Chipper Jones Is Retired, Right?

Remember when Chipper Jones announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2012 season? Remember when Larry played in 112 games during the 2012 and hit an impressive .287/.377/.455 in 448 plate appearances as a 40-year-old? Remember how he was lavished with gifts ranging from third bases (Reds, Yankees, Pirates) to a bow hunting camera (Todd Helton) to a year's supply of sausages (Brewers) throughout the season? Then remember how he actually retired at the end of the season? Yeah, well, the baseball world has short term memory loss, at least according to a NY Post reporter tweeting about Jones' agent...

Chipper's agent BB Abbott said several teams have called on Chipper but #Yankees didnt. Wouldn't say which teams have. Staying retired, tho.

— Mark Hale (@HaleMark) January 7, 2013

Sure, the Yankees could use Jones as their own ungracefully aging third bagger Alex Rodriguez recovers from hip surgery (if he ever has it). But there are plenty of other teams who could use Jones as a 5/8 of the time third baseman. Had Jones qualified, he would have finished tied for 10th with Hanley Ramirez with a 3.0 fWAR at the position. With Ramirez back at short, the Dodgers might even be at the front of the line for Chipper's unavailable services. Of course, the Braves are looking to contend again this year and would, I assume, welcome Jones back with loving, open arms.

But barring a Brett Favre/every-rapper-ever wishy-washy comeback saga, Jones will remain retired to hunt and fish and tweet. And he appears to be enjoying the latter...

Man, this twitta thing is awesome!

— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) January 4, 2013

Which is good news for all of us if he keeps posting pics like this one...

What's wrong with this pic folks? Never said I was the sharpest tool in the shed. Damn ladder!!! Lol twitter.com/RealCJ10/statu…

— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) December 27, 2012

That's a festivus miracle/disaster if I've ever seen one. Sadly, there's been no update on the fate of that ladder.

Chipper Jones Hit A Ball Out Of Its Skin

Chipper Jones is already putting on an impressive pre-spring training performance as he attempts to comeback from an injury riddled 2010 season. Larry tore the cover off of a ball Tuesday during batting practice when he was striking balls with great vengeance and furious anger...

While hitting in an indoor batting cage at Turner Field, the 38-year-old third baseman hit a baseball with enough force to unravel the stitching and leave the cover hanging loosely from the ball’s core.

“I think this one’s done,” Jones said, pausing to hand the ball to a team official before continuing his hitting session.

I once tore some skin off of my hands in a batting cage when I was 12 so, yeah, I'm pretty bad-ass too. Of course, the first thing I do when I'm writing a post about a player is open up their Fangraphs page. Turns out the 38-year-old Brave has had a pretty Hall of Fame career.

Obviously, I knew how good Jones was/is since I lived in Atlanta for 15 years and the fair weather fans would beat that into my brain. But sometimes you just need to reflect on a player's career stats to truly appreciate them. Or at least I do in this crazy sabermetric/Internet world we live in today.

Jones has 436 home runs and a .306/.405/.536 career slash line. While he spent some time in the outfield over the years, we're going to pretend like he's a 3rd baseman for the following WAR Grid and WAR Graph. First up, the 3rd base WAR Grid and click to enlarge.



If you really squint because you're too lazy to click, Mike Schmidt is clearly number one on that list followed by Alex Rodriguez, Eddie Mathews, Wade Boggs, Brooks Robinson and George Brett. So here's the cumulative WAR Graph by age for Jones, Mathews, Boggs and Brett.



If Jones isn't already a Hall of Fame lock, which I think he might be, another semi-healthy year or two and the HOF bust carvers can get to work.