Will Andruw Jones “tally” his way to the Hall of Fame?
Written by Joe Veno on August 6, 2009 – 2:03 PM -If two people were talking on the side of the street. Standing there with a coffee in hand, on a cold day, on a day that was not really associated with anything baseball. But those two people, they somehow touched up on the subject of Andruw Jones. And somehow, they mentioned the Hall of Fame as well. Would those two people be dreamers? Would they be simply unrealistic in terms of their approach in the conversation? Or would they be onto something? Could they be onto something?
When anyone talks about Andruw Jones, they are referring to one of the greatest up-the-middle defenders to ever reside on this planet. A guy that could seemingly track down every ball hit in his direction. A defender that could defend more than just his “zone.” One that could also aid in how the right and left fielders were “perceived.”
A career OPS+ of 111 doesn’t sound like much. And on the surface, it probably isn’t. But if one were to dig deeper, maybe those two aforementioned folks drinking coffee can scurry into that nearby coffee shop with their laptop to find out. Then they would come across the fact that Andruw Jones may have some work to do, but he isn’t as far out of the Hall as some may think.
His career WARP1 is 72.5. Much of that is of course defense, as he has saved nearly as many runs with the glove as he has produced with the bat. And in an era where defense is starting to become recognized as something vital to a club’s success, maybe he gains a lot of respect from the voters when his time rolls around.
In the meantime however, Jones has some work to do. He is only 32 and has to “tally” some more notches in those career totals. Basically, his counting numbers need some work.
The great defender has 388 career home runs, which will top 400 by the time his career ends. So that shouldn’t be held against him. But Jones will hover around 2,000 hits, unless he really finds that fountain of youth again before is career is history. And 1,168 RBI’s isn’t exactly Hall of Fame-esque.
Remember, 2000 isn’t 3000, and 400 isn’t 500. So will that be held against him? Will his incredible defensive input be weighted enough into the equation? It’s up to the voters I guess.
And that .258 batting average will not help his cause. Nor will the roughly league-average OBP of .339 over his career. But his–so far–.490 Slugging percentage will. And the fact that he was easily the best defensive CF in the game over his career should really, really help.
Even when Jones gained all that weight and started swinging for the fences every time he stepped in, his defense was still legit. From 2006-2008, Jones was second in John Dewan’s Plus/Minus, behind only Beltran in center field. So even though he was larger, and seemingly slower, he was still a great defender. That is a misconception amongst many, that his defense suffered. I mean, it probably did suffer, but he was so great to begin with, that a slippage in production still resulted in, well, great defense.
Currently, in Jones’ career resurgence with the Rangers, he is batting .227/.340/.528. Meaning that he is still somewhat productive. And if Josh Hamilton wasn’t the future, rather than mostly the past, then I might even suggest allowing Jones to take over center field–as Josh Hamilton has never been great out there.
If Jones can hang on and produce some up until about age 35, then his case may be stronger than one might imagine. After all, he is one of the greatest defenders we have ever seen.
Tags: Andruw Jones, Atlanta Braves, Josh Hamilton, Texas RangersPosted in Atlanta Braves, Hall of Fame, Texas Rangers, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »
August 6th, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Andruw Jones HOF stats:
Black Ink Batting – 10, Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray Ink Batting – 47, Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame Monitor Batting – 101, Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards Batting – 31, Average HOFer ≈ 50
August 6th, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Haha. That defense better be taken into account then! He has some work to do.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:27 PM
HAHA, our Chad Gaudin running joke just got a lot funnier.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:39 AM
I know guys–i thought of both of you when i heard it. still i’m happy to have him–have you seen mitre? it ain’t pretty….
August 7th, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Yeah. Smart acquisition IMO. Straight out of the SABR-book. Bravo, Cashman.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:12 AM
hey joe–as a sox fan i’d like to ask you a question about last night’s game. obviously joba was horrible as was smoltz, but considering you guys have beckett going today and presumably going deep in the game, was it wise to just throw the game away by having traber go in? what if tito had decided that the team could come back on our atrocious pitching. what is your take on that?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:48 PM
I think that the odds are against you in that situation. And Traber can still get big league hitters out, as bad as he may be. I don’t mind the move. I just obviously mind the result…He is the only “long reliever” we have.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Gaudin comments. I want ‘em now. (I’m not drunk….)