Lonnie

Looking at his swing, especially w/r/t to his legs, I see pretty much everything that you are pointing out.

There are essentially three main theories to hitting. The oldest is the classic weight-shift which employs little or no hip action. The next oldest is the Ted Williams hip-rotation approach which uses little to no weight transfer. Next in line is the Charlie Lau modified weight transfer which uses a combination of weight transfer and hip rotation to generate power.

It is hard to put a finger on which school of theory he falls under. The closest that I can see is that he has a modified Charlie Lau style of swing. There are four essential parts to Lau’s theory of hitting:
1 – An aggresive weight shift.
2 – Added hip rotation around a stiff front leg.
3 – A level swing
4 – Front arm extension.

Breaking things down, here is what I see with respect to Lau.

The rocking aspect is not just for timing, but to also free himself of “rigidity”. Lau stated that “a hitter must go back to go forward”. Jones does a wonderful job of transfering his weight over his back leg in almost picture perfect Lau style.

Since Jones does not lock his front knee, he does not produce any power from the hip rotation (as you pointed out). By keeping his knee flexed, he creates a shock absorber type of effect that soaks up energy rather than transfering it up the road to his shoulders. In the classic Lau style the hips would begin their rotation first, creating a torquing of the torso which the shoulders must follow. With essentially nothing to torque around to begin with (soft knee, or front side), a large percentage of the energy created from the hips is lost.

Lau disciples almost to a man hold the bat higher, which is what Jones does. The idea behind this is that with the bat held higher the shoulders, when they rotate, create a more level swing-plane. Looking at those few out-takes though, Jones appears to me to have a bit of upper-cut to his swing almost approaching a golf swing, but the sample size is way to small to make a conclusive judgement on the plane of his swing.

Again, looking at the video, Jones departs completely from the Lau theory of hitting when it comes to his front arm. He doesn’t so much swing that bat as he “punches” with it. To generate power from this approach takes an awful lot of strength in the arms and shoulders. Looking at Jones’ physique, he looks like he has the requisite strength. If you want to compare Jones’ swing with someone who is a shining example of the Lau theory, take a look at Junior Griffey. What extending the front arm does is it gives the hitter a much better chance of utilizing the entire field and getting better coverage of the entire strikezone. Swings like Jones’ are conducive to pull-hitting (think Jose Lopez).

In summary, I think that Jones is a wonderful project and if he is coachable at all could turn into one of those late-round steals that every other team seems to find and the Mariners fall short of.

Myself, I would try very hard to get Jones to lock that front knee. Everything else appears to be there or very close to the Lau theory of hitting. The extended front arm would be nice to see, but it isn’t a deal breaker.

Lonnie