Jones Working Out Kinks

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Lake Buena Vista, Florida -- In the clubhouse for hardly a minute, Chipper Jones was presented with a ball, a pen and asked to autograph it. The pen was Denny Neagle's , so naturally it exploded when Jones pulled it open.

"Welcome to spring training, Larry," Greg Maddux announced.

"Ah," said Jones, "it's good to be back."

Actually, Jones has been working out at the Disney complex for nearly three weeks, spending time with Cincinnati's Barry Larkin in the minor-league batting cages. There was a reason for the work. Jones, a switch-hitter, was not as productive from the right side last year, and that will be a point of emphasis this spring.

"I worked some on my [right-handed] mechanics and changed my philosophy a little bit," he said. "I think I was one of those two-handed swingers, where I ended up with both hands still on the bat. And that caused me to pull off some balls. Now, I'm not doing that as severely."

The changes are not for power, even though only 10 of Jones's career 74 home runs have come right-handed. His larger goal is to hit .300 as a right-hander, which he nearly has done (.292) during his first four years in the majors. But last season, that rate dropped to .250. Hitting in front of Andres Galarraga, a right-handed clean-up hitter, puts new significance on Jones' right-handed bat. Atlanta now can alternate right- and left-handed bats through the middle of the order.

"Everybody wants to turn me around to my weak side, which is my right side," Jones said. "But if they bring in a lefty, they got Galarraga coming up right behind me. Then you say maybe you'll take your chances throwing in a lefty against Galarraga just so we have him against [left-handed ] Ryan Klesko . Then you have [right-handed] Javy [Lopez] backing up after that. That's certainly going to make for some interesting moves, and if it makes us harder to defend, I like it."

By Thomas Stinson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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