Getting To Know: Jordan Jones
January 31, 2017 | Baseball
The Husky Baseball team welcomes in a group of newcomers for the 2017 season that helped make up one of the nation's top-10 overall classes. Leading up to the season-opener on Feb. 17, GoHuskies.com will feature some of the newcomers online and through UW Baseball's social channels. Featured today is right-handed pitcher Jordan Jones of Kent, Wash.
Β
Your brother, Taylor, that played baseball at Gonzaga and was just drafted in the 19th round by Houston. What was it like growing up with a brother who also played and was very good at baseball?
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It was actually something special. A lot of people would always ask me if I felt like I was in the shadow of my brother growing up, but I always felt the total opposite. I absolutely love my brother. I love it when he's doing well. It makes me want to achieve the goals he gets and succeed or surpass them and one day be able to say I was better than my older brother. He's paved such a good path and done so well that I just want to be close to how well he's done.
Β
What kind of juggling act was it like for your parents with two boys playing high-level baseball?
Β
They always pretty much split us up. I was always with my dad, doing my stuff and my mom was with my brother, Taylor, doing his stuff. So we always would go our separate ways and that's how we did everything.
Β
Do you regret that you won't get to face your brother in the college level?
Β
Not really. I threw against him once, over winter, and that was the first time I'd ever thrown against him and it was the toughest thing. He was the hardest batter I've ever had to face in my life. It helped me get better but it also shows, this is why he was drafted and why he's starting his professional career. Not facing him at the college level is kind of an advantage to me because that's just one less great hitter I have to face.
Β
Which one of your teammates is the toughest to face?
Β
So far this fall the one who probably has been the toughest might have been Kyle London. It was my first time pitching against him obviously coming here and he's just a scrappy hitter. He can either hit for power or just hit for base hits. He can hit just about every pitch, every location and it was always a good battle with him. I would always try to get crafty and change things a little differently when facing him. I've only gotten him out once I think out of like four or five at bats.
Β
You were 28-2 over four years during high school. What made you such a good pitcher at that level?
Β
I was pretty much able to go after the guys. I was lucky to have a really solid defense all four years at Kentwood and just knowing that even if I do pitch a contact and they hit the ball, I know my guys will be able to back me up and make nice plays for me. So just by attacking the hitters probably helped me the best. By the time my senior year rolled around I was able to strike a lot of guys out. But still when it came down to the last few teams in the state, knowing that they were way better hitters than what I'd faced earlier in the year, I knew that I could attack them and try to keep my pitch count low by allowing them to get themselves out and just hitting it pretty much to my defense. That's helped me the best. If I do get to the point where I try to be too fine with my pitches, that's what will mainly hurt me. So just making sure I just pitch to contact will be the best thing that will help me.
Β
You lost two games. Do you remember the two losses more than the wins?
Β
Oh yeah, for sure. My first loss was my freshman year in the State Quarterfinals to South Kitsap. That was a 1-0 loss and that was a killer of a loss, just being so close to the State Championship. Then the second loss was the next year, my sophomore year, to Thomas Jefferson High School. That was a 4-1 loss I think it was and they were just able to hit me. I struggled with location and they got the best of me.
Β
Describe yourself as a pitcher.
Β
I'm just a guy that controls the zone. I like to stay around the zone. I love hitting spots, whether it's my fastball, changeup or curveball. I have confidence to throw any of the pitches for any count, any location. Just tricking hitters a little bit with my motion. It's somewhat of a new thing that I've started with changing my motion of speeding up or slowing down. I came here a little bit with it and then I'm just expanding off of it. It wasn't necessarily something that he (Jason Kelly) told me maybe we should go this way, it was an idea that I kind of offered to him. He said, 'Yeah that will be something good to do.' It's something different.
Β
Have you talked about your role with the team with the coaches or what they expect from you?
Β
We had our closing out meetings after fall and it was pretty much summed up of possibly having the role of the Sunday starter or a key bullpen guy. Just any role that they give me, I'm taking full advantage of it and just trying to be the best I can possibly be and get us to Omaha.
Β
Talk about the dynamic of this group, with the newcomers and returners.
Β
The returners pretty much took us in from day one. Knowing that pretty much half of the pitching staff are freshmen and the other half are upperclassmen, they just took us in. They showed us the way they do it here and we've just followed in their path. We're just picking their brains every moment we can get. Just asking questions, sitting and watching their bullpens, watching their flat grounds when they throw it to the pad, just learning from what they do. For me I don't necessarily ask a lot of question, I'm a pretty quiet type of dude, so I just kind of sit back and watch everything they do from their pads, bullpens, flat grounds, when they play catch. I just keep an eye and see what I can learn from them.
Β
Being from Kentwood you played Federal Way. What's Christian Jones like?
