Is Adam Jones the new Luis Matos?

[melankfo]

Ex-Orioles centerfielder Luis Matos looked very promising for a while, both offensively and defensively, and then quickly went downhill and out of the majors. SInce the middle of last season Adam Jones has been on a similar trajectory.

Based on his plate improvements from his first season in 2008 thru the first half of last year, it seemed he was on his way to stardom, but since then he has lost much of the patience that was based on, and is back to getting himself out on bad pitches. And when he takes pitches now, it's often the wrong ones. Case in point last night, his three pitch strike out, one of his "classic" at bats: Pitch one -- a little ripple of a curve ball right down the middle belt high, and J. takes it for strike one. That pitch should have ended up in the seats, but clearly he had made up his mind not to swing, or that tiny curve completely froze him. Pitch two: fast ball belt high but on the outside corner, and he takes it for strike two. Not as fat as the previous, but very hittable if he'd been prepared to go to right field with it. Pitch three: a down and dirty curve or sinker that bounces in the dirt, unhittable, and that's the one he swings at -- strike 3. A lesson in how to do the pitcher 3 favors in one at bat.

Others have pointed out how his defense has regressed as well. He can still cover a lot of ground and sometimes gets to balls most others wouldn't, but his jumps are often poor, and when he must catch the ball in an extended position -- glove above his head when he's going back, or to the side or low when he's going for a shoe string -- he drops the ball out of his glove an amazing percentage of the time. I think his hand-eye coordination isn't very good, and those situations bring it out. He also has an erratic throwing arm, and frequently throws to the wrong base. He's far from being a gold glover -- the guys making that choice must have just seen the plays where he covers ground really well and makes the catch in a normal postion. I'd say he's a barely average major league centerfielder -- who seemed to have the potential to be a great one. Like Luis Matos, who in his early time with the O's, Jim Palmer likened to Paul Blair. Also like Matos, he's a fast runner who offerred the promise of being a base stealer, but can't seem to steal bases. Lots of similarities.

[murrayfan420]

The "core" is going to look much worse if he can't turn it around.

[Ruzious]

Luis Matos looked very promising - to O's fans, but he wasn't considered anywhere near the prospect around baseball - in general - as Jones was. Having said that, if Jones doesn't change his hitting approach, he'll end up out of MLB as quick as Matos.

[Hank Scorpio]

You're down 0-2 to Carl Pavano, whose fastball tops out around 91 mph or so. Are you really going to be looking for him to groove you a fastball 0-2? Are you seriously expecting a fastball strike at that point?

Jones has the bat speed to foul off a fastball if he tried to sneak one past him. True to form, he flails away at an 0-2 slider in the dirt as we've seen him do at least a dozen times this year.

I realize he doesn't have even average pitch recognition, but you have to go up there with some common sense.

That, combined with his ridiculously long swing equals a bad hitter. He's just a bad hitter right now. Very disappointing start.

[Hooded Viper]

Obviously Jones looks like crap right now but lets not forget how bad Torri Hunter was when he was young. Below are some stats from their first 2 full years in the league (Relevant because Adam is only in his 3rd full season):

Hunter

Age-24 & 25

Games-234

Ave-.267

HR-14

OPS-.707

Jones

Age-23 & 24

Games-251

Ave-.273

HR-27

OPS-.752

Adam has a gold glove as well, deserved or not, and Hunter, I believe, was sent down in one of his first years for struggling so badly. I am hoping that AJ can snap out of this funk and become Hunter like and perhaps even better. HOPEFULLY!

[atom_25]

Hopefully this thread serves as a reverse lock and he goes out tonight and mashes the ball.

Of all the slow starts this season, his has been the worst as what it means to the core. Couple that with his finish from last season and you really have to worry about the guy. There really is not a plan B, or C as it were if he falters.

So how do we fix him? or is this not really a fix him issue. Thoughts?

[notfast]

Jones first 1089 AB - 06-09 - .268/.316/.419 OPS - .765

Matos first 1080 AB - 00-04 - .255/.307/.381 OPS - .688

[japes121]

Hopefully this thread serves as a reverse lock and he goes out tonight and mashes the ball.

