Some one told me earlier that Andruw Jones is not one of the top 3 CFs of all time...?

Question

I looked up some fielding percentages of what many consider to be the best CFs ever. Ready?
Willie Mays .981
Duke Snider .986
Tris Speaker .970
Mickey Mantle .979
Ty Cobb .961
Andruws career FP is .990. If you can find 10 CF with better FP's, I want to see them.

Answer 1

I agree he's one of the top fielding center fielders of all time. For batting he's not even in the top 10. He's a great hitter but no where near the caliber of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

Answer 2

Fielding percentage really doesn't tell much about the player's range, just that he doesn't commit errors.

Andruw Jones was one of the best fielding CF of the league. However, he managed to slowly lose range over the years in such a way that most people didn't notice. However, in his prime, he was one of the best CFs of the game. He's still a good fielding CF, but no longer spectacular.

A better metric that is well available are the DT's FRAA (Davenport Translations, fielding runs above average)

Andruw Jones, in 1596 games in CF, has collected 100 FRAA. Meaning, he has saved his pitching staff 100 runs by playing center field all that time, relative to what an average CF would have done. (10.15 in 162 G)

A 0 in this metric means he was an average fielding CF.

I'll also type the career numbers for the other players you have listed.
Tris Speaker: 170 FRAA in 2690 G (10.23)
Willie Mays: 120 FRAA in 2831 G (6.86)
Ty Cobb: -3 FRAA in 2194 G
Mickey Mantle: -15 FRAA in 1745 G
Duke Snyder: -34 FRAA in 1588 G

However, there's no easy way to make lookups, so I can't find who the best ones of all-time are, but this should put things in perspective.

Answer 3

No doubt Jones is an excellent fielder and a fine hitter (in most years). However, you are comparing him to offensive greats only, and you are using an imperfect defensive tool for comparison's sake.

Fielding percentage reflects balls that can be caught. Raw numbers (putouts plus assists) reflect range and probably are a better reflection of fielding ability. Richie Ashburn was an all-time great there. I'd bet Cesar Geronimo ranked pretty high in that department.

And no one believes Jones ranks with Mays, Speaker, Mantle as a hitter.

Answer 4

If you are looking at fielding ONLY, you MIGHT have a case there. But when talking about the greatest this or the greatest that, you have to talk in the whole package and Jones is not even in the same league as Mays, Mantle, & Cobb.

Answer 5

fielding percentage isn't the only measure of a center fielder. jones just doesn't measure up to those other guys in terms of overall numbers, he strikes out a ton, he hasn't developed into the all-around player everyone thought he would be, he has only had a few good seasons hitting the ball, and now that his speed is dropping he is losing ground as a fielder too.

Answer 6

Andruw Jones is not one of the top centerfielders. His career for the past 5 yrs has hurt him.

He is clearly not in the league of players you mention.

He will go down in baseball history as an average centerfielder.

Answer 7

He's not even one of the best now, he's fallen. His range is bad.
I wrote in wikipedia.org

His range has decreased greatly over the last few years. In 2001, he ranked first in the league at his position in ESPN's zone rating, which shows the percentage of balls a player fields within his zone. But in 2004 and 2006 he was last in MLB, and in 2005 he ranked 15th out of the 20 qualifiers. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlbhist/stats/fielding?groupId=9&sortColumn=zoneRating&sortOrder=true&split=84&qualified=null&season=2007&seasonType=2

Answer 8

He might not be in the top three right now! Stop looking at those stats - they mean very little! Jim Edmonds, Torii Hunter, Grady Sizemore......

Answer 9

sorry my friend but it takes more than a fielding percentage to be be considered one of the top center fielders of all time.

Answer 10

everyone you just named is better than jones.