'Do yourself a favor': Rox rookie shares hilarious advice note from fan

DENVER -- Nolan Jones has a handwritten letter taped to his locker at Coors Field. This is no ordinary fan mail.

“Do yourself a favor,” it reads, in part. “Spread your stance a bit. Drop your butt a bit. Stay closed. Hit against a solid front side after a slight lift or toe tap.”

There’s a lot of advice there -- some of it written in all capital letters -- from someone with no apparent credentials as a hitting instructor. Hey, who among us laypersons don’t think we can teach a Major Leaguer a thing or two about hitting?

Jones looks up at it now and again when he wants a good chuckle.

“Some guy sent me two pages on all the adjustments I need to make,” said the rookie after he launched a three-run homer to go along with a single, a triple and a walk in Colorado’s 13-9 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday night.

“So I threw it up there. It’s actually working a little bit.”

Jones, who is usually as serious and workmanlike as they come, allowed himself a wry smile when he made that statement, which was clearly tongue-in-cheek.

Something that would not be said facetiously, however, is this: Nolan Jones is the best player on the Rockies’ roster today.

Overall this season, Jones has 14 homers and an .890 OPS in 300 plate appearances. His fWAR reached 1.8 on Friday, the highest for any Rockies player this season. He eclipsed Ryan McMahon and fellow rookie Ezequiel Tovar, who are each at 1.6.

WAR is by no means the be-all, end-all stat. But consider that Jones has accumulated that value in 78 games, whereas McMahon (129) and Tovar (126) have played in far more.

With his go-ahead, three-run homer to the opposite field against hard-throwing lefty Génesis Cabrera -- who hadn’t given up a run over 18 appearances since being traded to Toronto from St. Louis -- Jones improved his batting average with runners in scoring position to .426 this season.

It’s a small sample size (69 plate appearances), but among rookies with 60 or more plate appearances since that stat started being recorded in 1974, only three produced a higher figure with runners in scoring position: Al Pedrique (.458 for the Pirates in 1987), Ichiro Suzuki (.445 for the Mariners in 2001), and Jesus Guzman (.431 for the Padres in 2011).

It’s not just offensively that Jones has produced, either. While he’s still learning the intricacies of playing in the outfield after coming up through the Minors in the Cleveland organization as an infielder, there is nobody in the Majors this year who has an average arm strength better than his 98.8 mph, according to Statcast.

That cannon has helped him rack up 12 assists in 549 1/3 outfield innings in 2023. Entering Friday, his 0.2 assists-per-nine-innings rate was tied for third-highest among outfielders with a minimum of 500 frames played in a season since 1960. He was tied with Roberto Clemente (1961) and Jeff Francoeur (2005) in that category.

That’s all great stuff, but let’s pump the brakes a little. We are talking about 78 games, after all.

Ask manager Bud Black, who’s been in the Majors as a player, coach or manager for more than 40 years. He offered a tone of cautious optimism after Jones’ performance on Friday, noting the small sample size, but also the great potential there.

“We’ve seen it for most of the year, which is exciting for us for the future,” Black said. “You have to pass the test of time. You have to keep doing it. … But the batting average, the on-base [ability], the power … it’s really good stuff for a young player.”

Jones still has a lot to prove before we can anoint him a star in the big leagues. He has a lot of swing-and-miss to his game and, as evidenced by a couple of instances in which he had trouble getting a handle on an extra-base hit in left field on Friday, he’s still rough around the edges in the outfield.

But a guy who can hit the ball nearly 500 feet, regularly throws out runners by unleashing 100-plus-mph missiles from the outfield and, according to Statcast, has an average sprint speed (28.8 feet per second) that places him in the 81st percentile among all qualified players, is the type of guy fans tend to dream about.

If he spreads his stance a bit, drops his butt and stays closed, this kid might just have a future in the big leagues.