Of all the slow starts this season, his has been the worst as what it means to the core. Couple that with his finish from last season and you really have to worry about the guy. There really is not a plan B, or C as it were if he falters.

So how do we fix him? or is this not really a fix him issue. Thoughts?

He's disastrous at the top of the order right now. I understand what DT is trying to do with the situation, but it's not working out. He needs to be moved to 7th/8th in the order where he can get back to just playing his game and not worrying about things.

As far as the OP, others have gotten it right already in the thread: Jones was, and still is I'm sure, universally considered in the league to be a very very good young player. Matos never was at that level.

I'm on of the biggest Jones believers out there, but what we are doing right now simply is not working. He's our best option in CF so he needs to stay on the roster for the time being, but please, please move him down in the order. I still think he is going to be ok and capitalize on his potential, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit worried.

[NewMarketSean]

Trembley needs to get him out of the lead-off spot!!!!

He needs to batting 8th right now.

[AgentOrange]

I would like Jones to start hitting the ball the other way. If he starts doing that, he will let the ball get further into the zone it will help his approach.

That is the only way he is going to break out of his funk, IMO.

[melankfo]

You're down 0-2 to Carl Pavano, whose fastball tops out around 91 mph or so. Are you really going to be looking for him to groove you a fastball 0-2? Are you seriously expecting a fastball strike at that point?

Jones has the bat speed to foul off a fastball if he tried to sneak one past him. True to form, he flails away at an 0-2 slider in the dirt as we've seen him do at least a dozen times this year.

I realize he doesn't have even average pitch recognition, but you have to go up there with some common sense.

That, combined with his ridiculously long swing equals a bad hitter. He's just a bad hitter right now. Very disappointing start.

Thanks for adding that point, about what Jones could reasonably have expected, down 0-2. That is definitely part of what made that -- and too many of his others these days -- seem like a very stupid at bat.

[H0smash]

I would like Jones to start hitting the ball the other way. If he starts doing that, he will let the ball get further into the zone it will help his approach.

That is the only way he is going to break out of his funk, IMO.

THIS!

Whenever I was in a slump, my coach would always tell me to just try to hit the ball the other way and then after doing that a game or two the slump would disappear. He has done that before as well, I don't see why he hasn't tried to just go the other way with the ball this year. That would help solve his problem of trying to pull the ball/doing too much with it, just hit it where it's pitched. They should also move him down in the order to number 7 or 8 to take some pressure off of him and allow him to get his confidence back.

[Tony-OH]

Hunter is the main reason I refuse to give up on Jones regardless of how bad he looks right now. I will say though he needs to be dropped to the bottom of the order and a stint in AAA again might be helpful. Unfortunately, there's no one dwon there ready to help out unless the O's plan to bring both Patterosn and Salazar up and send Jones and Montanez down. That would be pretty ugly though in my opinion.

Drop Jones to the 8th spot and have him work everyday with Crow until he can find what works for him because right now, it's not working.

[DuffMan]

Hunter is the main reason I refuse to give up on Jones regardless of how bad he looks right now. I will say though he needs to be dropped to the bottom of the order and a stint in AAA again might be helpful. Unfortunately, there's no one dwon there ready to help out unless the O's plan to bring both Patterosn and Salazar up and send Jones and Montanez down. That would be pretty ugly though in my opinion.

Drop Jones to the 8th spot and have him work everyday with Crow until he can find what works for him because right now, it's not working.

Would the offensive numbers Patterson puts up for us really be that much worse than Jones? At this point I would say no. My concern is would sending Jones to Norfolk be the wake up call he needs and help get him back on track or would he sulk about it and not try to make any changes?

[Moose Milligan]

Hunter is the main reason I refuse to give up on Jones regardless of how bad he looks right now. I will say though he needs to be dropped to the bottom of the order and a stint in AAA again might be helpful. Unfortunately, there's no one dwon there ready to help out unless the O's plan to bring both Patterosn and Salazar up and send Jones and Montanez down. That would be pretty ugly though in my opinion.

Drop Jones to the 8th spot and have him work everyday with Crow until he can find what works for him because right now, it's not working.

Can't get any worse than what we've got going right now, right?

Wait...I forgot what franchise we're talking about here...