Β
He's a great dude, always a competitor. We always go back and forth just bickering on not even baseball, we talk a lot about basketball a because he obviously had back-to-back state titles. Last year, my school Kentwood played their school, Federal Way in the State Championship so we would always go back and forth on that. Even with baseball, we would always go back and forth seeing who could beat the other. But every time we've faced off against each other it's always been just a crazy match up. It's always been a battle. This last year when I faced him, he had three at bats and every at bat was a 3-2 count. So foul balls, taking good pitches, just everything. It was a good time.
Β
What was it like watching him playing basketball in the State Championship knowing he was going to be your teammate?
Β
It was a cool experience. That was actually my first year not playing basketball for Kentwood and just watching them get to that point was obviously really cool. But then for that game to end up going against Christian and Federal Way, who was also trying to go for the repeat was also something special. I was telling everyone how good Christian is and saying, don't underestimate him, he may be a baseball player and going to UW for baseball but he can still do it on the court too. Just watching him play, it's amazing. He can do it all. He would post up, guard some of our quick guys, he would get rebounds, pass, score, he was doing it all.
Β
You want to get into sports broadcasting or journalism. What's the story behind that?
Β
Growing up I watched so much SportsCenter and SportsNation and all of the sports talk shows, it's just something that's always interested me. At night I'll just sit and watch SportsCenter when it's on. The hours where they just repeat the same SportsCenter over and over again, I'll watch the same thing three times in a row. It's just something that drives me. I love talking about sports. Baseball, basketball, football, I just love it all and wish one day I could be doing that.
Β
What do you like to do in your free time?
Β
In my free time I'm big on just kicking back and relaxing in the dorms. I've always not been a really social type of person but I just like spending time by myself, just relaxing. I'll watch some movies on Netflix, I'll play a little bit of video games and just chill in my room.
Β
As a local guy do you show your teammates around or do you feel like an outsider in your own town still?
Β
I'm kind of an outsider in my own town because I haven't really toured or looked around downtown Seattle a whole lot. With Tommy (Costello), one of the nights, we were driving around downtown and going past Pike Place, and that was the first time I'd ever seen Pike Place in person. It's weird because they are always asking me about some of these locations in downtown and I don't know what they are or I haven't been there. But a couple times we've gone back to Kent for certain reasons and I showed them my house, where I live, where I went to high school. We drove down to Kent Station and I told them this is pretty much where we would hang out.Β
Β
How is it living with Tommy?
Β
Yeah, I love Tommy so much. He's funny, probably the nicest guy I've ever met. It's good being a roommate with him because he's very clean. We go to sleep at like 9:30-10 every night. I love that, getting to bed early, never too many late nights or anything. We just gel really well together. It's nice.
Β
Β
Your brother, Taylor, that played baseball at Gonzaga and was just drafted in the 19th round by Houston. What was it like growing up with a brother who also played and was very good at baseball?
Β
It was actually something special. A lot of people would always ask me if I felt like I was in the shadow of my brother growing up, but I always felt the total opposite. I absolutely love my brother. I love it when he's doing well. It makes me want to achieve the goals he gets and succeed or surpass them and one day be able to say I was better than my older brother. He's paved such a good path and done so well that I just want to be close to how well he's done.
Β
What kind of juggling act was it like for your parents with two boys playing high-level baseball?
Β
They always pretty much split us up. I was always with my dad, doing my stuff and my mom was with my brother, Taylor, doing his stuff. So we always would go our separate ways and that's how we did everything.
Β
Do you regret that you won't get to face your brother in the college level?
Β
Not really. I threw against him once, over winter, and that was the first time I'd ever thrown against him and it was the toughest thing. He was the hardest batter I've ever had to face in my life. It helped me get better but it also shows, this is why he was drafted and why he's starting his professional career. Not facing him at the college level is kind of an advantage to me because that's just one less great hitter I have to face.
Β
Which one of your teammates is the toughest to face?
Β
So far this fall the one who probably has been the toughest might have been Kyle London. It was my first time pitching against him obviously coming here and he's just a scrappy hitter. He can either hit for power or just hit for base hits. He can hit just about every pitch, every location and it was always a good battle with him. I would always try to get crafty and change things a little differently when facing him. I've only gotten him out once I think out of like four or five at bats.
Β
You were 28-2 over four years during high school. What made you such a good pitcher at that level?
Β
I was pretty much able to go after the guys. I was lucky to have a really solid defense all four years at Kentwood and just knowing that even if I do pitch a contact and they hit the ball, I know my guys will be able to back me up and make nice plays for me. So just by attacking the hitters probably helped me the best. By the time my senior year rolled around I was able to strike a lot of guys out. But still when it came down to the last few teams in the state, knowing that they were way better hitters than what I'd faced earlier in the year, I knew that I could attack them and try to keep my pitch count low by allowing them to get themselves out and just hitting it pretty much to my defense. That's helped me the best. If I do get to the point where I try to be too fine with my pitches, that's what will mainly hurt me. So just making sure I just pitch to contact will be the best thing that will help me.
