Infielder Russ Adams has decided to retire, reports Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com. Adams has played the last two seasons for the Mets' Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, beginning this season hitting just .180/.296/.246 in 72 plate appearances.
Adams was Toronto's first-round pick (14th overall) in the 2002 amateur draft, J.P. Ricciardi's first as the Blue Jays' GM. Originally drafted as a shortstop, Adams was moved to second and then third base in the majors, but the bigger issue was his bat. In 993 Major League plate appearances, all with the Jays, Adams managed just a .247/.313/.372 line. Adams' struggles were magnified by the success of Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher and Cole Hamels — the three players taken directly after him in the draft, a fact that Ricciardi was criticized about for the rest of his Jays tenure.
Russ Adams > Scott Kazmir.
Regardless if this is a joke or not, Scott Kazmir’s 2010 season was worth the same as Russ Adams’ career. -0.8 fWAR.
And there goes the Jays wasted 2002 first round pick.
Russ who?
I don’t know if his bat was the bigger issue. He was a terrible fielder. A lot of people figured his bat would come around at some point.
Can you retire if you’ve never had a career??
If so, to all those wondering, I’ve just retired from cardiology
ps. I hate Russ Adams because I’ve always secretly blamed him for being in the system when the Jays didn’t take Troy Tulowitzki
so you don’t like romero?
I like him just fine. He’s a good starter.. But Tulo is the best SS in the game ..
I doubt you feel the same about Romero now.
Damn. I was just going to go to you for my heart trouble….
Call Russ Adams!
Could have been 2B or called if Reyes is traded.
I guess it’s appropriate that he retires from the organization that is currently employing J.P. Ricciardi.
Dear Russ Adams:
We wish you the best of luck in retirement, we’ll miss you.
Sincerely,
All the Mets’, Jays’, Bisons’, Etc.’s fans sitting in the first 20 rows, first base side
.
lol
I’ll always remember Russ for one very odd stat: he always hit significantly better at leadoff than at any other place in the order. I think he hit .300 at leadoff and sub .230 elsewhere, but my memory could be failing me and I don’t know where to find the exact statistics.
not tryin to be a jerk but it looks like your memory did fail you. career avg. at leadoff was .249 in 401 ab. he had two other slots in the lineup in which he had at least 100 ab. 8th spot he hit .198 and 9th spot he hit .235
well luckily for him he still has about 1.7 million he banked playing the game he loved , not to mention a degree from UNC. that just goes to show how good you have to be to play MLB. I grew up playing ball with him from little league until graduation of high school. and he was far superior to anyone in the area. he will live a great life back in the small town of laurinburg NC