Adam Jones Is Still Ready For The Majors
Coming into today’s game, Adam Jones was hitting .317/.392/.581, in large part due to his surge since the calendar changed to May and he got over the wrist problem that sapped his power in April. Tonight, he continued his torrid June pace, going 4 for 5 with another home run.
Since May 1st, Jones is 56 for 163 with 14 home runs. That’s a .344/.420/.700 line.
.344/.420/.700. 27 of his 56 hits have gone for extra bases. Did I mention that he’s turned himself into a pretty good defensive outfielder? And he can run? Or that he has the best outfield arm in the organization?
He’s better than Raul Ibanez, Jose Guillen, Jose Vidro, Richie Sexson, and Ben Broussard. Better than all of them. If the Mariners are serious about making the playoffs, Adam Jones should be on the 25 man roster. Getting him into the line-up isn’t going to be easy for Mike Hargrove, but he’s not paid to do an easy job, and the Mariners can’t let the 4th or 5th best hitter in the organization sit in Tacoma for much longer.
It’s time for Adam Jones to be a Seattle Mariner.
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Jones isn’t an infielder.
He’s 21, in AAA, playing in one of the toughest hitters parks in the league (and according to a recent BP article, one of the toughest places to hit in all the minors), and showing real improvement in the field and in his triple-slash line. However, his K/AB and K/BB rate has stayed the same the last three years (and this year even shows a tad bit of regression, albeit very slight). His develpoment is legit, but I’m still not convinced he’s all the way there yet.
Gary Sheffield used to play short, can we go get him and put him there every day?
it’s ridiculous to try and put him back in the infield…he was only a shortstop because he was always the best athlete on his team and you put the best athlete at short…he should be STARTING everyday for raul in LEFT and raul should DH…
Lopez & Yuni could switch for a few games… Lopez was a HOT MINOR LEAGUE PROSPECT at SS. If the throwing doesn’t improve, that’s a better option.
Gary Sheffield used to play short? Really?
That would’ve been almost as funny as watching Sexson try to bunt, as was talked about in another thread.
I’m not ready to punt on Betancourt yet at all, and I think Jones was only put at shortstop early in his development because that’s often a default position for the best athlete on the team at lower levels.
It’s like saying “well, put him at catcher!” Sure, it gets his bat into the lineup, but he’s going to be a butcher there defensively and it will offset part of the value he brings to the team.
It’s time for the Mariners to leverage their cozy relationship with the Seattle sports media, for once. Get them to start writing about how empty Turbo’s average is, so fans will start calling into KJR to complain about him and start the dominos falling.
Then get them to start writing about how there’s this great kid in AAA that can help the team make the playoffs…
Then, tell Ibanez he’s going to DH whether he likes it or not, and make your moves from there. He’s never really struck me as the type of player that would kvetch to the media endlessly about not playing where he’d like to play, and he has to realize that he’s going to need to move to DH eventually if he wants to continue his career.
Also cut Bloomquist, just for fun.
RE: Coffee says 29 and What 50 says What is the righty lefty thing have do with these numbers.
Adam Jones
vs Left .333 .378 .623 1.002
vs Right .324 .407 .588 .995
57- I’ll take those numbers…bring the kid up!
This is all well and good, but also has no chance of happening. Sure, the best thing for the team would be to call up Jones and give sub him in for Guillen, Ibanez, Vidro, etc., but such a strategy is completely outside of Mike Hargrove’s managerial style. He won’t go for anything more creative than a simple platoon (“not a platoon”), especially for a rookie. There is simply no way Jones will get regularly into the starting lineup barring an injury or Vidro’s batting average falling off the table.
Gary Sheffield used to play short, can we go get him and put him there every day?
To be fair, it did work for Troy Glaus a bit last year. If he’d started a couple more games he would have qualified as a shortstop in most fantasy leagues.
vidro’s average could fall off the table…in fact, it’s already on the way…
To be fair, it did work for Troy Glaus a bit last year. If he’d started a couple more games he would have qualified as a shortstop in most fantasy leagues.
