{"id":32352,"date":"2020-05-31T20:25:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T00:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=32352"},"modified":"2020-05-31T20:25:48","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T00:25:48","slug":"jared-jones-2020-mlb-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/05\/31\/jared-jones-2020-mlb-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Jones 2020 MLB Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong><strong>Jared Jones<\/strong> 2020 MLB Draft Profile<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Jared Jones is a 6\u20192\u201d, 175-pound high school graduate from La Mirada High School in Southern California. His pitch arsenal made him tough to hit in high school \u2013 and that\u2019s putting it mildly. In March of 2019, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/highschool\/la-sp-top-pitchers-high-schools-20190321-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">threw a perfect game<\/a> against Bellflower High School. He also runs well and has solid power, making him appealing as a third baseman. However, his commitment to play college ball for the University of Texas might make teams balk at selecting him.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Strengths<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In his 79-pitch perfect game, Jones struck out 10 of the 21 batters, with only 18 pitches being balls. According to his profile on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.perfectgame.org\/Players\/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=404074\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Perfect Game<\/a>, he has a high leg kick, fast arm rhythm, and a 3\/4 overhand delivery. His fastball topped out at 96 mph, but his young age means that he can add even more velocity to his heater. He also gets \u201criding life up in the zone and sink down in the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Jared Jones draft profile video on MLB.com mentions a hard, biting slider in the mid-80s that turns into an upper-70s slurve if he changes his arm angle. Perfect Game also mentions a changeup that has topped out at 90 mph, meaning that it\u2019s usually in the high-80s. Although he\u2019s a two-way prospect now, Perfect Game says his \u201cfuture is on the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/streamable.com\/m\/2020-draft-jared-jones-rhp\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The main \u201cweakness\u201d isn\u2019t a weakness regarding his playing ability but, rather, his signability. Originally, he committed to play at the University of Southern California, but, according to burntorangenation.com, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.burntorangenation.com\/2019\/10\/15\/20916364\/jared-jones-commits-texas-longhorns-baseball-2020-recruiting\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">switched his commitment<\/a> after USC fired the head baseball coach. These two school choices can be evidence of his desire to play at an elite college program, given that they have combined for 18 national championships and have consistently sent top talent to the major leagues.<\/p>\n<p>If Jones goes high enough in the draft, it may net a large enough contract to lure him away from the Longhorns. However, that is a risk many teams are unwilling to take. With the minor league layoffs, that may dissuade Jones from signing a pro contract. Furthermore, with a shortened draft, that severely decreases his chances of being selected in the first place. A lot of teams may prefer to draft outgoing college seniors who have a much higher chance of signing a pro contract.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>MLB Comparison<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Jared Jones is the same height and of a similar build to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greinza01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Greinke<\/a> <\/strong>of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/houston-astros\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Astros<\/a>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/archech01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Archer<\/a> <\/strong>of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/pittsburgh-pirates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rayro02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robbie Ray<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/arizona-diamondbacks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>. His pitch speeds and pitch selection draw few comparisons to modern players. They are almost identical, however, to a recently retired player \u2013 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodke02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kerry Wood<\/a><\/strong>, although Wood is a bigger guy at 6\u20195\u201d, 210 lbs.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Outlook<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Jared Jones is a fireballer with movement and a nasty arsenal of breaking pitches. He will only continue to get better no matter what path he chooses. One cannot see him be very likely to pass up an elite college program to play with a struggling major league franchise, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s impossible. Either way, fans can expect to see the name \u201cJared Jones\u201d often within the next few years.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"jf78QUvhRW1LqKrF9ZqW8A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1180876199\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'jf78QUvhRW1LqKrF9ZqW8A',sig:'lJK1eULqYKduL4MJourtrbfd-_gaBuycC3zQH_kNXyw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1180876199',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jared Jones 2020 MLB Draft Profile Jared Jones is a 6\u20192\u201d, 175-pound high school graduate from La Mirada High School in Southern California. His pitch arsenal made him tough to hit in high school \u2013 and that\u2019s putting it mildly. In March of 2019, he threw a perfect game against Bellflower High School. He also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2901,"featured_media":32355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071],"tags":[3718,3719],"class_list":["post-32352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-jared-jones","tag-la-mirada-high-school"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}