Jones was a draft regular, selected by three teams over four different Draft years.
The Texas Rangers tried in the 33rd round, 1007th OA, of the 1997 Draft after Jones ASU career took off. The Baltimore Orioles tried to get him in the 49th round, 1426th OA, of the 1998 Draft. The Os took another poke at him the 25th round, 757th OA, of the 1999 amateur entry draft. The New York Yankees were smart enough to grab him in the 7th round (218th overall) of the 2000 official amateur talent grab.
That actually seems a little low for a guy at one of the power baseball schools who hit .357 his senior year at ASU with a .787 slugging percentage. In 249 at-bats, he struck out only 46 times and hit 27 home runs. He had 92 RBIs for the Sun Devils.
Seventh round for some clubs still gives you just a fine pipeline to the big time. Seventh round in the Yankees organization usually spells out as a four-letter word: DEAL. When George wants big ticket players, a promising prospect parts company with the Bronx bombers along with cash or other considerations.
While he consistently has had high slugging numbers since going pro with the Staten Island Yankees in 2000, his batting average remains good, not great over the last five years. A power hitter, he's been striking out way too much in 2003 and 2004.
He was promoted to Triple-A Columbus this year, after a breakout year in Trenton where his average wasn't phenomenal (.246), but he produced for the club with 39 home runs and 97 RBIs.
In 2005 he's doing better, with a .277 average and a .527 slugging percentage. Jones has 28 doubles, 3 triples, 26 home runs and 72 RBIs to date on the season. He's had a collective four at-bats with the Yankees in 2004 and 2005 to no record.
Attention scouts and touts: Great guy, wrong organization. Jones doesn't just call DEAL, he screams it. The Yanks are a mushroom theory of management organization: Players are largely kept in the dark, fed fertilizer and expected to grow nonetheless. Some players do not do well in this kind of environment. Jones has done just fine, but he could be far better. Some college ballplayers don't do well in the minors. The way that this guy hits though, he should be doing better.
Jones' biggest ding is that he strikes out a lot. Still he puts up a lot of production for clubs who need a big bat. We think, with a little TLC from an organization that actually plans to use him for something, he could get his strike counts down and his average up to the levels that a player of his caliber should deliver.
The Yanks didn't promote him to be a Yankee. They promoted him because it will make him more attractive bait in the next shark-infested waters of New York Yankees baseball monopoly, the game that has one winner: YES television, which stocks millions of tubes each year with a dazzling array of Major League All-Stars playing under one roof.
Jones would flourish in a system like the Twins or Angels. Since the Yanks prefer shipment out of the range that keeps them from getting spanked by their own players, we'd think that the Dodgers or the Pads might have the right people to put Mr. Jones on the path to stardom. Based on what we hear, his likelihood on the Yankees roster is exceptionally low. Other than Melky Cabrera, who was up and missed this year's list, or Bronson Sardinha, there isn't a more promising player in the Yanks' organization.
He arrives as the FAB50's most interesting "minor leaguer to be named later."
