Baby Birds: A conversation with Daryl Jones

Written by: Bill Ivie on 10th April 2009

Baby Birds: A conversation with Daryl Jones | read this item

After having a conversation with Brett Wallace, it seemed only natural to ask Daryl Jones to squeeze me into his daily routine. Unlike Brett, I caught Daryl at the end of his daily workout, giving me a little bit more time with the prospect rated seventh best by baseball prospectus this year. After waiting patiently for Daryl to grab some post-workout grub, I met with the 21 year old outfielder and former third round pick out of High School. We talked about the pressures of performing at a high level, some of the criticism he has received during his three year professional career and the importance of fundamental baseball in the Cardinals’ organization.

At a time when most of the players were starting to walk the halls of Hammons Field in their street clothes and began to vacate the locker room area, Daryl came out of the players lounge still dressed in his game gear, sans jersey, to make a little time to talk to me before calling it a day himself.

The natural point to start the conversation with the 21 year old was to ask if he felt any pressure from the recent rankings by Baseball Prospectus. Daryl had been rated the seventh best prospect in the organization, and the second rated outfield prospect to Colby Rasmus. He has also been rated as the fastest and best athlete in the Cardinals’ organization. Daryl told me that you always feel a little pressure, especially the higher up in the organization you get. The trick is to apply that pressure from within yourself. Try to concentrate on playing your game and pressure yourself to perform how you know you can.

I wanted to talk to Daryl about a lot of the criticism that he has received in his short professional career. I asked him how he felt about the critics rating his arm strength and reads as an outfielder as the largest weaknesses in his game. Did he feel it was a fair assessment and if so, what was he doing to improve this? Daryl told me that he agrees with the assessment of his skills. He said that in Class A ball and his early career at Double A Springfield, he focused so much on hitting and improving the offensive part of his game that he neglected some of the workouts that helped improve these things. Late last season he began to work with the coaching staff and uses a long throwing program to strengthen his arm. He feels that this year he will show a vast improvement in that area. Meanwhile, where reads and jumps on the ball are concerned he expressed a similar mindset that Colby Rasmus has been talking about in the big leagues. When you play centerfield, the read is true, there is no angle or adjustments. The ball comes off the bat completely different when you are in the corner outfield positions. Since settling in as a left fielder and getting more and more time in that position, he feels that these aspects of his game continue to improve and he looks forward to showcasing that this season.

Late last season, the Cardinals’ prospect that is ranked as the fastest baserunner and top athlete in the organization made a move to the top of the batting order for the first time. Looking at his statistics one notices a very balanced approach to the game. His power numbers are not overwhelming and his stolen base numbers are fair. When asked where he prefers to hit in the lineup, Daryl quickly turned to this move to the leadoff role and how it has helped his game a lot. Since that move, he feels that his plate discipline and ability to draw walks has greatly improved. As the Springfield Cardinals made their run for the playoffs it was being in the leadoff role that helped Daryl develop a “team first” mindset towards the game. He enjoyed setting the table and feels that many aspects of his offensive game improved because of this different approach at the plate. When discussing the fact that it has been said in the past that he lacked plate discipline he noted that a lot of that came from a comfort level. He felt very overwhelmed at times in the early stages of his career, he was drafted right out of high school at 17 years old, and feels that as he started to get comfortable his game improved. He spoke about having to deflate his ego a bit and learn that sometimes you have to develop confidence in the way you are playing the game, even when the results aren’t there. That it becomes important to realize that hitting .200 one season, when your career will span 15-20 seasons, is really kind of minuscule.

In high school, Daryl played both baseball and football. He told me that football opened a lot of doors to him towards higher education, but in the end, the fact that he was taken so early in the draft (110th overall selection) and the eagerness to begin learning the game at the professional level led to the decision to turn to professional baseball over college. While learning the game at this level, he has learned the importance of fundamentals in the game, especially in the Cardinals’ farm system. In 2009, he looks to improve his game more. He knows the athletic ability is there and wants to continue to refine that raw ability to become a smarter baseball player this year.

As far as the journey so far, Daryl says he has derived a lot of inspiration from an early hitting coach, former Major Leaguer Keith Mitchell. He feels that Keith taught him how to hit like a professional, teaching him concentration and hitting techniques. He feels that at Double A you should know the basics of the game and should be refining those into becoming a better professional ball player. As far as his peers go, he has remained close and derives a lot of inspiration from fellow 2005 draftie Colby Rasmus. Though drafted at the same time and virtually competing at times for the same job, he and Colby always maintained a solid friendship. During an 0 for 15 slump last year, Daryl called Colby from North West Arkansas for some help. Colby helped him to calm down, reminded him to just play his game to the best of his ability and relax. Daryl mentioned more than once during our conversation how he watched the Cardinals/Pirates game the night before as Colby was making his first major league start. He seemed genuinely happy for his former teammate.

Finally I asked Daryl what he seen two years in the future of his career. He stated that he hoped he was in St. Louis contributing to the big club by 2011. Right now he wants to build on last year and keep improving. He looks to Colby Rasmus as inspiration since he is now in St. Louis and was drafted at the same time as Daryl.

Meeting with Daryl you can observe a very high level of confidence from the young man. You could also tell by the interactions during our time together that Daryl is very well liked by his teammates and colleagues. A young man who research showed a reputation of being hard to talk to and “full of himself” came across to me as very open and honest and professional.

Coming up next in our Baby Birds coverage, I’ll recap the opening home series against the Frisco Roughriders. The series runs from Thursday, April 9 through Saturday, April 11. I’ll have a run-down of the three game set on Saturday evening, right here on BaseballDigest.com.

Topics: baby birds, Colby Rasmus, Daryl Jones, Prospects, Springfield Cardinals