Rangers Considering Andruw Jones

Yeah! No sheets, but at least we get another spare on a minor league deal! Playoffs 09!!!

in all seriousness though, this move doesn't bother me. maybe rudy can straighten him out during the spring. if anything, he'll be entertaining in oklahoma city.

Smart, low risk move.

whatever.

^^^^

So it took pitching coaches all over the MLB 10 years to figure out Andruw Jones? Huh? If anyone can help him, it's the Rangers hitting coach. His name is escaping me at the moment, but he's one of the best in the game.

WHAT! How couldn't the Braves offer him a minor-league deal????? What are you doing Wren? We don't need Tommy Glavine we need Ohman and a power OF bat.

"So it took pitching coaches all over the MLB 10 years to figure out Andruw Jones? Huh? If anyone can help him, it's the Rangers hitting coach. His name is escaping me at the moment, but he's one of the best in the game."

I've watched Andruw since the day he was called up, and he's always been like this. Just because he hits homers doesn't make him a good hitter. I don't care who their hitting coach is, Andruw is a dead pull hitter and his approach will never change. He was shown earlier this off-season taking BP with Chipper and Brian McCann, and pitches that were a good 6-8 inches outside, he's trying to reach out and pull them. You'll absolutely love his defense, but he'll lose you more runs with his bat than he'll save with his glove.

If Jones had problems adjusting to NL pitching, can you imaging the nastiness that AL pitchers are going to throw at him?

Good Luck Jones. I'm just glad you don't wear an LA uniform anymore.

But, one has to admit: If Jones is able to restore his career in Texas, they will have one hell of a lineup.

Wow, what a pansy. Scared to play in New York I guess, rather play in Texas where there is zero pressure because the Rangers haven't made the playoffs in like 20 million years. Is he so unsure of his abilities at this point that he didn't think he could beat out Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera? Weak

Jones deserves a minor league contract but needs to work his way back to the majors. He was terrible last year and needs to show he can still play at the highest level.

This is one of the reasons why the Rangers are losers. I wouldn't give Jones a job cleaning the toilets in the clubhouse.

The Rangers WILL make a run in the next 3 years. You sound like a bandwagon redsox fan, maybe even a bandwagon yankees fan

Did it just change?

Hopefully it's Mike Vick...live from prison

Kinsler5, why don't you name me the bad moves JD has made in the past year and a half.

The rangers #1 farm system you touted didn't appear out of thing air.

Dozens of terrible players sign minor league deals every year. Complaining about them is idiotic.

Kinsler5,

The only reason I made an account is to let you know how much of an idiot you are. First of all, JD has made some bad moves in his career but he knows what he is doing now and has the Rangers headed in the right dierection. He had ZERO money to work with this offseason but you still think it is up to him to dish out the money for all the top free agents, Hicks was only willing to change that for sheets. Plus the Rangers have said it all offseason that they are planning on winning in 2010 when most of the young talent is ready and around $30 million opens up in payroll. So please tell me again why it is so bad to keep signing players to minor league deals, which is the only thing JD has money for this offseason, hoping they have good years and helping us win or even trading them at the deadline for even more young talent for 2010 and beyond?

i'm so glad somebody called out kinsler5. he drives me insane with his rangers bashing. every single post is so stinkin negative, and you would think he would take a glass half full approach. seriously, if you are a rangers FAN, you do your best to support the team, not rip its every move.

so what if the rangers sign older players with obvious problems to minor league deals? the worst that could happen is they stink, and if so they won't play in arlington for long, if at all. and trust me, they won't be taking away any playing time from the good farm players who have a legit shot of playing in the bigs. its not like they are going to bench borbon to play andruw. its ignorant to think so.

also, know that jd now a days does practically nothing without nolan's approval. he isnt signing all these people thinking they are gonna put up allstar numbers. but like a few people have mentioned before, things for these players can only improve. and if they dont, they wont play. simple as that.

nolan is calling the shots, and im fine with what the rangers are doing. i personally would still take a flyer on sheets and hope he comes back healthy in 2010. i'd give him 3 or 4 years right now with a crazy incentive laden contract. if he doesn't pan out, oh well, you lose a few bucks, but nothin that would have impacted the club severely anyway. if he plays well, you look like a genius for getting a good player at a reasonable price. to me, his price can only go up (after the surgery), so you might as well lock him up now and hope for the best. i'd rather have millions of dollars going to an injured sheets over an injured millwood/padilla any day of the week.