The caveat being that it “worked” in the sense that he did not make a fool of himself out there. But his range was almost nil and that counts for something. Also, the Jays alternative at SS were all far inferior to Yuni in most respects.
I’m not disagreeing that Jones is best suited as an outfielder. I’m jsut saying that he’d probably be so much of an upgrade over WFB at the plate, that whatever negative value he has at 3B would be clearly overwhelmed. He has a great arm so the throws should be no problem, and he’s quick enough that range shouldn’t be an issue. You play him there for the 10 games or so that Beltre is out, and if he tears it up at the plate you now have a great reason to ditch Vidro and stick Jones in LF/Ibanez at DH. Really, where is the negative for the team?
Then I submit that’s all the more reason to bring him up. If his K rate isn’t changing all that much over the past few years, then he’s not going to change it that much with another couple months in Tacoma.
is beltre out?
Yes. Come on.
Jim Thome was originally drafted as a shortstop – maybe the Mariners should try to get him to replace Yuni.
Just going to throw this out as a possiblity.
An injured Beltre isn’t going to help us down the stretch. The team needs to get him right, so placing him on the DL to get his thumb in shape is probably smart right now. Placing him on the DL allows room for Jones to get called up.
While playing in NL parks, use a combination of Lopez/Bloomy at 3B or Lopez/Bloomy/Vidro at 2B with Ibanez in LF. Use AJ in RF and LF as a defensive replacement and to give Ibanez and Guillen a day off (Ichrio doesn’t take days off). When the team returns to AL parks, AJ plays LF, Ibanez DH’s and the team utilizes the same rotation at 2B and 3B until Beltre returns. Also allows the team to assess AJ’s true value and subsequently find room for him.
And just to get ready for the barrage of tomatoes and trash being thrown my way, I too hate the idea of Vidro playing the field, but the M’s are thin at backup IF right now (with Morse hurt) and might as well go with what you got and make it work.
is beltre on the DL?
Not yet…they keep hoping his thumb will heal with 3-5 days rest, but they’ve done it twice now with no success.
63 – you’re asking for a disaster. Moving the kid to third (a position he’s never played for any length of time) at 21 years old while simultaneously promoting him into the big leagues is almost assuredly going to fail. Anyone changing positions like that is likely to struggle with the throw. That’s a struggle you want him to have in Tacoma where the pressure is minimal and the media glare is non existent. If he struggles like that in Seattle it’s very likely the pressure could affect his hitting and set him back a few weeks.
Besides, he’s still just learning the OF – no need to set back his progress in the field.
This thread reads an awful lot like the PI blog. Trade Vidro? Jones at 3B? Making medical diagnoses of Beltre from in front of your computer? Get a grip, people.
That is some severe chastisement right there.
OK, now you’re making fun of me.
http://ussmariner.com/2007/05/18/the-inconsistent-offense/
Adam Jones was a pitcher in high school, so there might be another way to get him into the lineup every fifth day. (Plus, on those days, the M’s could use the DH to bat in Bloomquist’s place).
I’m sure Hargrove isn’t particularly interested in another kid coming up, regardless of his recent record in the minors, particularly since he was up last summer and didn’t hit much. If Bavasi finds a way to Jones in the dugout, he’ll just molder on the bench. Hargrove never wants kids, he wants veterans. He says now he wanted Manny up from the minors in Cleveland but msb went back and found news accounts from the time in which Hargrove is quoted saying he didn’t want the kid. (I assume that’s just normal self-delusion, distorting your memory to make yourself look good in retrospect, but it’s possible he conciously denies facts that don’t support his worldview; or perhaps he’s just being insultingly disingenuous with Seattle “journalists” he knows won’t check facts, I don’t know).
Simple,
DL Ellison.
Raul to DH
Jones to LF
Vidro to 3B while Beltre is out, could he be any worse than Willie?
