But Hey, I wish I was Andrew Jones heading to Japan, all that fresh sushi and Wagyu beef steaks, those racing girls and small ballparks to hit in.

The piece I linked goes into detail about just how many incredible plays a team would have to make, ten fold above what the best of defensive teams do in a typical year, to have the same impact as a marginally better hitting team.

Defense shouldn’t be neglected but it is best used to mitigate your own offensive shortcomings, i.e. if a dude can’t hit well he better be able to pick it.

But when looking at all three categories pitching is easily the most important. One-third of World Series champions have had offenses that were below league average. Only a handful of WS winners had pitching that was less than league average.

You are kind of making my point. The assertion was that he was the best player of the past 20 years. He is not, and most of the time he is not the best player on his own team. He is, however, a consistently elite player on a consistently elite team, and a certain first ballot HOFer. But that does not make him the best player of the past 20 years.

In the old days, it wasn’t uncommon at all for excellent players to fall apart in their early 30s. Even if you just go back to the 80s, you can take Lynn, Mattingly, Murphy, Parker, Strawberry and Simmons as guys who appeared well on their way to the HOF through age 30.

Andruw Jones was the best center fielder I’ve ever seen. If a ball was hit anywhere between left-center and right-center, you could bet Andruw was camped under it before you could say “Swing and a miss at a ball in the dirt outside for strike three,” which Skip Caray said at the end of not a few of Andruw’s at bats. He took away more bloop singles by playing so shallow than anybody. And could go back on balls, too.

Not sure if he’s HOF material, but he’s in the conversation.

*this “documentary” may or may not have been MTV’s cribs.

Andruw Jones had Hall of Fame talent. He did not have Hall of Fame self discipline.We continue to love Andruw Jones and will keep up with him in Japan.. However, we are disappointed that his ticket to Cooperstown has been lost along the way.

Of course steroids are always a possibility, but it is not “obvious”. Lots of good players decline in their early 30′s.

In any case, even if Moore’s take on his career is true, the article doesn’t offer any analysis or insight into why it was a disappointing career.

“It was a move the manager later said he regretted. He spent the rest of Jones’ career dishing out high praise…”

The overall effect is a column that blames Jones for being a disappointment, without actually pointing to anything blameworthy that he did. I guess it’s Jones’s fault that he wasn’t as talented as Moore thought he was.

Jeter has led the Yankees in WAR 3 times and was the best position player 2 other times. Not bad considering the level of talent on the team.

The real problem was unrealistic expectations imposed by people reading way too much into his two world series home runs (and it was at Yankee Stadium, too! Gasp!). As it turns out, two plate appearances is not a large enough sample size from which to project a player’s entire career.

Also, even with Jones’s early decline, he still has a decent Hall of Fame case. He is 19th all time by defensive WAR, in addition to solidly above-average hitting (434 home runs is not bad, either). Not that I’m saying he should be in, but he’s not as far off as the article suggests.