Jones call up
The Mariners have brought up Adam Jones and Greg Dobbs, to take the places of Petagine and Choo.
On the face of it, I don't fundamentally have a problem with them taking a shot with Jones right now. He's been hot in Tacoma after a slow start and its possible that he has mastered AAA at this point, though unlikely. Just as importantly, the M's have a need for a CF right now and maybe you can catch lightning in a bottle. If Jones is close to ready, this could work out.
The worst case scenario is not that he flops immediately, though. In that event, you just send him back down to work on what he needs to (from all reports, hitting curveballs and defense). No, the worst case scenario is that he has an decent run of initial success, but then struggles big time. The initial success might make the Mariners stick with him for longer than they should and if he has to go back down in August of next year instead of this one, that could be tough on his confidence. The Jose Guillen/Geronimo Pena career path if you will.
So there is a risk definitely, but this is so much better than making a bad trade for someone to play center. The M's are on the fringes of the race. Rather than buying or selling, you promote a kid and see if he can help. It doesn't cost you much (unless we have the worst case as described above)and it could make all the difference.
posted by Tad @ 10:04 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I'm fundamentally in agreement here with you, Tad. If you survey the reaction on the ol' M's blogosphere over the last day or two, though, what is REALLY fascinating about this callup is this: most bloggers and commenters seem to think that young Mr. Jones ain't ready, and that he might be damaged by this promotion. And then there's the militant Pollyanna view of Dr. D over at Detect-O-Vision, who insists that he (and he alone...well, maybe Bill Bavasi too) KNOWS that this is THE RIGHT move for young Adam Jones's development, naysayers be turned into Texas Rangers fans.
(I admit to rarely reading D-O-V. Radically different ideas are great, but...this one has me scratching my head. Maybe I just don't take myself that seriously as a baseball analyst to be able to see in a transaction validation of my superior intellect. You'll have to read his post to see what I mean.)
((Even further off topic...Of course, I don't need such validation, as my weekly attempts to take over the world very clearly demonstrate my superior intellect.))
In any case, what's just fascinating here is that there is a...buzz around the move that indicates a bit of...hmm...emotional commitment to this year's team that seems to be deeper than last season. Who could have gotten worked up with such a love/hate relationship to a single M's transaction last July? (No, King Felix wasn't summoned until August.)
Look at what nearly winning almost maybe perhaps half of our games through fourteen weeks will do to otherwise perfectly normal bloggers.
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