Mitch Jones to the Fighters

Wes Covington, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. I'll tell you why.

First thing you said was Mitch has 19 homers, but Las Vegas 51's stadium is a hitters park. You make it sound like that is the only reason he has hit 19. Mitch Jones set an all time home run record his senior year at ASU, and during his Minor League career has either led the league or been amongst the top few home run hitters in each season. I should also mention that Mitch, upon departure from Las Vegas, was batting .303 with 14 doubles, 1 triple, and a league leading 60 RBIs.

The next thing you said was Mitch can't play any other position than outfield. Mitch played third base at ASU. During Mitch's professional career he has spent much of his time playing first base and on occasion third base.

If you're going to say something negative about Mitch, say he strikes out a lot. At least that is a true statement.

Mitch Jones may be a 29-year old career minor leaguer, but he is a 29-year old minor leaguer that's never been given a chance. The Yankees put him on their 40 man roster for a whole day. They never gave him a shot.

Give the guy a chance. The dimensions at Cashman Field are quite similar to Japanese baseball dimensions: 328' (100m) to left, 364' (111m) to left center, 433' (132m) to center, 364' (111m) to right center, and 328' (100m) to right.

Jones makes way too many errors to be a third baseman. He'll play left field, first base, or be the designated hitter. Morimoto's in center, Inaba's in right, and Seguignol's at first.

The Fighters desperately need power. Third baseman Andy Green (.197, 0, 3) hasn't worked out. It's hard to predict which player will succeed and which will fail in Japan. The strike zone is much smaller and pitchers throw a lot of breaking pitches.

Wait, what? Seguignol's only playing first base during inter-league in CL parks because he's too valuable a bat to take out of the lineup. He's the team's DH (and has been for several years). First base has mostly been covered by some combination of Tomoyuki Oda, Yukio Tanaka, and Eiichi Koyano, for the most part. (Which is a problem, since none of those guys are particularly great hitters.) Koyano, Iiyama, Yoh, and others can play third base though, to open up first base, and I think it's fairly likely that Yukio Tanaka's mostly going to end up pinch-hitting and spot-starting for the rest of the year now that there's no pressure for him to get playing time to reach the 2,000-hit mark.

(And Tsuboi's pretty decent in left field, so it's unclear why they'd replace him there either. First base makes the most sense for a bat upgrade.)

So in all fairness, if Jones can play first and actually hit some, too, it'll be a pretty good upgrade, but we'll have to see how he does.

Thanks for more info. I was wondering why the Fighters would sign an outfielder, since their outfield is pretty solid. They definitely need someone better at the corners, so the fact that he can play there makes sense. It's scary to think of the Fighters being even stronger.

Jones is signed through 2008 season.

He may take over Seguinol's role at DH or first base.

I have been following Mitch this season as a friend of his brothers. We went to see him play in Las Vegas. He is hitting the ball very well.

A little history about Mitch. He holds the record for home runs in a single season at Arizona State University (same university where Barry Bonds played). He is a career minor leaguer who has played in the Yankee organization, a team who has a history of buying their talent before bringing up the young players. And Los Angeles made a huge mistake.

I think the Fighters will like him. I plan on going to Japan to see him play next season.

There was no place for Jones to play in Los Angeles. The outfield is full and there are younger, better players available. He wasn't even on the 40-man roster.

I have been following Mitch Jones for a couple of years now, and have been impressed with his desire and work ethic. He will hit home runs and he will strike out. I don't see him being too successful outside of a DH role, but he was never given a shot. I hope he takes Japan by storm and eventually makes it to the majors. He deserves his shot!