and jd isnt the greatest, but you cant deny the prospects hes gathered. feliz, holland, smoak, borbon, main, beaven, andrus? all on jd's watch. ps - dont rebuddle with chris young and adrian gonzalez. john danks trade? obviously bad. but jd hasnt been soo god awful. and now nolan has his grip on the organization, so im going to trust that he makes the right decisions.

name a bad trade made after the danks trade??? the guy was a youngster when he took over and got taken advantage of but other gm's. the rangers are heading in the right directions with nolan and a wiser jd.

Hey Kinsler5, why don't you go play 2K Sports' MLB Front Office Manager and pretend to be a GM...the material you post on this site is pointless and I get the feeling you would bash JD no matter what...signing Jones and Jennings are low risk ventures...go find another team to bash...go to the Yankees rumors and bash them and see what kind words their fans will have for you!

The Braves didn't offer a minor League deal,after Terry P seen him hit and seen the same stubborn Jones would change his stance ,the Braves passed,Now Bobby Cox wants Andrew, but he only deserves a minor league deal and that all any team is going to offer a .156 batter unless there are other teams that might do a major deal,2 years .156, NO DEAL

The A's should reeeeeeally consider Andruw.

Ryan Sweeney is more of a corner OF than a CF. He could be an average defensive CF, but its unlikely. I think he's out of options(he was jerked around quite a bit with the Sox, I think), so he has to stay up. If Andruw plays well, he plays CF. If he sucks, he gets released and Buck gets called up.

Buck and Cunningham both have options left, and Cunningham, as the A's best position prospect, NEEDS to spend more time in AAA.

If there are any left.

I don't see why Andruw would pick the Rangers over the Braves (or anyone else, for that matter) if they were all offering minor league deals. It seemed for a while that he wanted to go back to Atlanta, but ONLY on a major league deal... why suddenly Texas?

fineham,

probably because texas has the best offense in baseball and a hitters park where many spares resurrect their careers?

but then how does it help them, well not much that we can see but we're not in the buisness, and like i said, what if he turns out to be good for the rangers, wont hurt to give him a chance when its such a low risk

Lets not forget that Texas has the best hitting instructor in all of baseball.

As far as Texas inflating numbers, you would be surprised on how little they actually do. Look at BP 3 year park factors. You would be real surprised to see that Texas is a lot close to neutral than you would believe.

Most of it has to do with changes in the Ranger's home ballpark structurally the changed the wind patterns some.

Jones makes sense on a minor league deal. If he figures it out and takes to Jarimillo's instruction and regains he stroke and loses the weight he could be a nice asset. All the Ranger's would have to do is place him in AAA to ensure that he has refound his stroke and then at some point if and when an OF gets hurt bring him up.

All it would really cost would be for Greg Golson to receive some ad's in AA instead of AAA.

So basically he turns the Braves down, who he said he wanted to play for, and took the same offer he said he wouldn't accept?

This move tells me a few things about the Rangers' thinking:

1. They aren't sure whether the .275/15/74 that they got out of Murphy last year in just 415 AB is something they can count on.

2. They aren't confident that Nelson Cruz will mash over the course of an entire ML season.

3. They aren't convinced that Byrd is a full-time player in CF.

4. They don't know whether Golson is ready yet to come up and produce, despite his impressive physical tools.

So Andruw is a low-risk insurance plan against those potential problems. The other thing is that in the past few years, Texas has gotten pretty good at identifying guys who have little to no current value, but who are primed for a renaissance. If they hit big on these numbers, they can either keep the player or (more likely) try to flip him for a couple of interesting prospects, further solidifying their already amazing talent pool.

So I don't see how anyone can be upset with this deal. If he can't hit any more - he'll either toil away in AAA or he'll just get cut. If he does produce, then it will get interesting. If Texas can help him reclaim his 50 homer potential, adding that kind of righty power bat to the middle of the current lineup would make this offense absolutely devastating.

Now if they could only do something about the pitching.

I don't understand why he'd take the deal from Texas and not NY. I'd think he's have a better shot at starting CF for the Yankees....??