Peter King's Mailbag

I haven't read anything quite this silly in a long while.  Peter King is a football writer in name, but for any national writer of significant fame to make a statement like that . . . . well . . . . it's just plain silly.

If I had the time, I would write up a detailed treatise about the statistical methodologies one could employ to show that Derek Jeter isn't the best player on his team, or even the best shortstop on his team.  I'm just not sure that his statement warrants that effort.

So, instead, I came here to gripe about it to people that can sympathize with me.  Stuff like this drives me crazy - given the advancements of baseball statistics, and their more frequent usage by mainstream folks, there is just no excuse for being this ignorant.

There, I've said my piece.  Thanks for listening.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2662633

Reportedly a two year, $22.5 million contract.    Short contract for an aging pitcher (but one that is still putting up good peripheral numbers) at a very reasonable $11 million per year.  

I don't see how this isn't a great deal for the Yankees.  In this market, that just might end up being the best free agent pitcher contract of the offseason.

Unrelated Random Fact:

OJ Simpson is one strange dude, and he is now willing to tell a "hypothetical" story about how he "would" have killed his wife and friend "if" he was to have been involved in those killings.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/15/simpsoninterview.ap/index.html

per USSM:
http://www.ussmariner.com/

I sure hope the M's front office guys know what they are doing.  

As many others have said, rushing Adam Jones to the show might harm his development (and our chances at contention) in the near future more than it would help the M's in the second half of '06.

Best of luck, Adam.

Jeff's note: here's a link to an interview Devin did with Jones a month and a half ago. It's a quick promotion, but not necessarily undeserved - his month-by-month BB/K in Tacoma has gone from 1/20 to 7/20 to 11/23 to 5/1 over the course of the season, suggesting that he's improved his pitch recognition and that PCL arms are beginning to work around him in the lineup. It's not just his eye, either; lately he's been beating the crap out of the ball to the tune of a .336 BA and .521 SLG since June 1st. Right now, this is the best that Adam Jones has ever been. The Mariners decided to reward his progress by giving him a promotion to The Show a year earlier than anyone ever imagined. Personally, I would've waited until at least September before doing this, but we've known for a while that the guys in charge like to be aggressive with young players, and this is only another example of that mindset at work.

So what can we expect from Jones in Seattle? If his hot streak carries over from AAA, he could have a strong debut, but I'm expecting a moderate slump in the early going, a period of a couple weeks where he's trying to get comfortable and swinging at everything, flailing at breaking balls and getting himself out. That's just the way things go for guys who love to swing the bat as much as Jones. If he doesn't adjust, he'll end up looking like Reggie Abercrombie, but if anything I'd say that Jones' track record is that of a really quick learner, so he could easily turn some heads down the stretch. Overall I'd expect a 2006 OPS somewhere around .700 or so (edit: there's discussion about this in the comments; realistically speaking, Jones' range of possible outcomes is enormous, so I'm just splitting the middle), but there's the potential for more than that, and he'll be better in September than he is this weekend.

Also, his defense isn't great, but it's far from terrible, so, yeah.

Meanwhile, Shin-soo Choo looks like he's just in the wrong organization at the wrong time. While the Mariners could keep him stashed away in AAA in case something goes awry, he's probably the first guy who comes up in trade negotations, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see him headed somewhere else if Bavasi decides that he wants to buy at the deadline. Like with Asdrubal Cabrera, his value to the organization is as a trade chip rather than a future OF, and he could end up the biggest part of a package to bring in a #3/4 starter.

I didn't really want Jones to get the call this early, but now that he's on the way up I can't say I'm not excited. He's a thrilling player who could and should be the next permanent addition to a team on the rise, and I'm looking forward to seeing most of the future core all playing together on the same field (Snelling should be up shortly). There's no harm in letting these guys get used to one another.

Final note: Adam Jones has a surprisingly low .504 OPS against lefties this year. Ordinarily this would be enough for Hargrove to arrange a platoon with Willie Ballgame, but Jones is a right-handed hitter, so we could be in for all sorts of tactical hilarity.