on time, which was affecting my velocity and my location."
"We just kind of nipped that in the bud right away," Jones said. "Then you go out there and have a few good outings, and everything starts rolling. Simple as that, really."
While most of the players at this level have probably played baseball since they could stand, there is always the need to tweak mechanics, in every part of the game. Hitters and pitchers go through periods when they are in the zone, but a slight flaw in a swing, or a delivery, can lead to a cascade of issues.
"Sometimes you definitely lose your way a little bit mechanically," Jones said. "Some guys are video guys. They watch video after every outing, and really analyze every pitch, every slider, every fastball. I have never really been that guy."
"I have been more of a feel guy," Jones said. "I like to have a good sense of how my body feels. But when it started going bad like that, I said alright hey, let's get in there, and maybe I can notice something on the video that normally I wouldn't. It is a person to person thing."
"You definitely have to stay on top of that, and that is what the coaches are for," Jones said. "Hitting wise, pitching wise, the hitters are the same way. They are constantly working with P.J. (Pilittere, Thunder hitting coach) and skip (manager Bobby Mitchell).
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Jones, and the rest of the Thunder bullpen, have seen their jobs made easier by the Thunder starters as of late. With Trenton at 66-40, and just four games back of Reading and 5.5 games up on Hartford, the role of the bullpen should come into focus more in the next month-plus. But it is something Jones relishes.
"I am extremely confident," Jones said. "I am extremely confident in our team as a whole. Our record throughout the season speaks for itself. Our starters our incredible. There was a stretch of two and half or three weeks there in the middle of the season where the pen wasn't getting any work."
"We were throwing well out of the pen, but there was just no need for us," Jones said. "The starters were going seven, eight, or nine innings. I think every guy down there in the pen has great stuff, and can go in there and shut any lineup down."
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean