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John Jaso Letting Instincts Take Over at First Base

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PITTSBURGH – John Jaso has been one of the pleasant surprises so far this season for the Pirates. Batting leadoff, he is 21st in all of baseball in on-base percentage (behind Polanco and Cervelli) and has only struck out seven times which is T-8th among all qualified hitters in the majors. He has been an extremely smart hitter, too, as the chart below shows.

Jaso-Offense-Stats-042706

For those not familiar with these statistics from Fangraphs, O-Swing% is the amount of pitches you swings at outside of the strike zone. Z-Contact% is the amount of pitches you make contact with inside the strike zone. Contact% is any contact made on any swing. SwStr% is your swing-and-miss rate.

Clint Hurdle has said that Jaso has been a catalyst at the top of the lineup, being “everything we anticipated him being able to bring, and he’s bringing right now at the top of the lineup”.

However, the purpose of this article isn’t to talk about Jaso’s offense, which has certainly been spectacular along with many other players on the Pirates’ roster. I wanted to take a look at his defense so far this season. I almost wanted to stop myself short of checking defensive stats when the season is so fresh, but I couldn’t resist. Obviously everything can change over the course of the season, but I felt that three solid weeks could give a minuscule picture on how Jaso has transitioned to playing first base from catcher.

And… the numbers absolutely love him.

Jaso-Defense-Stats-042706

UZR (or Ultimate Zone Rating) is a popular defensive metric that basically compiles a number of different defensive components into a run value or an overall defensive score. UZR/150 is a scaled version of the stat, which compares everyone to an average number of chances for a season. Basically, the Pirates have gone from a starting first baseman with the worst UZR/150 in 2015 (Pedro Alvarez: -26.4) to one with the best in 2016 (Jaso: +20.2). The sample size is limited; however, the numbers are great so far.

The only reason I even want to remotely look at those numbers with playing so few games is strictly because of what my eyes told me in Spring Training when I saw Jaso. I was in Bradenton for a week at the start of the Spring Training game schedule, and there aren’t many words that can describe the feeling that almost all people watching had when Jaso missed this ground ball or missed that scoop or was in the wrong place on the field. His defense was simply not good. It almost made people wonder: “where in the world is Pedro Alvarez when you need him?”

At the time, Jaso told us that he just needed to be out there to learn the intricacies of the position. Here were his comments after that first game:

“You gotta do your reps and everything,” Jaso said. “Seeing how things work with runners going, processing the play out on the field as it’s happening like backing up people, it’s processing all of that stuff. If you play a few games, then everything just begins to happen. Catching was just nice and easy for me, because I’ve been doing it for a long time. I just need reps [at first base]. I’m just going to work hard and have fun.”

I was able to catch up with Jaso in the Pirates’ clubhouse last week and ask him how he felt about the progression so far.

“I’m happy with where I’m at right now,” he said. “I know there is still a lot I need to learn and more that needs to be thrown at me as far as experience goes during a game and game-type situations. Otherwise, I feel comfortable and confident out there.”

Clint Hurdle echoed that sentiment, saying that “he is making good solid progress, and he will continue to make progress”.

“He’s getting into the rhythm of the game where he is just being reactionary and having proactive thinking,” Hurdle said. “I’m happy about what he has done, and we will continue to work with him.”

The reactionary and proactive thinking is a sentiment that Jaso resonated with, saying that he was trying to thinking of everything he was supposed to do exactly by the textbook in the beginning of his time at first base. At the start of the year, there were plays that he has yet to see, and he knew that they would sneak up on him quickly. To help ease him into those situation, Jaso worked with Dave Jauss on a regular basis to be able to close that gap.

“I’ll just pretend like there’s runners on first and second [for example], and then [Dave Jauss] will hit me the ball,” Jaso told Tim Williams earlier this season. “Every once in a while, I’ll go where it’s actually game speed and try to flip the ball to second base as fast as I can. It’s stuff like that. When it happens in the game, it doesn’t speed up so much.”

The words “rely on instincts” kept creeping back to our conversation. In February and March, Jaso was not able to rely on his instincts, basically because he had no instincts for the position. However, he worked tirelessly and was extremely motivated to not only play the position but to play it extremely well. GM Neal Huntington was confident that, through their assessment of Jaso, he would be on track to becoming a more-than-adequate Major League first baseman. Huntington said that the biggest thing for the Pirates when recruiting Jaso was that he wanted to be a first baseman. Nobody was forcing him to play the position, and he knew that playing first was his ticket to continue a long career.

“We looked at the catching background, and we’re aware that catchers traditionally make the transition to first base fairly well,” Huntington said about Jaso. “He wanted to be a baseball player, and he had a ton of motivation to do so, not just in the short-term but in the long-term. If he comes out here and establishes himself as a legitimate Major League option at first base, it opens himself up to a whole ‘nother set of teams next time he goes through free agency – if he does again. We knew we had a young man who wanted to be really good over there. Not just adequate… really good.”

There were some specific details about learning first base that helped Jaso’s “instincts”, as he picked up a glove and showed me some of the troubles that he was having early in the season compared to now. As a catcher, his initial glove setup is pronated, or with the palm facing towards the ground. He was falling back on old habits from his time catching, and his glove would fall into that position on his initial setup.

“Kevin Young has been talking all year so far about my initial glove set up,” Jaso told me. “As a catcher, my glove is like this [pronated], and as a first baseman in the infield it’s like this – it’s open. He was telling me the whole time that it keeps going closed like you’re catching.”

The open position is called a supinated wrist position, which is the typical setup for an infielder.

wrist-supination-neutral-pronation

“Eventually, [Kevin Young] ended up showing me on video, because I couldn’t feel it happening,” Jaso said. “If a ball was rocketed at me, or if I was holding on a guy at first and shuffling off, it is such a long move to get my glove to the ball [with the closed position]. The more I’m cognizant to keep my glove open, it slows down the ball, and I’m not speeding it up myself. It’s more conducive to fielding those rockets hit at me.”

We did discuss a play last week not related to glove position, where pure instincts and athletic ability came into play. With Jeff Locke pitching, the batter lined a ball off of his foot and skipped over towards first. Jaso broke towards the bag as soon as it was hit, but threw on the breaks and cut the other direction to field the ball. The runner ended up beating a sprawling Jaso to the bag, but it was a great example of pure instincts kicking in at the right time.

He has come to realize that being textbook perfect is not the key. Understanding and feeling the position is.

“It was really just clouding up my mind,” Jaso said about trying to be perfect at first. “I’m not allowing myself to instinctually be in the proper place at the right time. I’m not really thinking 1-2-3 step or being in a perfect triangle anymore.”

All of the hard work has paid off so far for the 32-year-old native of California. While Pedro Alvarez ranks last in UZR/150 at first base once again, Jaso is looking good, both in the numbers and the eye test. The Pirates not only have a first baseman who is producing on offense, but they have a guy who is fielding the position defensively. The hope is that the instincts, experience, and repetitions can take him the rest of the way.

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