Hall of Fame Poll: Andruw Jones

I’m gong to skip Aubrey Huff and Jason Isringhausen.

Huff had an decent career, 13 seasons, .278/.342/.464 line with 242 homers in 1691 games. But, he never made an All-Star team, he got MVP votes 3 times, but never finished higher than 7th. He does have 2 World Series rings. You can see his numbers here.

He played first, DH, third and in the corner outfield spots, so he doesn’t gain any points for defense. He’s one of those guys who had 3 or 4 very good seasons, among a bunch of average ones, with some crappy ones thrown in. His twitter feed is an interesting thing.

Isringhausen had a 16 season, spending most of his time in the bullpen. He came up as a starter, for the Mets, but suffered through some injuries and they moved him to the pen. The same season they moved him into the pen, the traded him to the A’s for ‘proven closer’ Billy Taylor. Taylor lost that ability to soon after the trade (Billy Beane made a living out of turning a guy into a closer and then trading him).

Iringhausen became the A’s closer (having seasons of 33 and 34 saves), before Beae moved him on to the Cardinals. In 7 seasons there, he picked up 217 saves. From there he went to the Rays, Mets and Dodgers.

He finished with a 3.64 ERA in 724 games, 52 starts and 300 saves. He’s 26th all-time in saves. He was a good pitcher, good closer, but, at least in my view, a fair bit short of a Hall of Famer.

It’s Andruw Jones’ first time on the ballot.

Jones came up, with the Braves, at the same time as Vladimir Guerrero did for the Expos. They were the top prospects in baseball. But, Jones wouldn’t become the offensive star that Guerrero was.

Jones would play 17 seasons, hit .254/.337/.486 with 434 home runs. Not bad numbers at all, but they pale next to Guerrero’s.

But Jones makes up for some of that difference in value in his ability to play center field. Jones won 10 Gold Glove awards. He was terrific in the outfield.

Jones made 5 All-Star teams. He received MVP votes 5 times, finishing as high as second (in 2005, when he hit .263/.347/.575 with 51 homers and had 128 RBI, his best season in the majors). And he finished 5th in Rookie of the Year voting, in 1996, Vlad was 6th).

He played in 76 playoff games, but was never on a World Series winner. It wasn’t his fault, he hit .273/.363/.433 with 10 home runs in those games.

Jones played 12 seasons for the Braves, then had a season with the Dodgers, a season with the Rangers, a season with the White Sox and finished his career with 2 seasons with the Yankees.

It seemed, back at the time, you had to choose if you were a fan of Jones or Guerrero and I, of course, choose Guerrero, but Jones has a pretty good case for the Hall as well.

You can check out his numbers here.

Matt’s chart:

Similar Players: Duke Snider, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter and Barry Larkin (all elected by BBWAA); Keith Hernandez and Joe Torre (elected as manager). Jones gets caught up with a lot of catchers due to the shortness of his career, and given his value skewed to the defensive side, isn’t the worst analogy.