ATLANTA -- Fred McGriff has become all too familiar with the disappointment he has felt annually when the Hall of Fame ballot results are announced. Andruw Jones can at least be thankful that his candidacy will extend beyond one year.
As Chipper Jones celebrated his Hall of Fame election Wednesday night, McGriff experienced a result similar to the ones he had garnered over each of the previous eight years and Andruw Jones received just a little more than enough votes to extend his candidacy to a second year.
• Complete Hall of Fame voting results
McGriff received a vote on 23.2 percent of the 422 ballots that were cast by qualified members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. That stood as the second-highest percentage received by the former first baseman, who garnered his highest percentage (23.9) in 2012. But with his 10-year ballot candidacy set to expire next year, it seems unlikely he'll receive the necessary 75 percent of the votes to gain election.
Jones stood as a likely Hall of Famer a decade ago. But he struggled mightily near the end of his career, and the early voting results that were made public provided reason to wonder if he'd receive the 5 percent necessary to remain on the ballot. The 10-time Gold Glove Award winner ended up receiving 31 votes (7.3 percent). He needed 22 votes to exceed the 5 percent minimum to extend his candidacy.
A couple of other former Braves -- Billy Wagner and Gary Sheffield -- were included on 11.1 percent of the cast ballots.
McGriff finished his 19-season career with a .284 batting average, a .377 on-base percentage, a .509 slugging percentage and 493 home runs. The five-time All-Star first baseman might have reached the 500-homer plateau had portions of the 1994 and '95 seasons not been erased by a work stoppage.
While the homer total stands as a significant variable within this evaluation, it's still noteworthy that McGriff stands as just one of 16 players to hit .280 with a .375 OBP, .500 slugging percentage and at least 490 home runs. The 15 others on the list are Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Alex Rodriguez, Mel Ott, Gary Sheffield, Babe Ruth, Jose Pujols, David Ortiz, Mickey Mantle, Frank Thomas, Jimmie Foxx, Manny Ramirez, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Barry Bonds.
Jones batted .254, tallied 434 home runs and constructed an .823 OPS over a 17-season career that included 10 Gold Glove Awards, five All-Star appearances and the National League Hank Aaron Award he captured in 2005 when he finished second to Pujols in balloting for the Most Valuable Player Award. The only other players to win as many as 10 Gold Gloves are Ichiro Suzuki and four Hall of Famers -- Mays, Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline and Ken Griffey Jr.
The former Braves center fielder was the author of an uneven career that started with a bang and ended with a thud. He produced MLB's third-best Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs, from 1998-2007. The two men who ranked ahead of him within that span were Bonds and Rodriguez. The man ranked immediately behind him was Chipper Jones, his longtime Braves teammate who lived up to the Hall of Fame expectations that surrounded him a decade ago.