One of the most logical places for the Braves to look for their new hitting coach was the Double Dime Ranch in Texas and they did, Chipper Jones said. The former Braves third baseman said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez contacted him recently to gauge his interest in the Braves’ hitting coach opening and Jones told him the timing wasn’t right.
“Fredi kind of took my temperature on it,” Jones said by phone from his hunting ranch in southwest Texas, where he recently moved from Atlanta. “I’m not ready to get back in uniform yet. It’s too soon and I don’t know if I’d be dedicated enough to the job right now.”
“I sat back and I started thinking about it,” Jones said. “It’s even more of a time commitment from a coaching standpoint than it is a player standpoint. I don’t want to be at the park at noon every day. I don’t want to be at the park until midnight every night. I don’t want to wake up at spring training and have to be there at 6:30 in the morning. It’s a huge commitment and I don’t want to cheat the organization at this point because I’m not ready to put that kind of time commitment into it.”
Jones, 42, is two years into retirement after his farewell season in 2012. He moved from Roswell to Texas in September to help his parents Larry and Lynne Jones run their hunting business. He also co-hosts Major League Bowhunter, a hunting show on the Sportsman Channel. That keeps him occupied from September to April. But Jones recently bought a house in Blue Ridge, where he and his fiancé Taylor Higgins — the couple is be married in June — plan to spend the summers.
Jones told Gonzalez he’d be interested in a consulting position, occasionally dropping in to help hitters.
“If somebody calls me and says, ‘Hey, this guy is struggling we need a new set of eyes,’ me coming and looking at them, yeah I’d be glad to. No problem,” he said.
Jones has also developed an interest in player personnel and perhaps pursuing a front office position down the line.
“It would be more attractive to me to be in the front office and make some player personnel decisions,” Jones said. “I know that’s not something you just step into. That’s something that you’ve got to have some years under your belt, but if they asked me about a player or asked me about a hitter, I feel like I could break it down and be truthful with them. I think they know that I’m going to be honest with them one way or the other. If I like him, I’ll tell you. If I don’t like him, I’ll say that too.”
Speaking with his well-known candor, Jones was asked for his thoughts on the Braves recent front office shakeup, which included the firing of general manager Frank Wren and assistant general manager Bruce Manno, the naming of John Hart as interim general manager and the return of former scouting director Roy Clark, among other changes.
Q: What do you think about the Braves’ front office moves?
A: Well, I think — and a lot remains to be seen with the general manager's spot and how that's all going to shake out — but the Braves need to get back to the philosophy that we had right there around the turn of the decade in the '80s and''90s. Go out, scout, draft and develop the minor league system because that's where it starts. Especially when you're not a top-tier salary team, you've got to have that influx on a yearly basis of guys coming up through the minor leagues because you're going to have free agents leave. You're going to have to supplement some of your big salaries with rookie salaries, and if you don't have that stable full of prospects that you can dip down and grab something when you can't afford to go out on the market and get it … That was a tremendous luxury for the major league staff in the early '90s, mid-'90s and even late '90s. Once the turn of the century came, it was almost like we, we still had a bunch of pieces in the minors to be able to make trades from time to time but you didn't see the influx like we had in the '90s.
Q: Do you think the philosophy should be centered on pitching and defense again with good situational hitting?
A: Well, I think there definitely needs to be a philosophy change. Bobby (Cox) was as live-by-the-three-run homer as anybody back in the day, but we had those legitimate shortstops, we had those legitimate second basemen, we had those legitimate center fielders. We had good catchers. We were strong up the middle defensively. And we had good pitching. And that is one of the recipes for success in this game. We did it a bunch of different ways during those 14 years. The World Series team didn't do anything special offensively, but we pitched really well and we situational-hit. We got guys over. We hit-and-ran. We bunted guys. Those are all pretty crucial things and these are all things that this particular club has really, really struggled with. And I think that's just not paying attention to detail. That's letting guys swing from the heels whenever they want and that's got to change.
Q: What do you think went wrong?
A: You look at the subtractions from the team from 2013 to 2014. You took away Tim Hudson, who was their ace. You took away Brian McCann, who was one of their best hitters and without a doubt their field general, their leadership guy. You took away Eric O'Flaherty, who has been the best left-handed reliever in the game for the last three or four years. And you took away Jonny Venters. Now, what team in major league baseball is going to be able to survive those kind of subtractions? Your ace, your leader in the clubhouse, your leader in the dugout and your cleanup hitter, and two of the flat-out dirtiest left-handed relievers in the game. And then you replace them with rookies out of your own organization. There's going to be some drop-off.
Q: Do you think the pieces are being put in place for those kind of changes to happen?
A: Hopefully with the influx of some of the old philosophy, or the core of guys who helped build this organization up back in the day, with them coming back, hopefully the change of philosophy will follow. I think Bobby being a little closer to the situation, obviously having some say-so, will pull a lot of weight. I'd like to see Fredi have more of a say-so. I don't know this for a fact, but sometimes it seemed like Fredi wasn't pulling strings. I'd like to see him be able to put out a lineup that he wants to put out. I mean, you're a manager of a major league ball club. You ought to have the right to put out the lineup you want to put out without having to look over your shoulder and wonder if you're going to get blasted for it.
Q: If Hart turns down the permanent GM position, who do you like to take it?
A: If you talk about (Hart) just being the interim general manager, sure, Dayton Moore is certainly the sexy pick. He's got a track record here. People love him in this organization and he's done a phenomenal job over there in Kansas City. (John) Schuerholz came from Kansas City. So it's not beyond the realm of comprehension that he wouldn't want to, at some point, come back. I just don't know if it's going to be on the heels of the 2014 World Series.
Q: What are your thoughts on John Coppolella?
A: I don't know Coppy. I don't doubt that he's a very smart guy. I don't doubt that he knows the numbers and whatnot. I always worry about first-time GMs. If I'm a player, I want a guy that has a track record. That's not to say that Coppy won't be a great general manager if given the opportunity. He could end up being one of the best in the business.
