By: David Washburn
When I was a kid, going to the ice cream shop up the street with my dad, I would always get candy and a pack of baseball cards. Over the course of about three years (1996-1998) I would pretty regularly get the flagship set of Topps, and every now and then, the cheaper “Opening Day” set. When I hear the name Andruw Jones, I always associate it with being a kid eating a ice cream cone and pulling a bunch of guys named Jones from packs.
There was a point in time when I thought that Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones were brothers because as a kid, two guys with the same last name, playing for the same team must be brothers, right? Of course, they are not brothers, but both were impact stars for LOADED Atlanta Braves teams in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. One Jones would go on to become a Hall of Famer wearing the Braves cap, while the other Jones, remains looking in from the outside.
Early in Andruw Jones’ career he was a threat to steal bags, hit home runs, and when he was in the outfield he would catch everything. It is worth going to Youtube and looking up Andruw Jones career highlights. This guy made some outstanding diving plays. He ran into walls, slid all over the place to make game-ending defensive plays that would extinguish hope from the team batting in the 9th hoping for a hit that might start a rally… Oh wait… Andruw Jones caught that. Let’s go home, boys!
Andruw Jones is the recipient of:
10x Gold Glover in Centerfield.
1x Silver Slugger
5x All Star
In 2005 he was named Player of the Year, and finished second in MVP voting to Albert Pujols (definite Hall of Famer when his time comes).
Andruw Jones played for seventeen years. Eleven of those years were in a Braves uniform. He played alongside a squad of Hall of Famers in John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, and other great players in Fred McGriff and Javy Lopez, and that is just with Atlanta.
One highlight that stands out is his World Series performance against the New York Yankees. He became the youngest player ever to homer twice in a World Series game.
Andruw Jones Career Stats:
WAR – 62.7
AB – 7599
H – 1933
HR – 434
AVG – .254
R – 1204
RBI – 1289
SB – 152
OBP – .337
SLG – .486
OPS – .823
OPS+ – 111
Jones, on the all-time leaderboard ranks among Joey Votto, Mark McGwire, Dave Winfield, Todd Helton, Jackie Robinson in the WAR category with 62.7.
Jones is ranked 47th all-time, in HR’s, tied with Juan Gonzalez, and is among Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran, and Andre Dawson. This is pretty good company for a member of the 400 HR club.
Assessing his career offensive stats, his HR total is the only thing that really holds a solid argument. RBI is not a great indicator in how good a player is, as much as the player having more opportunities to knock in a run. He struck out a lot and hit for a lower batting average. He seemed to stop stealing bags after the earlier years in his career. He never managed to get into the 2000 hit club. Not a lot of these numbers scream “Elite” on the offensive side of things. With him not getting much traction on the HOF ballot voting each year, I guess I can see why, and can’t say that the people voting are getting it wrong. His dramatic drop off the last five years of his career really hurt him.
Looking at his all-time dWAR, he ranks 22nd with 24.4. When you look at just center fielders, Andruw Jones is ranked first all time. The second and third to him are Paul Blair and Willie Mays.
If Hall of Fame votes were based on just defense, I’d say Andruw Jones is a first ballot guy. While he catches everything in centerfield, he seems to not hit enough at the plate. He is for sure an impact player, so it is no surprise that an argument can at least be made for the dynamic centerfielder.