Atlanta Braves legend Andruw Jones once again finds himself missing the mark again on the Hall of Fame ballot. He received just 61.6% of the votes with 75% being needed for induction.
This is the seventh season that Jones has missed being elected. However, his percentage has crept up every single year. However, that doesn't take away from the absurdity of Jones not being in the Baseball Hall of Fame yet.
There is no justification for leaving off arguably one of the best center fielders to play the game of baseball. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone as good as Andruw Jones during his playing days.
A panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn took a moment to rant about how awful it is that Andruw is still not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Harry Lyles Jr. took his opportunity on the segment to touch on how ridiculous it is that he gets to do the show every year and "talk about why the greatest defensive center fielder in baseball history is not in the Hall of Fame."
He makes an incredible point because there's no way you can watch clips of Andruw Jones playing and deny how amazing he was. Lyles mentions how from 1998 to 2007 his WAR was third-best in the league, just behind Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.
In addition to that Jones' combined WAR from 1996-2007 was a whopping 61. The main knock against him there is always that from 2007-2012 it dropped to 1.7 which is a glaring difference. However, those 11 years with Atlanta are more than enough to prove why he deserves a spot in the hall.
"There are four players in Major League Baseball history with 400 home runs and 10 gold gloves. One of them is Andruw Jones, one of them is Ken Griffey Jr., one of them is Willie Mays, and one of them is Mike Schmidt."Harry Lyles Jr.
Lyles goes on to touch on how Jones saved 235 runs in his career which is 15 more than Willie Mays did. He went on to finish his thought with "If Andruw Jones can do that while playing for, then, America's team while the Braves were on that TBS baseball contract and he can't get in the Hall of Fame, your Hall of Fame means not a damn thing."
Very strong words from Lyles who is an Atlanta native and grew up watching the Atlanta Braves. He expressed perfectly the insanity that is Andruw Jones being denied the Hall of Fame yet again. For almost a decade, you couldn't find a better defensive outfielder than Andruw Jones. Yes, his offense fell off eventually but hitting 400+ home runs and playing elite defense for 10 years is nothing to sneeze at.
The Curaçao Kid had 1,933 hits, 434 home runs, 1,289 runs batted in, 152 stolen bases, 1,204 runs scored, and a career .823 OPS. His HR, RBI, and runs scored are pretty comparable with Duke Snider who is in the Hall of Fame.
Hopefully, voters will begin to come to their senses and vote for one of the 90s most exciting and talented players. I don't know what the aversion is but Jones is more than deserving of the Hall of Fame.