Hot Corner of Fame: Where Does Atlanta Braves 3B Chipper Jones Stand?

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 third baseman?

His hitting numbers are in the top five amongst all of the third base Hall of Famers, including tops in slugging percentage and OPS. His run and RBI totals will rise as well and could possibly lead him to being the best in both of those respective categories as well.

After looking over all the statistics, there were three other candidates that could put up a case for being better than Chipper Jones.

They are 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 higher as he has 292 more homeruns than Wade Boggs. He also has more RBI and 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. Another key element, is the fact that Chipper is a switch hitter, which he would join the likes of Eddie Murray and Mickey Mantle to make the Hall as a switch hitter. 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)