Peter Gammons' site asked the question a couple of days ago - is Andruw Jones a Hall of Famer? The article mentions many of Jones accomplishments and in the course of the article named 13 different players in comparison to Andruw Jones. Two players jump out at me when thinking about the question, "Is Andruw Jones a Hall of Famer"? Neither of the players I thought of were mentioned in the article linked above.
The first player is Dwight Evans who as great as Jones was in centerfield - Dewey was that great in right. You had 10 Gold Gloves for Jones and 8 for Evans. Jones had 434 career HR to Evans' 385 but Evans had 540 more total bases than Andruw and his OPS+ of 127 is much more Hall of Fame worthy than Jones 111 OPS+ mark. WAR? Evans had a career mark of 66.9 (124th best all-time) to Jones' 62.8 (152nd all-time). How many people are still asking if Evans is a Hall of Famer?
The second player also played centerfield for the Braves - Dale Murphy. He was a 5-time Gold Glover and winner of back-to-back NL MVP Awards. According to Baseball-reference.com the most similar player to Dale Murphy? Andruw Jones.
So to answer the question - is Andruw Jones a Hall of Famer? The answer is no. And neither is Dale Murphy or Dwight Evans. For the record though - I am a fan of all three players.
Jones had a slightly better peak, but after age 30 his offense just fell completely off a cliff. He was definitely on a Hall of Fame path just didn't go far enough down that path. Evans is sort of the opposite. His career was of a good but not great player in his 20's and then he became great in his 30's after his reputation was set in the minds of future HoF voters. They are both the definition of borderline HOF'rs. Neither would be an awful choice and neither is a complete travesty on the outside looking in.
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