You haven’t benched any “veteran starters” yet, Hope that when Beltre comes back Vidro forgets he used to be a starter (Ok that part is a joke)
Seriously would any team other than the Ms be even debating this with things like Vidro’s feelings being a factor?
Vidro at third… are you mad? Seriously? He’s slow, creaky, and he doesn’t have the arm for it. Opposing teams could bunt at him for singles all game long. There’s no way you get away with that for long.
I don’t believe the scouting report was wrong, no. Not in the sense that Clement didn’t actually have a slow bat in May and look like a non-prospect who just lost the ability to hit.
I think this is the answer I was hoping for.
But, it probably is a reminder of why scouting is an inexact science. Of course, we also need to remember that Clement turns 24 shortly and really should be tearing the cover off the ball in the PCL.
He did lose some development time due to injury, but this is very correct. He tore the cover off the ball in April, but had some bad luck. He had a horrible May, and with his unlucky April it looked really bad. Now he’s back to tearing the cover off the ball, and this time finding holes. I’m not saying he’s ready, but it seems he’s back on the right track.
I do think that, come what may, if he’s not ready by 2008, then we have to consider his value fallen. He’ll still be useful, even if he only turns into a DH / 1B, he’s still a left handed power hitter that we need. But potential All-Star might be beyond our reality.
DMZ,
Yeah mostly I was joking to show the absurdity of the situation.
Any sane team moves Vidro to PH duties, Ibanez to DH (preferably platooned with someone who can hit LHers) Jones to LF, lives with Willie at 3B until Beltre is healthy and doesn’t give a rip about Vidro’s Veteran entitlement.
(exhaling)
That’s good.
I find the whole situation difficult to root for Jones’ promotion. At this point, if Jones is to be brought up it has to be as an OFer and/or DH. In my estimation what it would take to get Jones brought up is a serious injury to Ibanez, Ichiro or Guillen (or trade of one of the 4). If Vidro got injured I truly believe it’d be Broussard that Hargrove chose to get the playing time at DH (or first, giving Sexson a break from his defensive responsibilities in hopes his bat comes around more at DH.)
#46 I don’t think Hargrove has changed his mind about not putting Reed in the lineup. He did tell Bavasi that if Reed was on the 25 he’d get very few AB’s. I suppose that’s a part of being the 4th OFer, but Ellison seems to have more of Hargroves faith.
I don’t see an answer to who should play third while Beltre’s out that promises better (unfortunately.) The poeple who’ve been talked about moving would be focused more on thier defense at a new position and most likely have trouble putting up the same offensive numbers. Then there’s the difficulty they’d probably have defensively at the position, especially the absurd notion of moving Betancourt further from first to ease his throwing problem…Haven’t heard any discussions of promoting a 3Bman though, which makes more sense than trying people at new positions…
81, what is this horrible May you keep referencing in regards to Clement? Jeff hit .267/.350/.489 in May, which may be a notch below expectations, but is far from horrible.
He was ghastly in April. If, as you say, he was simply unlucky, then he’s having one heck of a season, because his May was not bad, and his June has been otherworldly (if not quite as otherworldly as Adam Majorleagueready Jones).
I wonder what Jim Presley and Darnell Coles are thinking as they read this post????????
I think everyone has missed the obvious solution here:
Send Hargrove to the DL (or better yet, DFA). With McLaren at the helm, Dave’s plan as expressed in #31 has a chance of being implemented.
debaser Says:
He’s 21, in AAA, playing in one of the toughest hitters parks in the league (and according to a recent BP article, one of the toughest places to hit in all the minors), and showing real improvement in the field and in his triple-slash line. However, his K/AB and K/BB rate has stayed the same the last three years (and this year even shows a tad bit of regression, albeit very slight). His develpoment is legit, but I’m still not convinced he’s all the way there yet.
He probably won’t be all the way there yet for 5-6 years. Most players don’t reach their peak level of play till there in their mid to late 20’s.
He’s alot closer to “all the way there” than Vidro…
…Offensively and Ibanez defensively