Adam Jones

Adam LaMarque Jones (born August 1, 1985, in San Diego, California) is an outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles. He was originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners with the 37th pick of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft as a shortstop/right handed pitcher. Most experts believed that Seattle wanted to use him as a pitcher, but Jones said he would prefer to play everyday and was made the shortstop of the Mariners' rookie league affiliate. A few years later when the Mariners acquired Yuniesky Betancourt, they asked Jones if he would move to the outfield. He agreed to give it a try and has continued to improve ever since.

MLB

Seattle Mariners

He shot through the Mariners minor league system in a relatively short amount of time. On July 12, 2006, he was called up to the Mariners to replace the injured Jeremy Reed.

On August 10, 2006, Jones hit his first major league home run against Adam Eaton of the Texas Rangers.

On August 3, 2007, Jones returned to the majors for the first time on the season, starting in right field for the Mariners against the Boston Red Sox, going 2-4 and scoring the go-ahead run in a 7-4 victory.


Baltimore Orioles

On February 8, 2008, Jones was traded to the Baltimore Orioles along with left-handed reliever George Sherrill and minor league pitchers Kameron Mickolio, Chris Tillman, and Tony Butler for the left-handed starting pitcher Érik Bédard.. Jones went on to become the Orioles' starting center fielder and Sherrill became the new closer, while Bédard tore his labrum in September of 2008 after going 6-4 with a 3.67 ERA.

On September 21, 2008, Jones hit the final triple at Yankee Stadium in the second inning off Andy Pettite and later that inning scored the first run of the game. In 2009, Adam Jones started the year off strong and is currently on pace to hit 25 home runs. On July 5th, 2009 Adam was selected to represent Baltimore in the 2009 All Star Game. And drove in Curtis Granderson off a sac fly to win 4-3.

Throughout the 2009 season, he has played center field exclusively. In the lineup, he has batted in both the 2 and 3 spots, switching with fellow outfielder Nick Markakis depending on what their current batting averages are and whether or not they are facing a left handed pitcher. On June 17, the Baltimore Orioles had the Adam Jones promotional bobble head night. The bobble head showed him robbing a home run at the wall while blowing a bubble. The item has become a popular collector's item, selling for up to $30 US on websites like eBay. As Baltimore is a predominantly African-American community, Jones has also become very popular with the Orioles strong African-American fan base, and in 2009 became the first African-American from the Orioles to make the All-Star team since Eddie Murray.

On November 10, 2009, Adam Jones was awarded a Gold Glove for his defensive play in center field during the 2009 season.