Baseball Hall of Fame ballot 2018: Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones make 1st appearance

The 2017 Hall of Fame class has been announced and will be officially inducted on July 30 in Cooperstown. But, it is never too early to start looking towards next year and a couple of Atlanta Braves legends in Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones will appear on the ballot for the first time.

Chipper looks like a candidate for a first-ballot induction after playing an integral part in Atlanta’s success throughout the ‘90s while amassing 85 Wins Above Replacement over his career, according to Baseball Reference. He amassed over 2,700 hits, totaled 468 home runs and finished his career with a slash line of .303/.401/.529.

He is one of the best third baseman and switch hitters to ever play the game and currently ranks sixth all-time on Jay Jaffe’s JAWS third base leaderboard, ahead of Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson and Paul Molitor.

An intriguing case can be built for Andruw as well. He is one of the best defensive centerfielders of all time and slugged 434 home runs in his career. He amassed 62.8 Wins Above Replacement for his career per Baseball Reference and ranks 10th on the JAWS leaderboard. Jones was a Gold Glove winner 10 times and holds the defensive rating of all time at his position.

Andruw is an interesting case given that he played in a time when his defense wasn’t as appreciated as it would have been in today’s game. He ranks behind Kenny Lofton in JAWS, who received just 3.2 percent of the vote in 2013. Still, he was a big part of those Braves teams and was clearly one of the best centerfielders of all time.