I hate to say this but… I TOLD YOU SO!
Players like Andruw Jones don’t come around often. Here is a guy who came up to The Show as a teenager and immediately became a World Series hero for the Atlanta Braves. in 2005 he was runner-up for the MVP crown after hitting 51 home runs and driving in 128 runners. Let’s not forget the 10 Gold Gloves, either.
Unfortunately, Andruw put together what some say is the worst offensive season in the history of the game in 2008 and was sent packing to the Texas Rangers. Many, if not every single fan counted him out and said it was over. Some even said he stopped hitting after baseball started testing for Steroids.
What do you have to say now?
After last night’s three home run performance, Andruw is sitting on 14 for the season. While those are nowhere near Pujols-like numbers, consider the fact that Jones is playing part-time and has been used in just 46 games. His average is still just .250 but he hasn’t hit .300 since 2000 and that was just a fluke.
Andruw is just 15 home runs away from 400 for his career and is just 32. Folks, you are looking at an underrated and future 500 Home Run Club member. If he can play into his 40’s, he might even hit 600. I know he may not be your stereotypical home run hero but it is what it is.
As for his very best rookie card, it comes from the gorgeous 1995 Bowman’s Best. While there is a Bowman, the Best version has a chrome finish and even a very hard to find at a reasonable price Refractor that still sells for decent money these days.
Welcome back, Andruw… baseball fans outside of Los Angeles missed you.
The Baseball Card Blog 
players like jones always have that special talent inside of them. he was due for a long time.
Im not sure I would go so far as OMG he is back. But he has improved A LITTLE.
and i think the best singing of this offseason was russ branyan. hes on pace for 40+ bombs and keeping his team in the hunt.
In this post-steroid ERA of baseball this is going to happen every time a player has an extended slump. Look at all of the chatter that was going on surrounding David Ortiz at the beginning of this season. He was supposedly done because of steroid testing and when Manny was caught people figured that Ortiz had to have been using as well. Now he’s hitting bombs at just about the same rate as usual. Unless his eye drops have steroids in them, it was just an extended slump probably due to trying to play through his wrist injury last season.
yeah offy, and the same thing with carlos delgado last year
Yea and those Dodger checks keep piling up on his dresser….so all is right with the world!
Yeah, I’m not ready to proclaim him a 600-HR hitter. I think he merely figured out it’s hard to hit home runs when you’re too fat.
I dunno, Gellman, I think he’s getting close to being back. His career offensive numbers are basically the halfway point between Dave Kingman & Adam Dunn, just with a little better BA. So he’s about back to that. I dunno if I’d trust him outside in a lesser hitter’s park yet, but he’s come back much more than “a little”.
I’m glad he’s finally got his hitting stroke back. Hopefully he can continue to adjust and stay productive. I want him to get that 500th home run so I can see him get into the Hall of Fame wearing a Braves cap.
“Im not sure I would go so far as OMG he is back. But he has improved A LITTLE.”
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Improved “A LITTLE”? That’s a HUGE understatement, looking at his stats from last year.. In a full half-season, he hit .158 with 3 HR and 14 RBI.. Mario wasn’t joking when he said possibly the worst offensive season in the history of the game.. If he keeps up the pace he’s on this year, he’s looking at possibly 40 HR and 100 RBI.. That’s leaps and bounds further than a “little” improvement..
And since Mario mentioned Pujols, I’ve been itching to discuss what he’s been doing.. I’ve been closely following his stats for the past 5 years, since he always seems to have a legitimate shot at the Triple Crown, which I think is nuts.. Literally year in and year out, he’s in the running for it.. He really is the best hitter of this generation, and one of the best of all time IMO..
But that brings us to his numbers this year.. Right now he has as good a chance as ever of hitting the Triple Crown, which I really think he’s gonna do at some point in his career.. You think the 01 Bowman Chrome is worth big money now? I could only imagine what they’d go for if he really did it..
Anyways his stats currently.. He has a very comfortable lead in HR’s with 31 – 2nd place is 7 back with 24.. Also a nice lead in RBI with 83 – 2nd place 6 back with 77.. Things get interesting with his average tho.. He’s currently batting .332 in 3rd place, 14 points behind Hanley and 4 points behind Beltran.. Hanley had an average start to the season with a hot May and an even hotter June.. Chances are, he’s gonna cool off and his average should fall down some.. And then Beltran had a really hot start to the season, and he’s been slowly cooling off ever since.. Pujols on the other hand, has been hitting a consistent .320-.340 every month.. There are another 7 or so guys right there in the running, but if Pujols continues to hit consistently and then has a hot August, bringing his average up to .350-.360, I think this year his chances are VERY good to hit for the Triple Crown for the 1st time in 40 years..
He’s back to being average… I wouldn’t call that all the way back for Jones. He’s still a .250 hitter who strikes out almost twice as many times as he walks and he’s barely played in half of the games this season.
^ He’s definitely better than “average”.. His 162 game season average, is 33 HR and 100 RBI – that’s not “average” by any stretch.. Yea his career BA is .259, and he also has 130 K’s in that average season, but for power hitters this day and age that’s not bad, when you have guys getting punched out close to 200 times a season..
That reminds me of an interesting article I read recently on the way guys swing nowadays.. It was saying how the surge in power and home-runs in recent decades isn’t just attributed to PED’s and guys being bigger – it’s just as related to how hitters swing the bat, always trying to pull the ball, swinging for the fences.. Back in the days of Williams and DiMaggio, striking out was viewed as kind of an embarrassment – and their stats showed it with like 30-50 K’s a season.. Back then with 2 strikes, you choked up a little, and just tried to make contact.. You don’t see that anymore.. Nowadays with 2 strikes, you have guys taking even bigger cuts, and striking out is no big deal really.. Just ask Ryan Howard, lol..
I think even with the comeback, the hobby has grown stale with his cards. I doubt he has what it takes to get to 600, but 500 seems inevitable. I don’t place him in the Hall of Fame, just because he just deteriorated so quickly. His numbers this year are an aberration, he’ll go back to sucking next year. He is just a lazy ball player, and when you are young, it’s not a big deal. As you get older your body has a hard time compensating for your laziness. I think that’s what is going on with him. Besides he is nearing the age of 33, which is like 30 for running backs.
Mario, I thought of you and your post about Jones when I saw that he hit 3 HRs the other day.
He does play in what the rest of the American League refer to as “Homerun Derby Park”…