Jones’s Reputation Finally Catches Up With His Talent
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

On June 29, when he hit his 25th home run, Atlanta’s Andruw Jones became one of 26 players in major league history to have done so in eight consecutive years. While this is admittedly a rather arbitrary statistic, the list of men who have done it is comprised more or less entirely of Hall of Famers and those, like Albert Belle, who had Hall of Fame peaks and then declined early. More tellingly, Jones became just the sixth player to do it while playing a premium defensive position. The others? Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Mike Piazza, and Alex Rodriguez.
That his career has been marked by such uncanny consistency in this one area is one of the many paradoxes of Jones’s strange career, which still may one day earn him recognition as one of the greatest players in baseball history. In every other area of his game, he’s fluctuated wildly. He’s hit .303 and .251 in consecutive years. From 2000-03, he drew between 53 and 59 walks every year, save 2002, when he drew 83. Earlier in his career, he struck out 100 times a year; since turning 24, he’s been a 140-strikeout man, though that number seems to be in decline this year (he has 96 through 136 games). He’s gone from regularly stealing 20 bases a year to stealing almost none.
This inconsistency is one of the reasons Jones hasn’t gotten his due. There are others. The main one may simply be that having come up to the majors in 1996 at 19 and promptly hitting .400 in the World Series, he was burdened with impossible expectations; anything short of being the new Willie Mays would have disappointed. Another is that he’s been around for so long that it’s easy to forget he’s only now hitting the height of his prime. Still another is that his seemingly nonchalant style of play – call up an image of Jones and it’s likely to be of him gliding in lazily to catch a line drive with one hand – makes it seem as if he could be better if only he’d apply himself.
This last point is related to what is probably the biggest reason he hasn’t gotten the praise he deserves, which is that his main strength before this year has been his defense. When he first came up to the majors, Jones was a defender of historic stature – the equal, so far as we can tell, of anyone who’s ever played. These days, having noticeably slipped, he’s still playing at what is easily a Gold Glove level. In fact, he’s so good he doesn’t seem nearly as good as he is – whereas lesser players throw themselves all over the outfield diving for balls, Jones rarely seems to have to move more than a few feet. He’s always in position, always reads the ball perfectly, and when a ball proves uncatchable, he always takes the shortest path to it.
Jones’s defense was so good when he was younger, in fact, that it’s not clear that he’s any better now than he was then, all told. In 2000, for instance, Jones hit .303 BA/.366 OBA/.541 SLG, and his defense, so far as we can evaluate such things, looks to have been worth around 20 runs above that of an average center fielder. This year, despite his major league-leading 45 home runs, Jones is hitting. 270/.355/.588, which isn’t all that much better than the earlier season, and his glove looks to have declined to somewhere around five to 10 runs better than average. The 30 points of batting average, better defense, and 20 steals Jones provided in 2000 add up to about the same value as the 15 extra home runs he’s hitting this year.
Does this mean his 2005 campaign, which is garnering him serious MVP consideration, is overrated? Not at all. It just means that he’s not really any better than he has been in years past, which is to say that he’s already had many seasons in which he was one of the very best players in the league. People are noticing how good he is now because a 50-home run season grabs a lot more attention than one in which a .270 average, 30 home runs, 60 walks, 20 steals, and incredible defense quietly add up to excellence.
I expect Jones to play at this level for many more years to come. At 28, he’s at the age where players who were both powerful and fast at a young age tend to start hitting for a lot more power as they lose some of their speed. In a few years, when it’s time for him to move to a less difficult defensive position, he could add still more power, as he could sacrifice some speed and flexibility for increased bulk. In short, given that he’s ahead of Hank Aaron’s home run pace, it’s quite possible that Alex Rodriguez could see Jones right behind him as he starts coming up on 800 home runs. For anyone disturbed by the fact that Barry Bonds will probably take the all-time record next year, it’s a comforting thought.