Jones Bases Loaded Drop

[Dr. FLK]

He just geta little too nonchalant...a little too often. But he's still a beat. I just hope he can tighten up his focus a bit more.

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[BobbyWoontz]

......but I don't think that catch was quite as routine as is bring portrayed here. The wind was swirling and the ball kind of tailed in on him at the last moment.

That's why a 'gold glove' outfielder should make the non-routine catches.

[Frobby]

I find this microanalysis of a dropped FB hysterical. Brooks made 3 errors in one inning. AJ is no Brooks. S#@% happens. Get over it. He's right we'll get them tomorrow.

I agree. It was a somewhat difficult play, and he screwed it up. End of analysis.

[Frobby]

By the way, did anyone notice the foul tip that Wieters dropped that would have been an inning-ending strike three earlier in the inning? Clearly Wieters needs to concentrate better and stop dogging it!

[SeaBird]

He should have caught it, and almost always does, but I don't think that catch was quite as routine as is bring portrayed here. The wind was swirling and the ball kind of tailed in on him at the last moment. The ALDS play made me much madder.

Bubbles are unrelated to any other issue.

Oh, please! Even Jones said the wind had nothing to do with it.

He flat out blew it. He was hot doggin'....show boatin'....strikin' a pose....whatever. Adam tries to be too cool too often.

There is no excuse for misplaying that ball. And he needs to lose the gum. Instead of trying to time when he should blow his bubble to coincide with catching the ball, he should have timed when to close his glove.

[NewMarketSean]

He could've positioned himself better under the ball. I think it was a combo of a kind of tough play, a big situation that he wanted to play up, and laziness. I'm not going to kill him for it but it lost us the game. The triple play was icing on the cake. You could just feel the team was mentally out of the game by then. Bad loss but hopefully they shake this one off. In 2007 this would have sent us on a 12 game losing streak that would have gotten the manager fired.

[BohKnowsBmore]

I don't care if Jones chews bubble gum or not. Whatever he does, he has to catch the damn ball.

Admit it--didn't you clench up a little earlier in the game when he had a routine flyball ball hit to him with two outs and men on base? Didn't you feel a bit relieved when he actually caught the ball?

Nate McLouth was a gold-glove caliber center fielder when he played in the National League. Maybe it's time to make a switch.

No. It's not time to make a switch.

Adam has two ggs iirc (maybe just one). Say what you want about them, but some non orioles homers seem to think he's pretty good.

[tntoriole]

He blew a bubble right before he dropped the ball, therefore he dropped the ball because he blew the bubble? That's fallacious logic.

I don't think Jones consciously decides, "I'm going to blow a bubble now." It's just a habit he has, that is reflexive. And if I say chewing gum relaxes Jones and makes him a better player, that's just as defensible as you saying that blowing bubbles hurts him.

I've been critical of some of Jones' fielding habits at various times, but could not care less about him blowing bubbles.

I am not saying that blowing bubbles "caused" him to drop the ball because a play like that is a highly complicated neuromuscular act involving multiple areas of the brain -visual cortex, muscle coordination, information processing, hand eye coordination, etc. There is no ONE cause and he can do both chew gum and catch balls the vast majority of the time. But the possibility exists nonetheless that even if bubble blowing doesn't distract him enough to impact 99 out of 100 times, there can still be that one instance when it is just a last tiny straw along with all the other variables that result in the catch not happening.

And the question is why should he even take the small chance? Why is he blowing bubbles out there? If he feels it relaxes him, fine, but I would like to hear that from him, because it does seem to be an unnecessary gesture to many of us that communicates a message of nonchalance, "I've got this", styling, hot dogging, call it whatever you want. He may not intend that but it does so anyway.

[BohKnowsBmore]

I am not saying that blowing bubbles "caused" him to drop the ball because a play like that is a highly complicated neuromuscular act involving multiple areas of the brain -visual cortex, muscle coordination, information processing, hand eye coordination, etc. There is no ONE cause and he can do both chew gum and catch balls the vast majority of the time. But the possibility exists nonetheless that even if bubble blowing doesn't distract him enough to impact 99 out of 100 times, there can still be that one instance when it is just a last tiny straw along with all the other variables that result in the catch not happening.

And the question is why should he even take the small chance? Why is he blowing bubbles out there? If he feels it relaxes him, fine, but I would like to hear that from him, because it does seem to be an unnecessary gesture to many of us that communicates a message of nonchalance, "I've got this", styling, hot dogging, call it whatever you want. He may not intend that but it does so anyway.

And a player having a family may cause him to not make baseball his sole priority in life. Maybe less time watching film and working in the cage as a result makes him miss on a few more pitches than he would otherwise.

Point is that I don't see much value in this microanalysis.

