"Destination: Big leagues...Rainiers prospect on fast track to making M's" -- May 15, 2006

BY CALEB BREAKEY

FOR THE OLYMPIAN

TACOMA -- Fresh out of high school, Adam Jones turned down an offer to play baseball for one of the game's legends.

It was June 2003. Tony Gwynn, future Hall of Fame outfielder and head coach of San Diego State University's baseball team, thought highly of the young shortstop and had Jones' friend, Quintin Berry, on the Aztecs' roster as a recruiting tool.

But nothing could persuade Jones from his desire to play against the toughest competition and reach the major leagues quickly, not even Gwynn's off-season phone calls.

"I could have learned his style, but I look at it as I'm 20-years-old in Triple-A compared to being 20-years-old and a junior in college with one of my good friends," Jones said. "Sometimes I wonder how college life would have been, but I'm closer to my goal."

The Mariners' first-round draft pick in 2003 out of Morse High School in San Diego said he made the right decision.

Just three years into his minor league career, Jones is hitting .288 with a team-leading seven home runs and 21 RBIs through his first 31 games. After being converted to center field during the Arizona Fall League last year, Jones anchors the Tacoma Rainiers' spacious center field at Cheney Stadium.

Teammate Mike Morse said Jones' hitting and defensive potential is impressive, and others agree.

People compare Jones with center fielders such as Torii Hunter and Mike Cameron, but he doesn't let the player-comparison compliments go to his head.

"I'm not trying to be like anybody," he said. "When someone says I remind them of that person, that's fine."

Jones' athleticism made the transition from shortstop to the outfield an easy one.

But the move also went against his craving to be in the middle of every play.

He said sometimes seven or eight balls pepper the outfield gaps throughout a game, while other times he sees no action in center field.

"It's totally different out there," Jones said. "You're far away from everything and it's as boring as anything you can do."

Jones, the Mariners' minor league player of the year in 2005, said Tacoma outfielders T.J. Bohn and Shin-Soo Choo have helped him adjust to the outfield by their example, and manager Dave Brundage shares defensive techniques with Jones regularly.

Brundage said Jones improves daily and that his tremendous arm-strength -- radar-guns clocked Jones at 96 mph off the mound in high school -- allow him to run an occasional ugly route in the outfield.

"He can be as good as he wants to be in the outfield, and he will because he picks things up very quickly," Brundage said. "He might make more errors and he might make more mistakes, but how are we ever going to learn from it if he never makes mistakes?"

Offensively, the right-handed hitting Jones sticks with the advice of friend and former Mariner, Mark McLemore. He said the ex-Mariner utility player showed him the ropes of the game, such as how to deal with batting slumps.

Jones, who considers himself a gap-to-gap hitter with speed, said McLemore and Tacoma coaches offer the same advice -- stay inside himself and don't try to do too much with the baseball.

"Sometimes I'll get a bigger swing trying to hit the ball out, because I know I can hit the ball out," Jones said. "But when I try to, it never goes."

After his 2004 season, Jones was told that he needed to get more walks and cut down on strikeouts.

Baseball critics continue to point toward Jones' .290 on base percentage this season as his weakness, but the 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound outfielder said he must remain aggressive at the plate at this point of his career.

He struck out 124 times in 2004, cut down to 112 in 2005, and has 27 whiffs in his first 120 at-bats this season -- tied for third-most in Tacoma's lineup.

Jones said he takes hacks at juicy pitches early in the count, especially ones that pitchers are just trying to throw for first-pitch strikes.

"Walks come as they come," said Jones, who has four walks. "Up here I want to be as aggressive as I can because I don't want to miss that pitch that I should drive. A walk is nice, but a double would be better."

Brundage said young players go through peaks and valleys more frequently than veterans and need experience to overcome patience issues with the bat.

Both Rainiers' hitting coach Terry Pollreisz and Brundage agree that Jones must stay forceful and wide-eyed for his pitch at the plate.

"You want to keep him aggressive because you don't want him to be timid and passive at the plate," Brundage said.

While Jones' roommate and friend on the team, Jose Morban, said the Mariners' future outfielder enjoys kicking back and playing videogames in his spare time, Jones said fans at Safeco Field would see non-stop hustle when he runs out toward the 405 sign in his big-league center field debut.

Jones said he never hot-dogs a ball or jogs to first on a hit toward the pitching mound.

"They'll always see hustle and a hard worker, trying to learn the next best thing," he said. "Trying to learn the pitcher, trying to learn situations -- a student of the game."

Adam Jones file

Position: Converted from shortstop to center field.

Height, weight: 6-foot-2, 200 pounds

Age: 20

Drafted: Selected 37th overall in the first round of the 2003 amateur draft.

Personal: Jones grew up in San Diego and was drafted by the Mariners in 2003 out of Morse High School, where he batted .406 and posted a 2.71 ERA in his senior year. He enjoys playing video games, hanging out with his parents and brothers in San Diego, and is a "relaxed guy."

He is thankful for his relationship with his parents, Kenneth and Andrea -- especially his mom's interest in his career. When he was with the San Antonio Missions, the Mariners double-A affiliate, Andrea e-mailed the Missions' commentators about everything, Jones said. "They started to like her, and when she came to San Antonio she got to meet them," he said. "She's so into baseball. As soon as this gets published, she'll be the first one to have it."