Saturday, December 8, 2012

Sayonara Jones san

Where did I leave my bat speed?
Andruw Jones tore up left-handed pitching in 2011, then only tore up dirt in the batter's box in 2012. The two-year member of the Yankees is headed to the Far East to play in Japan for the Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Jones' US career came full circle - as a member of the Atlanta Braves he was the youngest player to hit a World Series home run when he hit a pair of blasts against the Yankees in Game 1 of the 1996 Fall Classic.

Jones hit 434 career home runs in 17 years in the Majors, that also included stops with the LA Dodgers, Texas Rangers, and Chicago White Sox. He had back-to-back monster seasons for Atlanta in 2005-2006, and finished second in the '05 NL MVP voting. He belted a career high 51 home runs that season and drove in 128 runs, both tops in the NL. A year later he hit 41 home runs and knocked in a career high 129 runs.

After 12 years in Atlanta, the 10-time Gold Glove centerfielder signed with the Dodgers as a free agent prior to the 2008 season, but was never the same offensively or defensively. While his HR and RBI numbers in two seasons in New York were nearly identical, his OPS dipped from .851 to .701.

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