[section18]

Those who are okay with this bubble practice should get a piece of gum today and run back like you are going to catch a fly ball and maybe even try to do it and time your blowing a bubble to coincide with making the catch. Better yet.....just sit in your chair and chew your gum and try to blow a bubble. Instinctive! Really! You have to work the gum to be able to make a bubble and think about it. We should just ban bubble conversations in the future because some of us apparently don't want to mess with AJ right now and will take a few botched plays and losses over messing him up at the plate right now. For those of you who played baseball please go out to the local school field today and try to catch a fly ball running backwards and blow a bubble. See how many times you blink as you run backward. This is almost like talk radio. Just say anything to make people respond. I bet if you asked Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair and any other veteran players what they think of this bubble routine they would say tell him to stop. The players ought to have a little fun with AJ today and do the reverse of what he did for Gausman in ST. He loaded up his locker with what appeared to be enough donuts for several months. The players should empty his locker of gum and see how he plays today. Tommy Hunter would be the guy to do this. Throw away the gum.

[LookitsPuck]

Those who are okay with this bubble practice should get a piece of gum today and run back like you are going to catch a fly ball and maybe even try to do it and time your blowing a bubble to coincide with making the catch. Better yet.....just sit in your chair and chew your gum and try to blow a bubble. Instinctive! Really! You have to work the gum to be able to make a bubble and think about it. We should just ban bubble conversations in the future because some of us apparently don't want to mess with AJ right now and will take a few botched plays and losses over messing him up at the plate right now. For those of you who played baseball please go out to the local school field today and try to catch a fly ball and blow a bubble. See how many times you blink as you run backward. This is almost like talk radio. Just say anything to make people respond. I bet if you asked Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair and any other veteran players what they think of this bubble routine they would say tell him to stop. The players ought to have a little fun with AJ today and do the reverse of what he did for Gausman in ST. He loaded up his locker with what appeared to be enough donuts for several months. The players should empty his locker of gum and see how he plays today. Tommy Hunter would be the guy to do this. Throw away the gum.

Not the same thing.

He's been doing it since high school. Doesn't even know he's doing it.

Personally I don't care what Palmer, Robinson, Blair, etc. have to say about his bubble gum blowing. It's reminiscent of the elderly saying, "Back in my day we didn't have cell phones." Who cares? Move on. It's the last thing to harp on since it's not what caused him to miss the ball.

[section18]

As someone else said.......just catch the dam ball GG. Two botched plays in less than a week.

[jtschrei]

1. Jones has always played like this. It drives fundamental coaches crazy. I've heard little league coaches say "don't catch like Adam Jones" (like they used to say about Brady Anderson btw). Jones will handle routine fly balls by casually backhanding it. Brady used to bring his glove down almost to his waist and catch most fly balls at his side (instead of settling right under it). The drop tonight was a fluke drop, but it's made to look a lot uglier because of the poor outfield fundamentals.

2. I believe that the bubble gum has absolutely nothing to do with it. It's not intentional, it's completely instinctual. There are thousands of people from Michael Jordan to my kid brother that stick out their tongue at the exact instant of a difficult play. They don't think about - most don't even know they are doing it - it just happens naturally. For Adam, it's blowing gum. For people to say "it was all because of that gum" or "he blew that gum on purpose right as he was making the catch" is assuming a lot without a proper understanding of human idiosyncrasies. Like the poor fundamentals, it just makes the play look worse, it doesn't mean that the bubble gum influenced the catch in anyway.

3. The real issue with the drop were the two walks and hit batter before it. If this error is committed with less than two outs and only a runner on first, there isn't nearly the impact or subsequent uproar. It was Jones' fault he made the error but it wasn't Jones's fault he cost them the game with that that play. On a cold day with the ball having no pop to it, the last thing pitchers should have done was awarded free passes. Sabathia understood that, the Orioles' pitchers couldn't control it. Gonzalez's 5 walks impacted the game far more than that dropped ball.

Couldn't disagree with the bolded part more. You have to pick up your pitcher. That's your job. It's nearly impossible to get every hitter out every time. It's entirely possible to catch that ball EVERY time. Totally inexcusable. Adam has cost us 2 games this year with his defense. ENTIRELY unacceptable.

I can only imagine the uproar if JJ had blown 2 saves or Davis had made another error at 1B cost us a game. People would be calling for these guys to be replaced. Don't sugar coat this.

That this happened in Yankee Stadium after his error last year arguably cost us that entire PLAYOFF series makes this error even worse. I don't know what I would do if I were Buck. That's why he gets paid the big bucks. You just cannot do this AJ. C'mon!

[tntoriole]

And a player having a family may cause him to not make baseball his sole priority in life. Maybe less time watching film and working in the cage as a result makes him miss on a few more pitches than he would otherwise.

Point is that I don't see much value in this microanalysis.

You do see enough value in this "microanalysis" to get your points in, though. So how is blowing a bubble equivalent to "having a family", "watching film" "working in the cage"? I am talking about a completely and totally unnecessary activity, not necessary ones.

[SeaBird]

Not the same thing.

He's been doing it since high school. Doesn't even know he's doing it.

Oh, he knows. In my earlier post I said he had timed the blowing of the bubble to coincide with making the catch. It was planned and it would look cool on the highlight reel. Well, it made the highlight reel but for all the wrong reasons.