Welcome Back, Andruw

by
April 28, 2009

Andruw Jones went 0 for 4 last night. This year, that’s newsworthy, which is a pretty remarkable occurrence given how bad Jones was last year. That 0 for 4 lowered his 2009 line to .370/.514/.778. This is a guy who had a .505 OPS last year. His OBP is currently higher than that.

Yes, it’s only 35 plate appearances, but it’s 35 amazingly good plate appearances. Jones has walked more times than he’s truck out, posting a 7/6 BB/K rate. He has seven extra base hits in nine games. Last year, he had 12 extra base hits in 75 games.

Jones was a walking disaster, out of shape and unable to play at a major league level. The Dodgers paid him to go away. For the most part, baseball gave up on him. Andruw’s out to prove them all wrong, and he’s off to an amazing start.

Even with the small sample, the 2008 version of Andruw Jones was simply not capable of this kind of performance. He didn’t have enough life in his bat to get around on fastballs, and the result was an enormous jump in his strikeout rate and groundball rate. Through the first few weeks of 2009, both of those are back towards his career norms, making 2008 look like a massive outlier.

He’s making contact again, but more importantly, he’s hitting the ball hard. The Dodgers have to be wondering where this was a year ago, because right now, Jones looks as good as he ever has. We talked about the potential for him to pull a Jermaine Dye and rebound in a big way… that looks more likely every day.

Talent doesn’t just evaporate. Jones earned his way to the majors at 19 because he was a remarkably gifted individual. Those abilities are still in there. Kudos to the Texas Rangers for giving him an opportunity to find them again.





 

Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.

64 Comments
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KingKirkpatrick
14 years ago

Just what they needed, more offense. Maybe one day somebody in that organization will get a clue and learn that you need more than one good pitcher to actually have a chance at winning anything worthwhile.

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Dave Cameronmember
14 years ago
Reply to  KingKirkpatrick

Man, if only they had some good young pitchers coming up through a loaded farm system. Can you imagine what it would look like if they did have a clue? Maybe then they’d have guys like Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland, Michael Main, Martin Perez, Neil Ramirez, Wilfredo Boscan, and Kasey Kiker.

Oh, wait…

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mark
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Damn, more offense. Ugh. It’s a shame that if he’d hot at the ASB that they can’t, say, trade him for pitchi-

ohhhhhhhhhh wait.

2
Garrett
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Considering the Rangers recent track record of developing pitchers and/or trading away guys like Danks and Volquez, you’ll have to forgive me for not believing any of those guys will have an impact in Arlington until they actually do so.

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Dave Cameronmember
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Rephrased to put into last year’s context:

“Considering Tampa’s never had a winning season before, you’ll have to forgive me while I laugh at your projections that have them as contenders for the AL East.”

If you believe the world will just continue as it always has, you’ll never notice progress. And if you can’t notice progress, no one should care what you think.

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Garrett
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

There’s quite a sizable difference between major league ready pitching that was in Tampa last year and how far away a lot of Texas pitching depth is. You’re looking at Sonnanstine, Kazmir, Shields, Jackson vs. perhaps Holland and MAYBE Feliz by the time the year is over. Not close to the same scenario at all, and Tampa had new management filled with quite a few forward thinkers. The same Texas management that is currently there has shown a lack of ability to assess pitching and keep it when they should, or develop it when they do. Why should we believe that they have it all figured out now because some pitchers are dominating the lower minors again?

There’s no comparison. If you can’t take other opinions and react to them better than an high school newspaper student, no one will take what you think with more than a grain of salt. There’s certainly a pattern in your articles and your reaction when others disagree with you.

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Dave Cameronmember
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

I wasn’t comparing Texas’ situation to Tampa. . I was showing you why your line of thinking is going to lead to bad conclusions.

I could care less whether you agree with me or not. I’m trying to help you improve your logical process. If you want to keep making bad assumptions, that’s your deal.

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Garrett
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

You were trying to explain why Tampa’s success last year shouldn’t keep people from believing Texas can develop pitching, when the current management has never done so. Tampa’s management that took over from the prior unsuccessful regime had developed and traded for good MLB quality starting pitching prior to last year, and saw that further bloom into the great bullpen and rotation that they enjoyed in 2008. Texas has basically squandered every single young starting pitcher they’ve had in recent memory as well as quite a few decent veterans. They are not similar.

Perhaps the Rangers will one day have a fine homegrown rotation, but saying that someone is wrong for having quite a bit of doubt because of the repeated track record in Texas currently is ridiculous.

Also this “help” from a guy who has been refuted many times on this very website and chooses to refuse to admit any opinion besides his own, yes I find that quite ironic. I’m not the one who needs to work on logic.

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Dave Cameronmember
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Okay, enjoy your ignorance.

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KingKirkpatrick
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Yes, I’m sure all seven of those pitching prospects will all work out and all be at the MLB level very soon.

Main is struggling in A ball. Perez is in A ball. Where is Ramirez, in extended ST..headed to A ball? Boscan, A ball. Kiker is in AA.

So, basically, they have three prospects who could reasonably make an impact in the next couple seasons, one of whom is in their bullpen, one of whom is struggling mightily in AAA, and the other in AA. Forgive me for not getting overjoyed at the prospects of their pitching staff for the next couple seasons. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to build a respectable pitching staff, but they continuously botch it and trade away the players, like trading away Volquez for Hamilton..yeah, Hamilton is great, but that’s the last thing they needed.

0
Wally
14 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

Dave that was pathetic. Garrett rationally and logically explained his position and you come back with “Okay, enjoy your ignorance?” If anyone is being ignorant here, it is you.

Past track records of management and player development matter. You can’t just hand wave that away with some irrelevant analogy to the 2008 Rays.

Anyway, I’m noticing a lot of articles on this site where you are making conclusions about players or teams based on just 1-3 weeks…. It would be wise if you tempered you conclusions some.

1