ARLINGTON — It is 11 p.m., and Globe Life Field is as empty as the Rangers’ offense was in a late June loss to Detroit. Josh Jung, though, stands alone in the shadows at home plate, air pods tucked into his ears, phone in his back pocket and bat in his hands.
Jung has just gone hitless in four at-bats with four strikeouts, the dreaded Golden Sombrero. It is his second one in a week.
Josh Jung can’t stand strikeouts.
So, he’s on the phone, talking with his dad, and swinging at an imaginary ball.
“I was frustrated and let it all out,” Jung said a few days later. “Striking out has never happened to me at this rate. That is all new territory. So, I was just doing some visualizing: Hitting the ball to center field with backspin. That’s the player I’ve always been. Sometimes you just need a visual reminder. It reminds you of a thought or a characteristic that you needed — or didn’t need, in some cases — and it takes you back to that place. At least that’s how it works for me.”
It also helps explain why the Rangers aren’t really concerned that Jung will fall prey to the rigors of the second half of a rookie season. It’s a real thing, the rookie regression. Scouting reports get more detailed. Pitchers become more familiar. Rookies move into uncharted territory for physical and mental fatigue from a season longer than they’ve ever experienced. Flaws get exposed and exploited.
The defense: self-awareness. Here is where Jung, who won the AL Rookie of the Month award in each of the first two months of the season and ended up a starter in the All-Star Game, carries himself much more like a seasoned veteran.
In that regard, he kind of is one. He’s been working on this stuff since he was 11 and his father, Jeff, then a high school coach in San Antonio, brought home a series of videos by peak performance expert Brian Cain that he’d happened upon at the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association.
As a bonus — but wait, there’s more! — Cain included a miniature foam toilet and a foam brick with the video series. The toilet: a reminder to flush the past. The brick: a reminder of the weight of mental bricks.
Josh Jung took this stuff seriously. Some kids kill time with PIXAR movies. Jung watched the PRIDE (Personal Responsibility in Daily Excellence) video series. All 16 of them. And he carried the toilet and brick with him everywhere. The series came with a workbook, too. Jung attacked every one.
“My dad said the mental part was what would separate me,” Jung said. “I wanted to have whatever edge I could get. I got to the point where I had pretty much memorized them. I can probably quote them better than [Cain] can.”
He got that chance, too. While at Texas Tech, Jung decided to take the next step and rung up Cain. They ended up meeting in Southlake, where Cain lived at the time. They have maintained a relationship since. And not just because Cain let Jung pose with a title belt from one of his other clients, UFC fighter Georges St- Pierre.
Cain, who worked with the Rangers as a consultant for a time, has other clients across the world of professional and college athletics. But in Jung, he sees someone more inclined to actually put the tools to use. The foam toilet has long since gone to that big outhouse in the sky, but there are times still when Jung will go into the bathroom adjacent to the Rangers’ dugout to “flush” a bad at-bat.
“He’s wired mentally as well as any player I’ve worked with at any level,” Cain said last week. “He understands the mental game better than most people who have a master’s degree in psychology, better than most people who teach it. He’s as prepared for [the mental grind] as well as any player in the history of the game.”
The Rangers don’t disagree.
Young players typically fall into two different categories, offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker said. There are those who chase comfort. And there are players like Jung.
“His framework is to pursue the truth,” Ecker said. “So, he’s going to make the necessary adjustments. He wants to be told the truth of how he’s being pitched. So many players at this point are in survival mode and when you are in survival mode you fall back on default behaviors. And those are usually what is comfortable, rather than what is true. He is [invested] in exploring and doing the work.”
It gets harder, though. Jung aleady has played 88 games this season and logged 302 plate appearances, both professional highs for him. At a time when most rookies were getting time off, Jung was starting the All-Star Game after a cross-country flight and two days of constant activity. There was no break for him.
It should only get more difficult. Yet, after that Golden Sombrero, what appeared to be a low point to his season, Jung responded by hitting .333 with a 1.018 OPS over the final 13 games of the first half. At a time when many of the veterans were struggling, Jung seemed to turn his season around in the right direction.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this is an advanced kid where it comes to [the mental grind],” manager Bruce Bochy said. “You know that night he went back out there and took some swings? You think maybe this kid is going to fry himself. And then he comes right back and plays great baseball. He’s got a great head on him. And I think above everything else is his love and passion for the game.”
Even if that means taking imaginary batting practice in a stadium that has long since emptied.
On Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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