Hot Corner of Fame: Where Does Chipper Stand?

by Josh Roth

Chipper Jones has been the cornerstone of the Braves for over 15 years. He has won an MVP award, Silver Slugger Award, a batting title, and a World Series. His career numbers are absolutely fantastic:
Name AVG OBP SLG OPS HR Runs RBI
C. Jones .310 .408 .547 .955 410 1390 1382

So where does Chipper stand amongst the rest of the Hall of Fame? His hitting numbers are in the top five amongst all of the Hall of Famers including top slugging percentage and OPS. His run and RBI totals should rise as well and could possibly be the best in both of those respective categories. After looking over all the statistics there were three other candidates that could put up a case for being better than Chipper Jones: Wade Boggs, Eddie Mathews, and Mike Schmidt. Eddie Mathews had a great career, but the only thing in the end that will separate him from Chipper is the homerun totals, so I will place Chipper ahead of Eddie Mathews.

Next in line is Wade Boggs, who seems to go under the radar, but his stats are actually very good. He has the best average and OBP of any Hall of Fame third basemen, plus he won a couple of gold gloves. Boggs also is part of the 3,000 hits club, which it would likely take five more good seasons for Chipper to reach. However, the thing that separates him and Chipper Jones is the power. Chipper’s slugging is over a hundred points better, he has 292 more homeruns than Wade Boggs. He also has more RBI and has an MVP, unlike Boggs.

So that leaves Mike Schmidt, with the stats being very close. Mike Schmidt has more homeruns at 548 and has more RBI. However, Chipper Jones could surpass that RBI total given he averages 71 RBI in the next three seasons, but will likely not pass the homerun total unless he can play four more seasons and average 37 homeruns. Chipper has a better average, slugging, OBP, and OPS. Both have won a World Series, but Schmidt has won ten Gold Gloves and two more MVPs than Chipper. Overall it may seem like Schmidt is the clear winner, but Chipper makes a good case for himself. If we are looking at pure hitters, Chipper probably is the top hitter out of any third basemen in the Hall of Fame. All of his offensive numbers could be better than Mike Schmidt’s with the exception of homeruns. However, the ten gold gloves could be the key to the argument which would make Schmidt the best all around third basemen. Yet the fielding percentage is very close, with Mike only having a 1 point better fielding percentage. Either way one looks at it, Chipper will be a Hall of Famer and should, by the time he retires, be amongst the top two hall of fame third basemen. Here are the stats of some of the hall of fame third basemen:
Name AVG OBP SLG OPS HR Runs RBI
C. Jones .310 .408 .547 .955 410 1390 1382
M. Schmidt .267 .380 .527 .907 548 1506 1595
W. Boggs .328 .415 .443 .858 118 1513 1014
E. Mathews .271 .376 .509 .885 512 1509 1453

So you decide who is the best third baseman of all time? (Excluding Alex Rodriguez at this time)