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Name: Jimison "Jay" Jabs
Born: Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
Age: 21 (9/30/94)
Height/Weight: 6'0"/190 lbs
Position: 3B
Bats/Throws: L/R
School: Franklin Pierce University (Rindge, New Hampshire)
In addition to being a pretty good snowboarder, Jimison "Jay" Jabs played both baseball and football at Perkiomen Valley High School. Baseball was his true passion, and he stood out on the diamond. In his senior season, he was named his school's MVP and an All-Area and All-League team member. He graduated high school and attended Franklin Pierce University, where he made the baseball team as a walk-on. As a freshman, he played in all 53 of the Ravens' games, but his .219/.290/.349 batting line was underwhelming at best. He returned to the team as a sophomore, and the faith his coaches had in him was rewarded, as he hit .328/.414/.656 with 13 home runs and 23 stolen bases in 26 attempts. In 2016, Jabs hit .352/.466/.638 with 14 home runs and 16 stolen bases, helping Franklin Pierce University win their fifth-straight Northeast-10 Conference division title and their seventh NCAA regional title.
Jabs, who is naturally a right-hander but hits from the left side, has a complicated swing that, while successful against collegiate pitchers, is unlikely to succeed against more advanced minor league pitchers. He utilizes a leg kick to generate power, but his upper half often gets out of sync with his trunk during its weight transfer.
Jabs fits best at third base. He has a strong arm—strong enough to play up at shortstop, a position he played a handful of times throughout his collegiate career (he even got a few turns on the mound)—but the rest of his defensive qualities at the hot corner are a bit lacking. While his range is fair, his hands are not exactly the smoothest. The youngster acknowledges that he sometimes has mental lapses and makes "dumb errors," something that he is going to work on avoiding. The left-hander has a determined work effort, and transformed himself from an unimpressive hitter into one of the best in the NCAA Northeast-10, so a defensive transformation is certainly possible.