Garrett Jones’ lack of patience

Garrett Jones dug his left cleat into the fresh dirt scattered around Busch Stadium’s home plate and tapped the end of his bat on the ground. He lifted his head, stared without expression toward the pitcher’s mound and took a casual practice swing. Cardinals’ pitcher Jake Westbrook, oblivious of Jones, focused on the signs of his catcher Tony Cruz. For the fifth straight pitch, Cruz signaled for Westbrook’s trademark sinker. The count was 3-1 and Jones was in the driver’s seat. He cocked the bat menacingly behind his left ear, his powerful fingers loosely gripping his weapon as he awaited the pitch.

Westbrook rotated his hips, lifted his left leg toward his chest, stepped forward and fired his best sinker. The baseball left his hand at 91 MPH and hurtled toward the catcher’s mitt. Jones lifted his right foot slightly, stepped toward the plate and prepared to meet the white leather sphere with his formidable bat. As the ball approached the plate, it suddenly plummeted into the dirt. In an instant, Jones halted his swing and looked on as the ball skipped into Cruz’ big catcher’s glove. Jones flipped his bat toward the Pirates dugout and jogged to first base. One pitch later, Clint Barmes flew out to center field and the inning was over.

This occurred on May 3. It was only Jones’ third walk of the season. He did not reach via base on balls for a fourth time until this past Saturday. He also was intentionally walked on Sunday. In the past 45 days, Jones has one unintentional walk in 98 plate appearances. He has walked unintentionally only four times in 161 total plate appearances on the season.

This is not typical for Jones. Here are his unintentional walk rates during his time with the Pirates.

Season	PA	uBB%
2009	358	8.94%
2010	654	7.80%
2011	478	9.62%
2012	161	2.48%

Jones has been swinging much more often this season than in the past, at pitches both in the zone and outside it. Anecdotally, I feel like I see him waving at a pitch in the dirt at least once or twice per game. Here are his plate discipline stats (PITCHf/x version) from FanGraphs. (Note: These numbers are current through Saturday’s games.)

Season	O-Swing%	Z-Swing%	Swing%
2009	30.4%	65.8%	46.5%
2010	31.2%	66.5%	47.0%
2011	31.9%	66.4%	47.4%
2012	39.9%	69.1%	52.3%
2012 League Average	28.5%	61.5%	44.8%

Jones is currently producing his best batting average and power numbers since his surprisingly dominant arrival in Pittsburgh in 2009. However, his extreme lack of patience has left him with an awful .273 on-base percentage, and is dramatically hurting his overall value at the plate.

Season	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	ISO	wOBA	wRC+
2009	358	.293	.372	.567	.274	.396	145
2010	654	.247	.306	.414	.167	.314	93
2011	478	.243	.321	.433	.189	.328	107
2012	161	.253	.273	.461	.208	.312	95