By Tom Haudricourt
October 11, 2004

MILWAUKEE--The Brewers now have to wonder if the career path of Mike Jones is going to follow that of fellow righthanders J.M. Gold and Nick Neugebauer, two high school draft picks who couldn’t stay healthy and were eventually released this year.

Jones had surgery in early October for a SLAP (superior labrum anterior-posterior) lesion in his pitching shoulder and was expected to miss the entire 2005 season.

It was the latest setback for the Brewers’ 2001 first-round pick. Last year, Jones was shut down for the second half at Double-A Huntsville with elbow problems that some feared could lead to Tommy John surgery.

"The doctor was very pleased with the surgery,” general manager Doug Melvin said. “He said there was no tear or damage to the rotator cuff. He said everything went well, which was good to hear.

“We think he can come back. But it’s going to be all next year.”

Following his elbow problems of 2003, Jones was brought along slowly in spring camp. He was reassigned to Huntsville, where he made only six starts, going 1-4, 4.18, before being shut down again.

The original hope was that Jones could avoid surgery and become healthy through an extensive rehabilitation program, but the shoulder did not improve. Now, it remains to be seen if he can return to the form that prompted the Brewers to give him a $2.075 million signing bonus, at the time the most they had given to a high school pick.

Before being sidelined with his elbow problems in ’03, Jones had established himself as one of the top pitchers in the Southern League, going 7-2, 2.40 in 17 starts. He entered the '04 season ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the Milwaukee system.

The Brewers have had little luck drafting high school pitchers in the top rounds. In 1998, they selected Gold in the first round and Neugebauer in the second round. Gold suffered a series of arm problems and never made it above Class A, and Neugebauer made it to the majors briefly before multiple shoulder surgeries sidetracked him.

That history of injuries to high school pitchers did not deter the Brewers from selecting righthander Mark Rogers out of Maine with the fifth pick of the draft this year and giving him a $2.2 million signing bonus.