Tag Archives: JaCoby Jones

17 Oct

familiar territory

JaCoby Jones is off to a good start – again – in the Arizona Fall League. The former Mr. Baseball from Richton High is 4-for-10 with a home run, five RBIs and three runs through five games for Salt River. Jones, a highly rated Detroit prospect, played in the high caliber AFL last year, too, and was doing quite well before being slapped with a drug suspension that lasted into his 2016 minor league season. Having spent some time in the majors this year, Jones is back for more seasoning in the AFL, older and presumably a bit wiser. “I think the biggest thing I learned in the big leagues was how to prepare myself before games,” Jones, 24, told mlb.com. A third-round pick (by Pittsburgh) out of LSU in 2013, Jones batted .257 with seven homers in Double-A and Triple-A in 2016 and got an August call-up from the Tigers. He hit .214 in 28 at-bats. Jones, 6 feet 2, 205 pounds, is a career .269 hitter in the minors with 47 homers and 58 steals and can play virtually anywhere in the field. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alum Joey Butler, Ole Miss product Alex Presley and Starkville native Julio Borbon have become minor league free agents. Moore spent all of this past season at Triple-A Gwinnett in Atlanta’s system but played in only 25 games (.229, three homers) because of injuries. Butler also spent all of the season in Triple-A for Cleveland, while Presley (Detroit) and Borbon (Baltimore) did see some big league duty. … Hawtin Buchanan, the 6-8 former Ole Miss pitcher from Biloxi, has signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati. He pitched in the independent United Shore League this year after being released in spring training by Seattle.

30 Aug

debut alert

JaCoby Jones, the former Richton High star, is in the Detroit Tigers’ lineup for tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park. Jones, 24, is playing third base and batting eighth. The Magnolia State’s best prep player in 2010 before going off to LSU, he was a third-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2013. Jones, who has also played shortstop and center field as a pro, was batting .257 with 20 doubles, seven triples, seven homers and 43 RBIs at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in the Tigers’ system. He is rated their No. 9 prospect by mlb.com.

17 May

back in action

JaCoby Jones, the former Richton High star, has been reinstated from the 50-game drug of abuse suspension he received last fall. Jones is expected to be in the lineup tonight for the Double-A Erie SeaWolves in the Detroit system. Reports say he’ll see time this season at third base and center field in addition to shortstop. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Jones, rated the Tigers’ No. 8 prospect by mlb.com, batted .250 with six homers and 20 RBIs in 30 games for Erie in 2015 after a trade from Pittsburgh. Jones was hitting .280 in the Arizona Fall League when he was slapped with the suspension. Detroit invited him to big league spring training this year and he hit .313 with a pair of homers. He hit 23 homers in A-ball in 2014. P.S. Drug suspensions will probably end the career of former Hinds Community College standout Travious Relaford. Currently serving a 50-game suspension, he recently received an additional 100-game ban for a third drug of abuse violation. Relaford batted .237 at Class A Augusta in the San Francisco system in 2015, his fifth pro year.

06 Nov

a wrong turn

Scratch JaCoby Jones from Saturday’s Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game. The former Richton High standout has been suspended for 50 games for a “drug of abuse” violation. Rated the No. 10 prospect in Detroit’s system by Baseball America, Jones, a 23-year-old shortstop, just finished his third pro season and is batting .274 with 40 homers overall. He was originally drafted in the third round out of LSU by Pittsburgh in 2013 and traded to the Tigers this summer for big league pitcher Joakim Soria. The suspension reportedly is for a recreational drug, not a performance enhancing drug, if that makes any difference. The suspension starts with the remaining 12 games on Scottsdale’s AFL schedule and will continue through the first 38 games of the 2016 season, wherever Jones is assigned, which will probably be Double-A.

28 Jul

clear a space

Former Richton High star JaCoby Jones got his first taste of Double-A ball on Monday and apparently liked it very much. Jones, a Pittsburgh prospect (No. 13 by mlb.com) at shortstop, went 3-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a stolen base to spark Altoona to a 3-2 win over Richmond in the Eastern League. Jones, the state’s Mr. Baseball in 2010 and a third-round draft pick out of LSU in 2013, was batting .253 with 10 homers and 58 RBIs at Class A Bradenton. Ex-Mississippi State star Adam Frazier also plays for Altoona and has started 26 of his 64 games for the Curve at short. He also has played the outfield and started Monday in center, hitting leadoff. He is batting .357.