Free Adam Jones!

“Look at the game today — the Yankees have a $200 million payroll and they’re counting on two draftees from 2006 to help them now. The Red Sox have a $150 million payroll and they’re calling up guys drafted a couple of years ago to help them in the playoffs, and possibly go on further in the playoffs. The game’s getting younger and it’s important to have young players. You have to be able to count on them.”
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070906&content_id=2193564&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered=rss_mlb

Maybe, outside of Seattle and the ESPN commentary booth, the conventional wisdom is not so conventional anymore.

Are you agreeing with me, then? I brought up how old the line-up is to respond to your ‘Don’t forget all our young’ns!” statement, not to say that experience is bad.

Is anyone here not saying that talent should be the deciding factor? I’m confused who you think you are arguing with.

As to discussing Aj and its importance or non-importance, perhaps we can set up some kind of intensity queue for you to vet what issues cause us angst.

AJ is notable and worthy of discussion because it was a big step the team could have made at no cost and didn’t.

I don’t think you are going to find anyone who doesn’t think we need starting pitching, you’re not being exactly revelatory there. We just can’t get it at the moment. And had few options to improve it earlier… those we did have were discussed.

AJ is an ongoing issue. As was, say, Parrish and White, also much discussed.

You guys occasionally point out that TALENT is the factor, talent applies to old folks and young folks alike and there ARE certain vets that are worth the money and playing time just like there ARE certain rookies that aren’t.

All the ranting, as if age or service time should be some kind of primary indicator weakens your arguments when the real argument should be about how the Ms do (or more accurately) do not evaluate talent or contribution between players effectively. THAT argument holds just as much weight when you’re discussing how they CHOSE to acquire the vets they did as it does when discussing whether or not to play AJ.

86 – you’re right, for a brief time there was intensive McLaren-related whining, but again…this very site has discussed how little impact the manager makes overall. I’m just saying, the two most recent whines (AJ playing time + McLaren in-game moves) that took up a lot of blog space, well, both are relatively minor contributing factors to the real problem (Ms evaluation of talent and consequent choices, both on acquisition and playing time related to their flawed strategies on that).

Send Morrow down to be a starter, check. But what do you propose to do about the rotation right this minute? Yeah, me either.

No one here is claiming Jones is a savior and you know it. It is a no-brainer move that the team refuses to make. That makes it worthy of commentary. If we had a starting pitcher as good as Jones, we’d be talking about that, too.

So get over yourself and let people talk about it if they feel like it.

And our starting nine, as I posted about yesterday, have 78 years of experience between them. A few youngsters in the bullpen doesn’t make up for that.

But, also — no one’s forcing you to read Jones-related stuff. There’s plenty of other stuff here. Like pitching-related whining! Lineup-related whining! Transaction-related whining!

It’s like you’re spending all your energy trying to bail water instead of fixing the gaping hole allowing the water to pour in.

And you know, I’ve watched a lot of baseball in my life. AJ is a very good player and he’s made great strides over this past year (small sample size, against AAA pitching), but he is not a one man savior worthy of this much commentary. And before you say it’s more generalized about the Ms not giving a chance to young players, please try not to forget all the young players (rookies or 1 solid year behind them ‘vets’) on their roster.

Even thinking we need him at SS is why none of us are either scouts or GM in MLB.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-indianssummer&prov=ap&type=lgns