Maybe it’s a trend for former Atlanta Braves center-fielder Andruw Jones, but the road to Cooperstown is still a long way off.
There was an expectation that Andruw Jones might be a big benefactor of a relatively “thin” Hall of Fame ballot here in 2021. That was… kind of true.
In last year’s balloting, Jones pulled votes from 19.4% of voters. Even that was significant, as in the years prior, he has been flirting with the dreaded 5% cut line… below which, your name is automatically removed from future consideration.
Happily, he’s now firmly out of that danger. In fact, his vote totals ramped up to 33.9% in this most recent tally — during Andruw’s 4th lap on the ballot.
Atlanta Braves’ Andruw Jones continuing a slow march toward the Hall.
But can he reach that 75% threshold? That’s truly a tall order… for anybody. With 6 years remaining, he has yet to garner 50% support.
Jones was also the 9th-highest vote-getter this year on a ballot full of controversy. Steroids are clearly keeping Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens from breaking through even a 2/3rds vote tally. Meanwhile, Curt Schilling is a member of his own category… and fell 16 votes shy this year.
Omar Vizquel is losing support — and probably for good reasons. As it happens, Jones isn’t free of similar accusations himself.
So that’s a significant number of clouds hanging over eight of the Top Twelve vote recipients on this year’s ballot (adding in Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, and Sammy Sosa for steroid suspicions… or outright use).
Admittedly, that makes Billy Wagner‘s 46.4% votes this year — despite a healthy increase over 2020 — look curiously short, given both his on-field accomplishments and relative off-field piety.
Beat writer Dave O’Brien believes that “Momentum is shifting” in Jones’ favor for the Hall of Fame. I admit being more pessimistic at this point.
This was the year in which he should have jumped to something above 50%… 55%, even. It’s still a significant leap to get from “less than half” to “more than half” of votes… let alone going beyond to “two-thirds” and the magic “three-quarters”.
The voters had lot of chances to add his name this year… and simply didn’t: the average voter selected roughly 6 players apiece… choosing to leave four more vote opportunities un-cast.
Maybe things will change… but right now, it’s a long way to Cooperstown for Andruw.