Chipper Jones is getting into the Hall of Fame on his first try. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. We already knew this, but he’s tracking around 98 percent, so there’s no real question here. As such, we don’t need to go through the “case for” and “case against.” Anyone who doesn’t think Jones should be in the Hall of Fame quite simply is just not well-enough informed to be part of the conversation.
Since we don’t need to break down his case, let’s have some fun. How well does Chipper stack up among the all-time great third basemen?
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The inner circle of third base greats when we look at the Hall of Fame is Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, Wade Boggs and George Brett and it trickles down slightly to Brooks Robinson and Ron Santo.
Paul Molitor could reasonably be listed, but he spent much more time elsewhere than at third. As well, retired and not-yet-eligible Alex Rodriguez spent more time at short than third. We’ll leave those two out.
Let’s first take a look at the counting stats:
PlayerHits2BHRRBIRSB
Schmidt
2,234
408
548
1,595
1,506
174
Mathews
2,315
354
512
1,453
1,509
68
Boggs
3,010
578
118
1,014
1,513
24
Brett
3,154
665
317
1,596
1,583
201
Santo
2,254
365
342
1,331
1,138
35
Robinson
2,848
482
268
1,357
1,232
28
Chipper Jones
2,726
549
468
1,623
1,619
150
Notice Chipper leads in RBI and runs. In fact, he’s one of just 21 players in major-league history to top 1,600 in both runs and RBI. Check out the list, it’s a murderer’s row. The only other non-1B infielders are A-Rod and Cal Ripken.
Jones is clearly respectable across the board above, that’s for sure.
In terms of other stats, it should be noted that Brett is the only needle-mover here on triples (137, no one else had more than 72). Also, Boggs (in a landslide), Brett and Jones walked more than they struck out while Schmidt, Mathews and Santo were also big on taking walks. Robinson, Brett and especially Boggs were tough to strike out (full 3B leaderboard here for those interested).
Now, the rate stats, including WAR and JAWS (click here if you’re curious about JAWS)
PlayerAVGOBPSLGOPS+WARJAWS
Schmidt
.267
.380
.527
147
106.5
82.5
Mathews
.271
.376
.509
143
96.4
75.4
Boggs
.328
.415
.443
131
91.1
73.6
Brett
.305
.369
.487
135
88.4
70.8
Santo
.277
.362
.464
125
70.4
62.1
Robinson
.267
.322
.401
104
78.4
62.1
Chipper Jones
.303
.401
.529
141
85
65.8
When it comes to WAR and JAWS, defense factors and that’s where Robinson and, to a lesser extent, Santo get a bump. Schmidt is helped rather significantly there as well. It’s fair to say Chipper has the most well-rounded triple-slash line, though. In fact, Jones is one of seven players in history with at least 10,000 plate appearances to top the .300/.400/.500 slash threshold. The others? Babe Ruth, Frank Thomas, Mel Ott, Stan Musial, Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb. This one carries some serious weight.
Adrian Beltre, by the way, ranks fourth in JAWS and third in WAR here. He likely has a few years left and could reasonably get to 3,000 hits (already there), 1,500 runs (25 away), 600 doubles (already there), 500 home runs (38 away) and 1,700 RBI (58 away). The only player who has ever done that is Hank Aaron; Albert Pujols will be there with 32 more hits. Beltre will absolutely belong in the conversation here once he’s retired. Until then, his case is incomplete, so we’ll proceed with the above group of seven.
Now, we need to run through individual accomplishments and postseason success, as this is also part of the “best all-time third basemen” conversation.
Schmidt: Brace yourself.
Schmidt won three MVPs, 10 Gold Gloves, six Silver Sluggers, a World Series championship, a World Series MVP and made 12 All-Star teams. He led the league in home runs seven times, RBI four times, walks four times, OBP three times, slugging five times, OPS five times, runs once, total bases three times and on and on. That World Series MVP came in 1980 – the Phillies’ first-ever World Series title – and Schmidt hit .381/.462/.714 with two homers and seven RBI in six games. This is probably your top pick for the best-ever third baseman, so long as you can correctly favor OBP and slugging over batting average.
Mathews: A 12-time All-Star, the Braves legend led the league in home runs twice, walks four times, OBP once and OPS+ once. He never won an MVP, but finished second twice. He won two World Series rings, though the second one came as a part-timer with the Tigers in 1968. Still, Mathews is clearly an all-timer for many reasons, starting with the 512 homers through much of a pitchers era.
Boggs: It seems to be the magic number here so far, as Boggs also made 12 All-Star teams. He won two Gold Gloves and eight Silver Sluggers. He topped out at fourth in MVP voting, but probably suffered as a result of lower home run and RBI totals and how the triple-crown stats were most important in awards voting at the time. That wasn’t Boggs’ game. He was a table-setter, in fact one of the best ever. He won five batting titles and led the majors in OBP six times. He led in runs twice, hits once, walks twice and doubles twice. Despite not being a power hitter, he led the league in intentional walks six times. He won a World Series, too.
Brett: The 1980 MVP led the majors in average, OBP, slugging and OPS+ that season, a clean sweep of the rate stats with an insane .390/.454/.664, 203 OPS+ line. He also had two runner-up finishes in MVP along with two third-place finishes. He went to 13 All-Star Games, won three Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove. He led the league in average three times, OBP once, slugging three times, OPS three times, hits three times, doubles twice and triples three times. He won a World Series in 1985 and took the ALCS MVP that season. Oh, and in that World Series, he hit .370 with a .452 OBP.
Can we give bonus points for the pine tar incident? Pretty please?
Santo: A nine-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glover, Santo led his league in walks four times, OBP twice and triples once. He had two top-five finishes in MVP voting, too. A fun nugget from Jay Jaffe’s excellent book, The Cooperstown Casebook, is that Santo trailed only Hank Aaron and Willie Mays in WAR from 1963-69. He’s lagging a bit behind the guys above, but he was vastly underrated for decades due to a confluence of factors (Jaffe covers them very well in his book, FYI). In fact, given that he was probably the third-best third baseman of all time at his retirement, it’s embarrassing how the BBWAA collectively treated him and that he wasn’t alive to be inducted. Even if you want to rank Santo seventh here of this seven, he merited inclusion in this exercise.
Robinson: The 18-time(!) All-Star is widely regarded as the best defensive third baseman of all-time. He won 16 Gold Gloves. Only Greg Maddux (18) has ever won more and pitcher isn’t exactly a premium defensive position. Robinson took the MVP in 1964 and finished in the top five four other times. He led the league in RBI once. He won two World Series rings and took the 1970 World Series MVP.
Jones: The eight-time All-Star won the MVP in 1999 along with two Silver Sluggers and the 2008 batting title. He actually hit .364 with an MLB-best .470 OBP and 90 walks against 61 strikeouts that season at age 36. He also led the league in OPS and OPS+ in 2007. Jones’ long postseason dossier includes 20 different series, three NL pennants and one World Series title. In 93 career postseason games, he hit .287 with a .409 OBP, 18 doubles, 13 homers and 47 RBI.
He stacks up pretty well, right?
In terms of ranking him, I think it’s reasonable to put Chipper above Santo and Robinson, making him a top-five all-time third baseman. Among those top five, it’s probably just as reasonable to put Jones fifth, but there could be arguments to elevate him a bit. Regardless, we’re talking about a possible top-five player at his position in baseball history. That’s quite a feat on its own. You guys can sort it out now in the comments. Go nuts.
Kudos to Jones on the all-time great career and much-deserved upcoming induction into the Hall of Fame.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: HOW