Β
You lost two games. Do you remember the two losses more than the wins?
Β
Oh yeah, for sure. My first loss was my freshman year in the State Quarterfinals to South Kitsap. That was a 1-0 loss and that was a killer of a loss, just being so close to the State Championship. Then the second loss was the next year, my sophomore year, to Thomas Jefferson High School. That was a 4-1 loss I think it was and they were just able to hit me. I struggled with location and they got the best of me.
Β
Describe yourself as a pitcher.
Β
I'm just a guy that controls the zone. I like to stay around the zone. I love hitting spots, whether it's my fastball, changeup or curveball. I have confidence to throw any of the pitches for any count, any location. Just tricking hitters a little bit with my motion. It's somewhat of a new thing that I've started with changing my motion of speeding up or slowing down. I came here a little bit with it and then I'm just expanding off of it. It wasn't necessarily something that he (Jason Kelly) told me maybe we should go this way, it was an idea that I kind of offered to him. He said, 'Yeah that will be something good to do.' It's something different.
Β
Have you talked about your role with the team with the coaches or what they expect from you?
Β
We had our closing out meetings after fall and it was pretty much summed up of possibly having the role of the Sunday starter or a key bullpen guy. Just any role that they give me, I'm taking full advantage of it and just trying to be the best I can possibly be and get us to Omaha.
Β
Talk about the dynamic of this group, with the newcomers and returners.
Β
The returners pretty much took us in from day one. Knowing that pretty much half of the pitching staff are freshmen and the other half are upperclassmen, they just took us in. They showed us the way they do it here and we've just followed in their path. We're just picking their brains every moment we can get. Just asking questions, sitting and watching their bullpens, watching their flat grounds when they throw it to the pad, just learning from what they do. For me I don't necessarily ask a lot of question, I'm a pretty quiet type of dude, so I just kind of sit back and watch everything they do from their pads, bullpens, flat grounds, when they play catch. I just keep an eye and see what I can learn from them.
Β
Being from Kentwood you played Federal Way. What's Christian Jones like?
Β
He's a great dude, always a competitor. We always go back and forth just bickering on not even baseball, we talk a lot about basketball a because he obviously had back-to-back state titles. Last year, my school Kentwood played their school, Federal Way in the State Championship so we would always go back and forth on that. Even with baseball, we would always go back and forth seeing who could beat the other. But every time we've faced off against each other it's always been just a crazy match up. It's always been a battle. This last year when I faced him, he had three at bats and every at bat was a 3-2 count. So foul balls, taking good pitches, just everything. It was a good time.
Β
What was it like watching him playing basketball in the State Championship knowing he was going to be your teammate?
Β
It was a cool experience. That was actually my first year not playing basketball for Kentwood and just watching them get to that point was obviously really cool. But then for that game to end up going against Christian and Federal Way, who was also trying to go for the repeat was also something special. I was telling everyone how good Christian is and saying, don't underestimate him, he may be a baseball player and going to UW for baseball but he can still do it on the court too. Just watching him play, it's amazing. He can do it all. He would post up, guard some of our quick guys, he would get rebounds, pass, score, he was doing it all.
Β
You want to get into sports broadcasting or journalism. What's the story behind that?
Β
Growing up I watched so much SportsCenter and SportsNation and all of the sports talk shows, it's just something that's always interested me. At night I'll just sit and watch SportsCenter when it's on. The hours where they just repeat the same SportsCenter over and over again, I'll watch the same thing three times in a row. It's just something that drives me. I love talking about sports. Baseball, basketball, football, I just love it all and wish one day I could be doing that.
Β
What do you like to do in your free time?
Β
In my free time I'm big on just kicking back and relaxing in the dorms. I've always not been a really social type of person but I just like spending time by myself, just relaxing. I'll watch some movies on Netflix, I'll play a little bit of video games and just chill in my room.
Β
As a local guy do you show your teammates around or do you feel like an outsider in your own town still?
Β
I'm kind of an outsider in my own town because I haven't really toured or looked around downtown Seattle a whole lot. With Tommy (Costello), one of the nights, we were driving around downtown and going past Pike Place, and that was the first time I'd ever seen Pike Place in person. It's weird because they are always asking me about some of these locations in downtown and I don't know what they are or I haven't been there. But a couple times we've gone back to Kent for certain reasons and I showed them my house, where I live, where I went to high school. We drove down to Kent Station and I told them this is pretty much where we would hang out.Β
Β
How is it living with Tommy?
Β
Yeah, I love Tommy so much. He's funny, probably the nicest guy I've ever met. It's good being a roommate with him because he's very clean. We go to sleep at like 9:30-10 every night. I love that, getting to bed early, never too many late nights or anything. We just gel really well together. It's nice.
Β
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