1 harsh truth allowed Andruw Jones to soar to Cooperstown over Cardinals' Jim Edmonds

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame came calling for two outstanding outfielders on Jan. 20, with Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones earning the nod into Cooperstown. However, another excellent outfielder remains on the outside looking in.

Hall of Fame voting for Jim Edmonds came and went far too quickly. A star center fielder who spent eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Edmonds was dynamic on both sides of the ball, providing well-above-average offense and playing elite defense, with some truly amazing catches dotting his highlight reel. Despite this, he fell off of the Hall of Fame ballot in 2016, his first year of eligibility, receiving only 2.5% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the sun has smiled on Jones, a center fielder who played 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, as he entered the Hall of Fame with his name on 78.4% of ballots. Jones was similarly masterful in the field and was a strong hitter, but many of his offensive numbers pale in comparison to those of Edmonds. There have been plenty of articles written on the topic of Jones vs. Edmonds when it comes to their Hall of Fame credentials. By OPS+. Edmonds outshines Jones 132 to 111. Edmonds had a markedly higher batting average and OPS than Jones, whereas Jones outperformed Edmonds in home runs and RBIs.

Although Edmonds comfortably eclipses Jones offensively, Jones runs away with it on defense. With a Defensive WAR of 24.4 according to Baseball-Reference, he blows Edmonds' 6.4 dWAR out of the water. However, when compared with hitting and pitching metrics, defensive analysis lags significantly behind, especially when one ventures farther back in history. Despite that, the new generation of Hall of Fame voters is increasingly including metrics in its decisions of whom to induct. Therein lies the crux of Jones' induction and Edmonds' snubbing.

Edmonds' balanced but excellent performance on both sides of the ball lacks the flash of Jones' one all-time great trait.

If one looks at the stats, there is a definite argument that Edmonds was a superior player to Jones. Unfortunately for Edmonds' supporters, Jones' dWAR is the best of any center fielder in baseball history. With today's voters having more of an analytical bend than their predecessors, the allure of a player who is listed as the best ever at a particular advanced stat will be difficult to ignore.

One can question the legitimacy of these numbers. An article from Chris Bodig posits that the Atlanta Braves' vaunted pitching staff during Jones' time with the team positively affected Jones' fielding metrics, as they allowed the lowest batting average on fly balls in play from 1997 to 2002, which was Jones' defensive peak, while also surrendering the fewest home runs of any team in baseball over that span. Jones' main outfield compatriots — Kenny Lofton, Michael Tucker, Gerald Williams and Brian Jordan — also possessed positive dWAR. Bodig hypothesized that those numbers, taken together, indicate that Braves outfielders were the recipients of the easiest balls to make plays on.

The Hall of Fame is not just about a player's ability; it also takes into account his contribution to the sport as a whole. In that way, Jones' stature at the top of the leaderboards, debatable as the numbers' reliability may be, cements his place in history and ultimately launched him into baseball's most hallowed grounds while Edmonds remains locked out from the sport's highest honor.