Keeping up with Jones

“What I’ve seen so far is a young player that has a world of ability and is in the process of putting it together,” said hitting coach Terry Crowley. “Eventually he’s going to be a real, solid everyday player, and when that takes place remains to be seen.”

“He” is Adam Jones, the key figure in the trade that sent ace pitcher Erik Bedard to Seattle and by all accounts a future “impact player” whose performance in center field will loom large in the Orioles’ hoped-for rebirth.

Jones has played just 73 games in the majors since his debut with the Mariners on July 14, 2006 — when he was 20 years old. He’s had 139 at-bats, with three home runs, and has learned to live with bad moments — like striking out four times in a game or making two errors in a single inning.

Pressure?

“I’ve been asked this question a hundred times, and I don’t like to put pressure on myself,” the lanky 6-foot-2 newcomer said with a slight smile in a recent interview before the team’s daily morning workout at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. “I think I did that when I first got called up in Seattle, and I was kind of trying to do too much. Here is an opportunity to go out there and play every day and have fun. I’m trying to relish that.”

Jones said he started playing baseball as a 12-year-old, growing up in a tough San Diego neighborhood, and was already getting noticed as a young member of the Morse High School team that was the alma mater of an older mentor and friend, former Oriole Mark McLemore.

“After my freshman year, we had a lot of scouts at our games because they were looking at our juniors, and the scouts were looking at me and giving me their cards,” Jones said. “Every year in high school I got better and better.”

A first-round draft pick at 17, then as a shortstop just out of high school, Jones got his first professional contract and a ton of money — even by adult standards. He signed a one-year deal with the Orioles in February, but financial terms were not disclosed.

He acknowledged getting goose bumps when he was introduced in his first home game in Seattle in 2006, and “when I got my first hit going to Yankee Stadium — that felt real special to me,” Jones added.

The youngest of five children, Jones remains close to his ailing mother who has closely followed his career, to the point of even reading blogs. She largely raised him, as did his stepfather from the time Jones was 6, he said.

“He was there anytime I needed anything,” Jones said, “just like a dad is supposed to be.”

He also has an “extended family” that Jones said includes “my mom’s friends, friends that I made.”

He adds: “Family to me isn’t described by blood. It’s described by people that you love and you are close to.”

Asked what his new Baltimore fans should know about him, Jones said that “any given time they can come up to me and ask me anything. It’s not going to bother me. I’m not one who’s going to shy away from cameras, shy away from questions.”

But he didn’t stop there.

“I’m a good guy,” Jones said, “and I just want to go out there and play hard.”

The Orioles plan to give him every opportunity to do just that.