Jahmai Jones 2021

[waroriole]

12 hours ago, Ohfan67 said:

Hairston’s minor league OPS was significantly higher than Jones’. Unfortunately Jones’ minor league OPS is very similar to Valaika’s. 

No it wasn’t. Hairston never hit as good as Jones is now at AAA. Hairston was .787 and .848 in AAA before getting called up. Jones is at .895 in AAA now. 
 

Valaika didn’t get over .800 in AAA until it was his fourth year in the league. 

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, waroriole said:

No it wasn’t. Hairston never hit as good as Jones is now at AAA. Hairston was .787 and .848 in AAA before getting called up. Jones is at .895 in AAA now. 
 

Valaika didn’t get over .800 in AAA until it was his fourth year in the league. 

Yep, in his age 23 season, Hairston put up a .787 OPS in AAA in a league that averaged a .780 OPS.

In his age 23 season, Jones is putting up an .895 OPS in AAA in a league that is averaging a .749 OPS.

[Frobby]

13 hours ago, Ohfan67 said:

Hairston’s minor league OPS was significantly higher than Jones’. Unfortunately Jones’ minor league OPS is very similar to Valaika’s. 

 

1 hour ago, waroriole said:

No it wasn’t. Hairston never hit as good as Jones is now at AAA. Hairston was .787 and .848 in AAA before getting called up. Jones is at .895 in AAA now. 
 

Valaika didn’t get over .800 in AAA until it was his fourth year in the league. 

I wouldn’t judge Jones on his career MiL OPS.   He has undergone some swing changes that have allowed for pretty dramatic improvement.   I don’t know that his Norfolk OPS is indicative, either, but I think the guy can be a decent hitter.

 

[Ohfan67]

1 hour ago, waroriole said:

No it wasn’t. Hairston never hit as good as Jones is now at AAA. Hairston was .787 and .848 in AAA before getting called up. Jones is at .895 in AAA now. 
 

Valaika didn’t get over .800 in AAA until it was his fourth year in the league. 

Only if you cherry pick a few hot weeks in Norfolk. Hairston's career minor league OPS was .826. Jones career minor league OPS is .738. Valaika's career minor league OPS is .759. Jones' last full year of minor league ball (2019 in AA) his OPS was .631. 

[Ohfan67]

34 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Yep, in his age 23 season, Hairston put up a .787 OPS in AAA in a league that averaged a .780 OPS.

In his age 23 season, Jones is putting up an .895 OPS in AAA in a league that is averaging a .749 OPS.

In 37 games. We could probably find a stretch of 37 games in Hairston's age 23 season where he scorched the ball. I'm not trying to dump all over Jones. I'm intrigued and actually started this thread. But I think it is worth pointing out that the enthusiasm for Jones is based largely on SSS and "athleticism". 

[Ohfan67]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

I wouldn’t judge Jones on his career MiL OPS.   He has undergone some swing changes that have allowed for pretty dramatic improvement.   I don’t know that his Norfolk OPS is indicative, either, but I think the guy can be a decent hitter.

 

Or he had a hot month. As noted above, I want to see Jones succeed and am hopeful. But Jones laid a giant egg at AA and can't find a position. I am hoping that the hot start at Norfolk bodes well for the future, but unfortunately baseball reality is very harsh most of the time.  

[MurphDogg]

8 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

In 37 games. We could probably find a stretch of 37 games in Hairston's age 23 season where he scorched the ball. 

Not sure. Pre-2008 minor league game logs aren't available at Baseball Reference.

But the league environments were also different, so it would take a .920+ OPS by Hairston to be comparable.

Yeah it is a small sample size for Jones, but it isn't cherry picking like it would be in your Hairston example, it is the full AAA sample.

I don't have super strong feelings as to whether Jones should come up immediately. I think working on shoring up his defense by playing every day at second in the minors has value compared to adjusting to MLB pitching while also working on defense.

As Frobby suggests, scouts seem to think it is more a swing change than a hot stretch, but time will tell.

 

[Ohfan67]

2 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Not sure. Pre-2008 minor league game logs aren't available at Baseball Reference.

But the league environments were also different, so it would take a .920+ OPS by Hairston to be comparable.

Yeah it is a small sample size for Jones, but it isn't cherry picking like it would be in your Hairston example, it is the full AAA sample.

I don't have super strong feelings as to whether Jones should come up immediately. I think working on shoring up his defense by playing every day at second in the minors has value compared to adjusting to MLB pitching while also working on defense.

As Frobby suggests, scouts seem to think it is more a swing change than a hot stretch, but time will tell.

 

I hear you. Again, my posts probably seemed more negative than I meant. Jones is/was a flawed prospect and that was why he was available for trade. I am hoping he will improve, for sure. But of course baseball is harsh and there's a good chance that Jones will never get to play 351 ML games like Valaika and an almost zero chance that Jones plays in 1442 ML games like Jerry Hairston did. When posters start throwing around comps and dumping on utility players when comparing them to average prospects, I like to remember that baseball is harsh and just becoming a utility player is a relatively low probability outcome. Heck, Pat Valaika had an .817 OPS in the majors when he was 24. That was helped a LOT by Coors field, but that's still pretty cool and the vast majority of prospects won't ever have a season like that. 

[Ohfan67]

p.s. I think Jones is the next man up for 2B. 

[emmett16]

Watching Jones in Norfolk tonight.  First impression, he’s thick.  Looks like a running back.  He’s fast.  Doesn’t look “natural” at all.  Got on, stole a base (awkward slide) then proceeded to get picked off.  Made a couple awkward plays in field.  Missed covering first on tweener ball between 1b & P.   I don’t think this guys is MLB ready at all.  He would get exposed quickly.  

[owknows]

9 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

Watching Jones in Norfolk tonight.  First impression, he’s thick.  Looks like a running back.  He’s fast.  Doesn’t look “natural” at all.  Got on, stole a base (awkward slide) then proceeded to get picked off.  Made a couple awkward plays in field.  Missed covering first on tweener ball between 1b & P.   I don’t think this guys is MLB ready at all.  He would get exposed quickly.  

Yeah... He's no Pat Valaika

[connja]

and he's not hitting too much lately either.

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 hour ago, connja said:

and he's not hitting too much lately either.

1/4 with a SB and a run

1/4 yesterday with a HR

odd timing to say this 

[ChosenOne21]

He's "slumping" with like a .700 OPS for the month of July. If that's his slump, I want him in Baltimore

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, connja said:

and he's not hitting too much lately either.

Two homers this week, one an inside the park job.