Kelvin Jones
High School Hitter
Kelvin Jones is hardly recognizable from the first time he walked through Driveline’s doors back in November of 2021.
Part of the reason is the good weight he’s put on. He hadn’t really ever lifted weights before high school, but now that undersized kid is a solidly-built upperclassman.
But the main reason is the way he carries himself now, two years removed from that initial tour he took of the Driveline facility when he was first exposed to the weight room, the cages, the professional hitters and the technology that powers it all.
Now Jones can’t stop making all-tournament teams and top prospect lists at big-time travel ball events.
This wasn’t some huge overhaul that took years to perfect. There were pieces in place. After his initial motion capture, Jones and Driveline hitting trainer JP Fasone zeroed in on a few things that would help him make more contact, and they started on a plan.
“I had a really bad summer because my bat wasn’t staying in the zone very long at all,” Jones said. “I had a ton of strikeouts and a ton of top-spin ground balls to second base. When I got my motion capture, I saw that my attack angle was too high and we started working on a flatter one.”
Before he started hitting at Driveline, Jones said he had never done any sort of attack angle training. But it made sense to him, and his swing started to click. And before Driveline, he had never shared a facility with professional baseball players doing the same sort of training as him. That also subsequently helped his training.
“That first winter I was there, I got to see Taylor Trammell,” Jones said. “Just seeing the way he worked and his attention to detail during training, that helped me a ton.”
Jones said he did his best to adopt that same work ethic as Trammell. It sure seems like he has, because success is really starting to snowball for him at this point. After a broken hand robbed him of most of his summer season, he has taken off this fall at a number of big-time events.
Jones has made three all-tournament teams at elite travel ball events this fall alone, and was named to the Top Prospect List at Perfect Game’s High School All State Select Championship, an invite-only event with some of the top talent from across the country in attendance.
In 56 travel ball games this fall, he collected 23 extra-base hits and a .939 OPS.
“I was just putting myself in a better position for success, and I think it started to show up once I started playing in some of those bigger fall events. I definitely got my name out there with some college coaches.”