Interview with Jiwan James

Wow. It’s already been a month of interviews. What better way to wrap up the 4th interview in my series than with an interview of Nathaniel Jiwani “Jiwan” James. He’s another outfield prospect to add to the Phillies plethora of outfield prospects. Drafted in the 22nd round by the Phillies, he was originally meant to be a pitcher. Due to some pitching difficulties and injuries he was converted back to an everyday player in the outfield.

As opposed to his teammates in the outfield, he is the only switch-hitting propsect. Jiwan projects as more of a leadoff type of batter which being switch handed is a plus (just look at the player who I compare Jiwan to, Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies). In his first year as an everyday player, he put up solid numbers slightly comparable to Rollins. The other interesting thing about Jiwan is that he has blazing speed. He’s so fast that the people at Baseball America believe he could be quicker than Anthony Gose, who had 76 steals last year. This definitely makes Jiwan an interesting prospect to watch out for, and thanks to him for his time. Comments are always appreciated.

Q:Obviously you started out your career with the Phillies as a pitcher, what lead to this change and what do you think your strengths are as a hitter?

A:The main reason for the position change was the arm injury which kept reoccurring and I didn’t want to miss anymore time. I felt like my career was just sitting in 1 spot... I always knew I could handle playing every day but that’s not what the Phillies wanted at first...
I believe my strength as a hitter is that I have pretty good hand eye coordination meaning I want be striking out a whole lot. I’m going to play my game which is use the whole field with my approach and keep the ball on the ground and in the gaps.

Q:So you see yourself projecting more as a leadoff type hitter than a power hitter?

A: Definitely, I've been batting leadoff pretty much all my life and it’s something I've become comfortable with. I’m not quite strong enough to consider myself a power guy but strength is something I’m working on and will come with age. I didn’t hit many HR in high school it would be crazy to consider myself a power hitter at the pro level.

Q: Who’s faster, you or Anthony Gose?

A: Lol...Gose definitely...Gose and I are great friends, and when Baseball America came out with that we both got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Q: Other than the money, what was attractive about playing for the Phillies for a 22 round draft pick out of high school?

A: A big part of my decision was the coaching change over at UF... I committed to them after my sophomore year of HS and by me being only 20 min from campus… I was always over there and had become very close with the coaching staff. O'Sullivan and I, the head coach over there now have a pretty good relationship though. He's a great guy and fun to be around. I just didn’t have much time to get to know him like I've had in the past during the offseason

Q: Have the Phillies told you where you are playing next year?

A: Nah, I haven’t heard anything about where I'll be starting out...I’m just going to go head into camp and compete to make a full season squad.

Q: Obviously the Phillies have a bunch of high rated outfield prospects with Gose, Santana, Gillies, Brown and you. What separates you from the group?

A: I’m the only switch hitter...lol...I can’t really say what separates me from those guys. That’s a very highly touted group of guys and I’m just happy to be in that category with them after the long layoff that I had from playing every day.

Q: By the way as a switch hitter, do you prefer hitting from the left/right side or equal?

A: I really don’t have a preference, but I will say that I have to put a lot more work in from the right side... I barely seen any lefties in HS, so my right side is a bit behind the left. I did become a lot more comfortable during this past instructs so now it really doesn’t matter which side.

Q: Has Jimmy Rollins given any advice on batting switch-handed?

A:I've talked to him before but it wasn’t about switch hitting. It was more about work ethic since it was the offseason. I’m sure I’ll talk to him during spring training about it though.