January 24, 2024: Harry Lyles Jr. is a correspondent for ESPN’s football show “College GameDay.” He is from Atlanta, and is a fan of the Atlanta Braves, for whom Andruw Jones played most of his career. So it is understandable that he is disappointed that, the day before, once again, Andruw was denied election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
If you want to make a case for Andruw for the Hall, it is possible. Two things you do NOT do:
1. You do NOT use WAR, “Wins Above Replacement.” It is subjective, and therefore is useless. You should not use WAR for any purpose. Ever. Like the song says: “WAR? Huh! Good God, y’all! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”
2. You do NOT call Andruw “the greatest defensive center fielder of all time.” Especially when also mentioning Willie Mays in your case. And the greatest defensive center fielder of all time was Joe DiMaggio. Someone could also make a case for Tris Speaker. Andruw wasn’t even definitively the best defensive center fielder of his own generation. He was not noticeably better than Jim Edmonds and Torii Hunter, and, as of 2024, they’re not in the Hall of Fame, either.
Harry, stick to college football, and leave baseball to people who actually know the history of the sport.
Tony I got to talk about Andrew Jones it is absolutely ridiculous to me that every year I get to sit here and do the show and we get to talk about why the greatest defensive center fielder in baseball history is not in the Hall of Fame from 98 to 2007 his wins above
Replacement was third best in Major League Baseball only behind Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez there are four players in Major League Baseball history with 400 home runs and 10 gold gloves one of them is Andrew Jones one of them is kriy Jr one of them is Willie Mays
One of them is Mike Schmidt he saved 235 runs over the course of his career that is 50 more than Willie Mays if Andrew Jones can do that while playing for then America’s team while the Atlanta Braves are on that TVs baseball contract and he
Can’t get in the Hall of Fame your Hall of Fame means not a damn thing and J
1 Comment
Mets fan, huh? Because to say 2 people who won less GG than Andruw jones are better than him is downright idiotic. People use WAR all the time to make a case for a certain player over others and that wasnt even the only thing he used as he also used defensive runs saved. You've shown how little you know by thinking Edmonds or Hunter would even be in this conversation, so good on Lyles and soooooo thankful you don't have a HOF vote