Adam Jones' true defensive value and how it affects his WAR

[Jordan Tuwiner]

While fans generally agree on what type of offensive player Adam Jones is (swings at pitches down and away, good power, not very patient), there has always been disagreement on how good he is defensively.

UZR will tell you he's below-average (-9 runs). Baseball America polled scouts and they rated him the second best defensive outfielder in the AL.

Jones has never put up a WAR above 3, and part of this is because of how UZR is not very fond of his defense. I personally believe Jones is a tick above-average in CF.

Adjusting his WAR using my thoughts would make him a ~4 WAR player, assuming his offensive statistics from 2011. Considering Baseball America polled scouts from a number of teams, there are obviously teams that believe he's a well above-average defender, which would make him a ~5 WAR player in their eyes.

CFs that put up around 4-5 WAR last year: Peter Bourjos, Chris Young, Cameron Maybin, Melky Cabrera, Michael Bourn, BJ Upton

Let's also not forget that Jones has yet to enter his prime and still has room to improve.

How do you view Adam's defensive value?

[Shorebirdfan]

It is pretty amazing to me that in a game that relies so heavily on stats that there can be that large a variance between what the stats say and what the perception is.

I always believe in keeping things simple, and in that format I've always maintained that Jones' biggest issue is simply that he plays too shallow. I think he does this because he simply over rates his own ability to get to the ball. The only good I see that comes out of it is on balls hit in front of him he gets to them earlier and shortens throws making up for an arm that I don't think is as strong as it appears.

[ofahn]

Slightly above average. Bad routes but a good arm. Now, if he could just be more consistently accurate.....................

[OriolesRedskins28]

Below average. Recall one of the games against the Rays after the all star break where he whiffed on a line drive, leading to an inside the park home run (grand slam was it?) by Evan Longoria. There were multiple plays in the home series against the Nationals that I didn't like from him either This past year it seemed like he had a lot of deep fly balls to the wall in center that he misjudged that it looked like he could have caught but just missed. I think his range is a little bit over rated as well considering the shallow centerfield wall at Camden Yards. BUT he does have a cannon for an arm which balances things out a bit but overall I would say below average.

[TuckerBlair89]

I have always thought of jones as a tick above average as well. Sometimes I think watching a player in real life is better than just going by what statistics give you. I think jones has his flaws(plays a tad shallow, cuts routes a little too much) but he makes up for it by the great plays and strong arm he has. There are always those players that uzr, etc seem to not take a liking to.

[ofahn]

I have always thought of jones as a tick above average as well. Sometimes I think watching a player in real life is better than just going by what statistics give you. I think jones has his flaws(plays a tad shallow, cuts routes a little too much) but he makes up for it by the great plays and strong arm he has. There are always those players that uzr, etc seem to not take a liking to.

Please tweet that to the Braves FO.