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Atlanta Braves Andruw Jones on verge of being removed from the Hall of Fame ballots

By Jeff Schafer

PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 2: Outfielder Andruw Jones
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 2: Outfielder Andruw Jones /
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Braves Andruw Jones needs votes to stay on future ballots

I can’t believe we’re talking about this right now.  Atlanta Braves great, Andruw Jones, is on the brink of being removed from the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame future ballots.  Which is dawg-gone unbelievable.

The 2018 class of inductees has been one we’ve all looked forward to for years now.  Both Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones are available to join the elite class for the first time.  Will the Jones’ boys go in at the same time?

Months ago, many believed this could have happened.  Now though, as we sit on the night of January 8th, Chipper is looking like a lock, but it’s not looking too good for Andruw.  And it’s not looking for good for many reasons.

Andruw isn’t getting the votes.  Plan and simple.  It’s a stacked group of players that are on the ballot this year.  Not only with many players suitable for getting into the HOF, but also with the “steroid” group that are taking votes away.

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To get into the Hall, a player must receive 75% of the votes.  Right now, out of the 21 players on the list there are five players that have 75% or higher…Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Jim Thome, Edgar Martinez and Trevor Hoffman.

A side note about the ballots is that a player must receive at least 5% of the votes to STAY on the ballot.  Two players right now are below the 5% mark…Johnny Damon and Johan Santana.  The next player that’s closest to that 5% is our center fielder, Andruw Jones.

Jones is currently sitting at the 5.1% mark.  171 ballots have been made public (four have been turned in anonymous) out of an estimated 424.

So yeah, we’re at about 41.3% of the ballots and Andruw is on the cusp of not getting into the HOF as a first-timer, but he may be a one-and-done guy.

Listen to what Ken Rosenthal said today about this ordeal…

It’s interesting to hear about Rosenthal says here.  He suggested that he should have used one of his 10 votes on Andruw Jones instead of a “clear favorite” like Chipper Jones.

You may be a diehard Atlanta Braves fan and/or a sabermetric person.  Whatever you are, here’s my argument as to why Andruw deserves to not only stay on the ballots, but he SHOULD be a MLB Hall of Famer.

Jones is a five-time NL All-Star (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008), won a Silver Slugger Award (2005), and was the Hank Aaron Award winner (2005).  In 2005, he had the most RBIs (128) in the NL and most home runs (51) in all of MLB.  His most impressive stat was a consecutive 10-year streak of wining a NL Gold Glove Award.

Not impressed with those stats?  How about a few more deeper stats?

He has the highest career dWAR (defensive Wins After Replacement) of any outfielder ever at 24.1.  Next best?  Well, it’s not even close with Paul Blair’s 18.6 and Willie Mays finished in third at 18.1.

Andruw has the 20th highest career dWAR of all time, regardless of position. (Click HERE to see an explanation of WAR).

Even the JAWS (Jaffe WAR Scoring System), a sabermetric stat that measures a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness, has Andruw Jones rated as the 10th best case ever.  13 Hall of Famers ranked below him.

As an all-around player, Jones finished with a WAR of 62.8.

Jones played in the MLB for 17 years and continued playing two more years in Japan.  His best years were definitely from 1998-2007.  Those 10 years, Andruw Jones was a superstar.  Should he be faulted for the fall off late in his career?

Next: Braves being linked to Yelich, Realmuto

Jones was the best center fielder to ever play the game.  Add in what he did with the bat for 10 years AND his 10 Gold Gloves, this guy is a Hall of Famer.

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