Jazz GM looks forward to seeing a Championship and Mardi Gras celebration together.

New Orleans Reporter

New Orleans— The New Orleans Jazz have had a disastrous first season. Although they looked forward to big things this year, the losing trend continued to follow them into this season. I sat down with Jazz GM Thomas Barnes for an interview and an explanation on why his team is so bad. Barnes gave me some good answers and made me come to a conclusion that sees the Jazz being a success in a few years. The rest of the BPLA better watch out for this genius GM and his potential equipped team.

Moe: Tell me about Thomas Barnes?

Mr. Barnes: Well, I'm 24 and I like to write music and love baseball. I also write novels and am trying to get published.

Moe: Novels eh? Any tips you'd like to give a young English student like myself?

Mr. Barnes: Don't worry about punctuation and all that other stuff. Like knowing what pronouns and all that are. When you’re writing your mind already does that stuff, grammar and such, it's a waste of time, my teacher used to tell me I was right that it was all for practice and practice makes perfect, but no one's perfect so why practice.

Moe: Nice, but enough English talk. What does Mr. Barnes see his team doing this year?

Mr. Barnes: Well, realistically it all depends on A-rod (Alex Rodriguez). Our pitching staff is good and if A-rod could turn things around we could do .500, maybe a little over.

Moe: What moves have you made to ensure a successful campaign?

Mr. Barnes: Well most of the moves we've made thus far have been cost-cutting moves, everyone out there is spending insane amounts of cash, in some cases for guy's who aren't even big league ready yet. 18 mil for a AA ballplayer is kind of high. I mean, I don't mean to be a hypocrite, After all I'm shelling 20+ mil on a-rod, but he was battle ready so to speak, and we had to shell that much to get him away from the Rangers.

Moe: I agree. My good friends back in Indianapolis feel the same.

Moe: Speaking of A-Rod what in the blue hell possessed you to sign that over-paid underachiever?

Moe: I mean 33 homeruns isn't good enough when you're being paid 24 million per year.

Moe: Seeing as how you haven't done that, yet. What do you plan on doing to make sure fans still attend the ballpark?

Mr. Barnes: Well, our focus is on putting out a good product for our fan's, entertainment has always been our goal, hell we got cheerleaders.

Moe: Mmmm, cheerleaders. I’m salivating already.

Mr. Barnes: I wanted to let these fans know that this club mean's business and wanted to establish a tradition of winning. A-Rod hasn't lived up to his pay, true, but he's under a lot of pressure.  He was the highest profile MLBer that crossed over and he hasn't handled it well. But he's a gamer and will bounce back it's just a matter of when.

Moe: Looking at your team, what would you consider to be your most glaring weakness?

Mr. Barnes: The offense just hasn't lived up to their billing, A-Rod being the prime example, the defense is good and the pitching staff this year is better than last, we just need our guy's to live up to their potential.

Mr. Barnes: Also, this year if thing's don't improve there will be a major shake-up, I promise.

Moe: Major shake-up eh? Will that shake-up include A-Rod?

Mr. Barnes: If it comes down to it, yes.

Moe: Oh damn!! You hear that A-Rod watch your back, Jack.

Mr. Barnes: Last year, I think we focused so much on a good start we lost sight of the rainbow so to speak. We spent an absurd amount of money for guy's who didn't live up to their billing. Ollie Andrew's last year was a major disappointment, and so was A-Rod. I will not tolerate any more disappointment's so does that answer your question.

Moe: Yes. That should lead well into my next question.

Moe: If you look back on your team’s brief history. Which player was a success? Which player was a flop?

Mr. Barnes: I like Avendado, he's shown some potential and our closer Ezeqiel Garza whom we got from Winston-Salem has done well. Of course the flops are apparent.

Moe: Obviously, A-Rod is a flop. Who else would join him though?

Mr. Barnes: I was hoping to get a lot out of Verdugo, but he hasn't shown what I thought he would, but like A-Rod that could turn around this year.

Moe: Where do you see the Jazz in 2 years?

Mr. Barnes: I see a good team in two years, we got some good prospects we are excited about Travis Fellers should be here next year, he's a very talented young MR and James Roqemore is a good young starter who I hope to be here next year as well.

Moe: Speaking of prospects. Are there any that you may bring up to the big leagues this year?

Mr. Barnes: I'm going to try to get Fellers up here but he's not quite ready, until September. The only changes to the team will be via trade for big leaguers.

Moe: Is there anything you'd like to add before this interview ends?

Mr. Barnes: Over already? Well I guess the big thing is that the Jazz fans haven’t given up on us, and we haven't given up on our big guy A-Rod. He's a gamer and you have to respect his potential. I think whether he’s here or back in the MLB or somewhere else in the BPLA he'll find his stroke. I'm going to put last year and everything that happened behind us and move forward. We plan on cutting payroll some more to get a good surplus for when our lower-level talent develops, get money for that big key FA signing. Every dog has his has day and this one's day is coming soon. Let everyone else go bankrupt and burn out their talent because when they fall, we'll be there to take the reigns.

Moe: Nice. A cocky GM is cool. Much respect and thanks for the interview.