One of the biggest stories for the Atlanta Braves this spring has been the progression of top prospect Jason Heyward . Heyward's become a batting practice legend, shattering a car window and forcing the grounds crew to put a net up at the Braves' spring training home at Champion Stadium in Walt Disney World Resort.
There are a number of other issues involving the Braves this season outside of their remarkable rookie.
Bobby Cox entering what he claims to be his final season and the Braves' newest acquisitions health are becoming regular topics.
A topic that has somewhat been under-the-radar is Chipper Jones attempting to bounce back and perform to his standards. Chipper has stated he will retire if he does not produce at the high level that he has set for himself.
Earlier today against the St. Louis Cardinals, Chipper hit a monster shot against lefty Rich Hill. Here is what Dave O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had to say on his twitter feed about the home run.
"Chipper Jones just hit a monster two-run homer that landed on the roof of the Marlins office building beyond left field and bounced over it"
"Locals say that's a less-than-once-per-spring thing, anyone hitting a ball onto the roof of that building and over the way Chipper did."
This may lead some to believe that Chipper is on the right track and that his dismal 2009 season will not be repeated.
One problem with looking at this home run in specific is that it came from the right side of the plate. Chipper had no problems batting right-handed last year. Here are his splits from 2009.
As a left-hander —413 plate appearances, .289 avg, .372 obp , .541 slg , 9 home runs, and a 131 OPS+
As a right-hander —183 plate appearances, .252 avg, .395 obp , .377 slg , 9 home runs, and a 101 OPS+
Chipper is naturally right-handed, and he has stated that it takes much less work on his right-handed swing than it does with his left-handed swing. He has many more moving parts as a left-handed hitter, so the timing and mechanics of his swing must be aligned in order for him to be the same hall-of-fame caliber hitter that he has been his whole career.
He apparently has been working diligently on keeping both hands on the bat so that he is able to get more backspin on the ball. Of all the hitters I have heard speak, I have heard none stress the importance of getting backspin on the ball as much as Chipper Jones.
His power numbers have decreased in each of the past few seasons, especially from the left side of the plate.
331 of his 426 home runs have come from the left side of the plate.
In order for Chipper to get back into the upper echelon of offensive third basemen, he must get his power back against right-handed pitching. Hitting the same amount of home runs from both sides of the plate is simply unacceptable for a player of Chipper's caliber.
As you can see from the numbers posted previously, the walks were still there from the left side of the plate. An isoOBP of .143 is tremendous, and usually a higher walk total would lead to better power numbers. In Chipper's case, he was just in a funk with the bat. He could not get things going the way he wanted to last year, which sparked the retirement talk going into the offseason .
For a scoring starved team, the third hitter has to be more productive. Jones will not be spun around to the right side of the plate as often this year as right-handed hitting Troy Glaus will be batting behind him rather than lefty Brian McCann.
Facing more right-handed pitching would usually be a good thing for Jones, but at this stage in his career his power must return from the left side in order to have the type of season that he wants to have.
It is hard to bet against Chipper, but do not take this moonshot of a home run as a sign of more power to come in 2010 for Jones.
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