Simple Adjustment Makes All the Difference for Chipper

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Retooling a swing amid the grind of a daily big league schedule is next to impossible, so it should have been no surprise to Chipper Jones that he couldn't work his way out of a slump during the season.

What really bothered Jones, though, was that he couldn't do it through most of the offseason either. With nothing to do in January but take swings and analyze video, he was still lost.

"I struggled pretty much all winter," Jones said. "I went through a little over a month of hitting, searching for an answer, and not really finding it."

Jones' swing – and his sanity – might have been saved one day in early February, just before the start of spring training, when he cracked open a video of his swing from the late '90s. The video showed him keeping both hands on the bat in his follow-through, instead of taking one hand off, as he'd done last year.

It can't be that simple, Jones thought.

"I went out and when I do it right, I get that backspin, that carry," Jones said. "I can drive the ball to the opposite field. It was quite a relief to find the answer."

It will be more of a relief six months from now, if Jones' new swing has translated into a return to the production that has put his name into the Hall of Fame discussion. The Braves icon endured the worst year of his career in 2009, falling to career lows in homers (18), RBI (71) and OPS (.818). Really, it was not so much as a bad season as four miserable months. From June 10 to the end of the season, Jones hit .229.

So deep was his slump that Jones talked in September about retiring after the 2010 season if he didn't get back to being productive. The winter didn't soften his stance. Although he believes he won't have to quit – walking away from the $26 million he'd earn in 2011 and '12 – he's prepared to do it.

"If the frustration level is the same as it was last year, I'd certainly consider it," said Jones, who turns 38 on April 24. "The bottom line is if I'm not having fun, I'm going to stop playing. If I'm having fun and producing and the team is winning, then I plan on being here."

Jones said the frustrating slump from last season was a caused by a combination of injuries and, frankly, age. Jones had dealt with nagging shoulder problems over the years that caused him to gradually change his swing. It was more of an issue from the left side than the right, which is his natural side. That was compounded by the fact that he was no longer able to overcome a flawed swing with the sheer strength and bat speed he had in his youth.

"As your body breaks down and you get older you are going to have to do things differently, whereas maybe three or four or five years I would have been able to compensate for some of the mechanical little things," Jones said. "I can't do that any more. I've got to stay fundamentally sound, mechanically sound. If I don't, you are going to see a year like last year."

As he was going through it, Jones tried all sorts of solutions for his slump, but nothing worked. It got to be just as maddening for hitting coach Terry Pendleton.

"We'd work on this and that and seem to get to a place where's on the way to doing something, and we'd go right back," Pendleton said. "It's that muscle memory. You get to a certain spot when you aren't comfortable, so you go back to what's comfortable, even if it's wrong. That's where we ran into a problem last year."

Jones and Pendleton, who both live in the Atlanta area year-round, worked out together a few times over the winter, but their work was mostly in vain. Jones' father also helped his son try to figure it out. Finally, about a week before the start of spring training, Jones saw the tweak he needed to make with his hands. He soon went down to the Braves' spring training facility and had a week of extra swings, with Pendleton and his father.

So far, so good.

Jones is hitting .391, including a towering home run last week from the right side. Jones was encouraged by that, because he said he'd worked so much on his left-handed swing over the winter that the right had not yet come around in the spring.

"I can't complain with the results," he said. "I'm having a pretty good spring, but until we get up north and it starts to translate, I'm going to reserve judgment."

A return to form by Jones would go a long way toward helping the Braves get back to the playoffs after a four-year absence. Atlanta has a solid pitching staff, top to bottom, but the Braves' offense is going to hinge on whether players like Troy Glaus and Jones can have comeback seasons.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that if Chipper is not the Chipper that everybody expects that our club is not going to be clicking like it should be," right-hander Tim Hudson said. "He's our leader. He's the captain of the club. Everyone looks to him for some kind of stability. Last year was a tough year for him, by his standards, but I think he's dealing with that and he's determined to bounce back from last year, and we're expecting him too."

When Pendleton was asked what kind of year he thinks Jones will have, he did not hesitate to give firm numbers: .300, 25 to 30 homers, 100 RBIs.

"I don't try to put expectations on people, but he's a .300 hitter," Pendleton said. "I definitely expect that out of him."