Tag Archives: chipper jones

Future Hall of Famer may be finished

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Chipper Jones will undergo surgery on a season-ending knee injury he suffered earlier this week. Whether or not Jones will ever wear a big league uniform again is yet to be determined.

The loss of the 38-year-old third baseman is a big blow to the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. And at his age, there’s no guarantee the Braves lifer will play again.

Chipper has had an impressive career in Atlanta dating back to his major league debut in 1993. He was the NL MVP in 1999 and led the Braves to postseason berth after postseason berth, including their lone World Series title in 1995.

The Braves could have a very different look next season, with longtime manager Bobby Cox already saying that he will retire after this season.

Jones is a career .306 hitter with 436 career homers, which are third-most in big league history for a switch-hitter (Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray are ahead of him). He’s a no-doubter future Hall of Famer in my opinion when he chooses to retire. If this is it for him, Jones and Ken Griffey Jr. would help make for quite a HOF class in five years.

Looking ahead to 2016 Hall class

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I’m extremely biased, but unless a steroid admission or positive test is in our future, I assume Ken Griffey Jr. will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he hits the ballot in January of 2016.

So that left me wondering who would join him. Reports are that Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones is leaning toward retiring after this season. In my opinion, he’s a Hall of Famer too. Whether or not he gets in on the first ballot, I don’t know. But he should be there.

And what about Jim Thome? Can you see him playing another season beyond this one? I can’t. And he’s certainly a Hall of Famer, barring any of the potential pitfalls I listed above.

Griffey. Chipper. Thome. Not a bad class at all.

The biggest question is: If Manny Ramirez retires, will he get in on the first ballot? Will he ever get in?