Keeping Jones is Mariners' best move -- for now and the future
The Mariners should bow out while they can. Three words to live by: Keep Adam Jones.
General manager Bill Bavasi should tattoo "K.A.J." on his hand so that whenever he picks up the phone to talk trades, he resists temptation.
Keep Adam Jones.
He is the Mariners' future, and he just might be awfully good in the present. At last, he is primed to get his chance this season as the team's starting right fielder — unless the Mariners sacrifice him, along with several other prospects, for a chance at short-term success.
Baltimore doesn't want to include Bedard in a trade. The Orioles want to include him in a heist. They want to flash their shiny lefty as a distraction and then fleece a team starved for pitching. They're reportedly asking for three to five significant young players for Bedard, who is coming off an amazing 2007 season.
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Bedard, who turns 29 in March, is a really good pitcher with many years left in him. The thought of putting him with Felix Hernandez in the front of the starting rotation is intriguing. The thought of a complete rotation without a glaring weak link on the back end is wonderful.
The problem? The offense would take a hit. And more important, without Jones, the defense in the outfield, which aids those pitchers, would take a hit, too.
The Mariners survived some of their starting-pitching woes last season by turning to an offense that generally produced. It was an interesting lineup that required a little production from everyone because it lacked a dominant power hitter and run producer. But the offense has already lost right fielder Jose Guillen, a huge key last season, to Kansas City in free agency.
The danger now is that the Mariners will be back to depending too much on Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson, who can't carry an offense and wilt under that pressure. If Jones is around, he's a nice wild card who could soften the loss of Guillen's production.
There is more over there.
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