That old saying about a pitcher with a million-dollar arm but a 10-cent head certainly does not apply to Jared Jones, his head coach at La Mirada High said.
“That’s what makes kids with talent successful, is having a good head on their shoulders,” Jimmy Zurn said.
Zurn said Jones finished his four years at La Mirada with a grade-point average of 3.3. But he’s more than book smart.
A high school All-American, the hard-throwing right-hander — sporting a fastball in the high 90s — went 2-1 with an ERA of 0.82 and 28 strikeouts in 17 innings this season, which was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. A center fielder when not pitching, he batted .409 and went 8-for-8 in stolen bases.
Jones capped his high school career by being taken No. 44 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the recent Major League Baseball draft.
Jones has been named the Press-Telegram’s Most Outstanding Senior in baseball for the 2020 season.
Jones showed the baseball world what he was made of as a junior in 2019, when he went 7-1 with an ERA of 0.77 and 94 strikeouts in 64 innings. He batted .457 (43 for 94) with three home runs, 16 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 24 attempts. He had an on-base-percentage of .547, slugged .627 and had an OPS of 1.175.
“From a talent standpoint, I mean, it’s hard to replicate having a guy like that,” Zurn said. “I may coach a kid like that once in a lifetime. And that’s him. As a player and coach at La Mirada for twenty-something years, in my opinion he’s the best player all-around to ever play at La Mirada. And that’s saying a lot.”
Zurn could not say enough about the overall man Jones, 18, has become.
“From a character standpoint, he’s just a good kid that was raised by a good family and does things the right way,” Zurn said. “… He was raised the right way, where he’s going to go off into professional baseball and be successful.”
Jones is signed to play college baseball at the University of Texas. But according to Zurn, Jones has come to terms with the Pirates and is awaiting his physical ahead of signing.
Beaux Collins: Not so fast
St. John Bosco senior Beaux Collins is an outstanding talent. The 6-foot-3 wide receiver has received offers from just about every big-name college out there — Clemson, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Stanford, USC, UCLA, and so on.
He has committed to Clemson, and assuming he signs, he will be reunited with his high school quarterback — DJ Uiagalelei, who is a freshman at Clemson after leading the Braves to the national championship in 2019.
Collins was asked during Monday’s conditioning bell-ringer at St. John Bosco about that possibility. Instead of going off with a long answer about how great it could be, he responded calmly and with maturity.
“Very excited,” he said. “I need to get there first, though.”
That winning demeanor helped Collins catch 41 passes for 1,008 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2019 as the Braves won CIF-SS and state championships. On a team with UCLA-bound Logan Loya and Oregon-bound Kris Hutson, Collins led the receiving corps in yards-per-catch at 24.6.
