Breaking News? Adam Jones Wins Gold Glove?
November 7th, 2009 | by Daniel Moroz |Congratulations to Adam Jones for picking up his first Gold Glove this year (if the message on MySpace from Jonathan Jones, his older brother, is accurate; hat-tip to jerios55 (Jason Harrington) at OriolesHangout for the link). “This Guy” wrote: “is happy 4 my lil bro Adam Jones; He just found out he won the Golden Glove 4 his Baseball Team, the Baltimore Orioles” (a screen-grab of it is below the fold). Jonathan’s mood is “excited”, which is certainly understandable. [Edit: Appears to have been confirmed by Roch.]
According to FanGraphs, while Jones’ fielding numbers were good last year at +9.9 UZR they were below average this year at -4.7 UZR (ranked 5th out of 7 qualifying AL center-fielders). The Fan Scouting Report has him as having good speed and acceleration, but not great reactions or instincts. His arm is rated as strong (and he did have a +7.3 arm component of UZR), but not that accurate. No idea how much blowing a bubble while making a catch is worth, but Jones may have led the league in that category.
He’s probably a plus out there with the glove, but not amongst the premier defenders in the league. I’d rank Franklin Gutierrez and BJ Upton well ahead of him, and then there’s Ichiro and Carl Crawford in the corners. I’m happy for Adam personally, but he wasn’t deserving in my opinion. That doesn’t mean he won’t rightly add to that hardware in the future though.
You can see Jonathan with Adam in that third picture on the right, I believe. And lest we forget, Adam himself sort of let the cat out of the bag when he was traded for Erik Bedard before it was official. Early good news is always welcome.
Tags: Adam Jones
By Zach Sanders on Nov 7, 2009
Breaking news on Myspace. That seems like a new one.
By Ian Oland on Nov 7, 2009
It makes sense. He made the all-star team for the first time this year, and that’s generally an award for the more well-known names. Who votes for the gold glove awards anyways? Players and coaches? Plus, it is well documented that he did let the cat out of the bag for the Bedard deal. And his family doesn’t really seem to understand his celebrity completely. It’s an odd way to have breaking news, but I think in this situation I’m glad you brought it to everyone’s attention.
By Stacey on Nov 7, 2009
Don’t know that he deserves it necessarily but that’s hardly a new phenomenon for the GG.
By Rif on Nov 7, 2009
This is actually kind of a bad thing, because I was really hoping Jones would spend the offseason getting his fielding back to where it was the year before, but I can’t see him doing that now
By Jordan on Nov 7, 2009
Don’t question Aj’s work ethic.
By Matt K. on Nov 7, 2009
There’s no way he deserves the Gold Glove this year over Gutierrez. That would be very weird if it’s true.
By BC on Nov 8, 2009
Um…Adam is a trooper…he WILL be working on getting stronger and better this off season. Why would a gold glove make any difference?
By frostking on Nov 8, 2009
I believe the thinking is that since he has some things he didn’t do well this season defensively but was rewarded a GG for anyway, he may not think he actually needs to improve those aspects of his game.
By Ian Oland on Nov 8, 2009
He was a terrible hitter in the second half. So, no matter if he gets hardware or not, I think he’ll work very hard in the offseason. It’s just who he is. He’s shown great improvement every year he’s been here.