It’s not really about teaching him plate discipline. That went out the window a long time ago. Even though he’s “only” 22, that’s how he’s hit his entire life, and to screw with him now would probably just make the situation worse. The A’s tried forever to get Miguel Tejada to stop hacking and were only marginally successful, in that he learned to lay off of bad pitches more often. Jose Reyes did this, too. If you can get him to recognize pitches, you’re getting the most of the situation, because you’re still letting Jones be Jones (or Tejada be Tejada or Reyes be Reyes or Soriano be Soriano, etc.) but he’s maxing out the potential he has at the same time.

It’s no easy task to get guys to be patient when they just aren’t, and it’s true the other way, too. Adam Dunn can’t start being a more aggressive hitter. He has made the most of what he is, which is a low-contact, high-power, plate discipline machine of a hitter.

Where Corey Patterson failed was never learning to lay off of the truly awful pitches that pitchers could get him to chase. With the exact same skill set and faults and everything, a guy like Corey Patterson still has a decent chance at being an All-Star player in this league. He simply didn’t make the tweaks necessary to do that. There have been glimpses of what he could have been, but he’s never sustained it. Patterson could’ve been 20-50 every year, and if I saw someone with his level of natural talent, I’d probably be the same as most scouts and get a little bit suckered in.

Where some of the “Moneyball disciples” like myself fall short in thinking about young players is trying to make them all adhere to certain rules. It’s great when players have good plate discipline, can hit for some power, don’t get themselves out, etc. But Billy Beane was exploiting that because it was something undervalued. I mean, is anyone going to tell you that Jeremy Brown panned out?

Jones is who he is. And there’s no reason that that guy can’t be a hell of a player.