Going a long way: at bat, on vacation
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jarrett Parker is a study in intensity. Even in the casual atmosphere of spring training, his gaze could dent steel. Maybe a man has to be that focused when he is 28 and still trying to establish himself in the major leagues.
It’s odd to hear Parker’s girlfriend, Jordan Miller, call him “one of the funniest people I know. He loves to laugh and he’s quite goofy at times.”
Are we talking about the same Jarrett Parker? Big dude? Left-handed hitter? Dead ringer for Captain Jack Sparrow? Parker smiles and says, “I pick my spots.” The spot he wants is starting left fielder for the Giants, which he can grab if he shows over the final three weeks of spring training that he really has turned a corner and can make enough contact to stick after years of being a strikeout machine. The numbers show Parker heading in the right direction.
The Giants want to believe it because Parker has the ability to hit the ball a very long way. He proved that when he hit three homers in a game against the A’s at the Coliseum in 2015.
“That’s why we drafted him, his raw power,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Now, it’s playable.”
Miller has witnessed the intensity that outsiders see, once Parker walks into a gym or grabs a bat.
“He has a lot of personal will and strength as an individual,” she said. “When it comes to Jarrett’s career, he has nothing but focus.”
Parker and Miller have an unusual relationship because of her unusual vocation, which often keeps them apart. She is a biological anthropologist who cumulatively has spent a year studying chimpanzees at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, the site that Jane Goodall founded.
Miller has met Goodall, and studies the grandchildren of the chimps that Goodall, the pioneering primatologist, spent years examining, hoping to understand the evolution of human behavior.
As Parker swats baseballs around the Arizona desert, his girlfriend is finishing her doctoral dissertation at George Washington University. In very general terms, her thesis is about the evolution of altruistic behavior.
Which can make for some interesting, “How was your day?” conversations.
“I know she’s smarter than I am, and when she starts talking about her work, I don’t understand it, but I know what’s in her heart,” Parker said.
“Not that I don’t have any interest, but it’s so technical and scientific. It’s not up my alley. I don’t understand the intricacies, but it’s interesting to hear some things, for sure.”
Miller has no trouble comprehending the athletic mind. She was a field-hockey player at Duke as she pursued a degree in evolutionary anthropology. She and Parker met through a mutual friend in 2014, not long after Parker had an epiphany about his immediate future after touring Europe with a buddy.
“It kind of changed the trajectory of my life,” Parker said. “I was probably going to settle down and marry a girl, but I decided that really wasn’t the life I wanted.”
He wanted to explore the world, and his relationship Miller got him to Africa. She was just completing her field studies at Gombe when Parker visited her. Together, they went on safari in the Serengeti.
Parker likes foreign travel because it removes him from his comfort zone. He would like to visit Antarctica someday. There are fewer places more uncomfortable on the planet.
Parker has not always felt at ease in the batter’s box since the Giants selected him out of the University of Virginia in the second round of the 2010 amateur draft.
He has struck out 836 times in 2,409 minor-league at-bats, more than one-third of the time. He fanned 21 times in 49 at-bats during his first big-league call-up in 2015 and 44 times in 127 Giants at-bats last year.
The Giants saw more contact during Parker’s 2016 stay at Triple-A Sacramento and a greater improvement this spring. Aside from two homers, Parker had four strikeouts in his first 16 at-bats.
“We would take one in four,” assistant hitting coach Steve Decker said. “We’ll live with the swings and misses if he can hit three-run homers.”
Parker’s Achilles heel has been breaking pitches below the strike zone, specifically, the inability to stop the powerful swing generated by his 6-foot-4 frame even when he recognizes the curveballs and sliders in the dirt.
Giants coaches have spent hours shooting curveballs at him from a machine, sometimes over the plate, sometimes in the dirt. If he shortened his swing, he might swing at fewer bad ones, but the Giants do not want him dial it back.
“He’s got to be himself and let it fly,” Bochy said.
The odds are stacked against Parker. Few hitters suddenly “get it” at 28. Parker is not looking for dramatic improvement overnight, saying, “Every day is an opportunity to get better, even if it’s 0.1 percent.”
The front office is banking on Parker to improve enough to be the everyday left fielder, or at least man a platoon. Parker has severe splits and has struggled mightily against left-handed pitchers.
Parker’s girlfriend, who studies behavior in the animal and human worlds, sees a man who will not fail for lack of drive.
“Jarrett is very persistent and hard-working,” Miller said. “He believes in himself and really believes in the organization in which he’s a part, particularly his ability to make a difference, to make an impact and help the team.”