Will Chipper Jones surpass Wade Boggs?

Chipper Jones will be a Hall of Fame 3B.  Clearly.

Wade Boggs is already in the Hall.  And clearly should be.

Anyone going to dispute either of their cases?

But who will be better when all is said and done?

Right now, Boggs has the obvious advantage of already having the better resume.  While Jones still has some catching up to do, you know, because he is still playing.

Advantage Boggs in that regard.

But Jones is still going strong, still producing at a high level.  He is currently hitting .301/.418/.500, all at age 37.  The guy just doesn't slow down.  Well, aside from the injury derailments.

But when Chipper Jones plays, he puts up great numbers.  Not just great, but historically great.  And that is a whole nuther level of great  :)

As for Wade Boggs, he put up a WARP1 of 110 over his illustrious 18 year career.  His OPS+ was 130, actually lower than Jones' 145.  And normally, Jones would decline some.  And he probably will over the final few years of his contract.  But since Chipper is such a great player, and still playing well, then I am not so sure it will make such a huge difference in his final rate numbers.

Boggs had a luxury that Chipper did not have.  Since Boggs was such a great hitter, he took full advantage of the Green Monster at Fenway.  I am not so sure that I should penalize a player too much for taking advantage of something that resides in the opposite field.  Because it is very impressive that a hitter can go the other way so often.  So I won't hold that against him much.

But...

He did benefit from it.  Who is to say that Chipper Jones wouldn't have fallen in love with that wall had he played in Boston throughout most of his career?  And Chipper could have utilized it from both sides of the plate, something that would have been a great sight to see.

Did you know that Wade Boggs only slugged .395 on the road over his career?  And most of that career was at Fenway.  Road numbers are not the only numbers that should be looked at, but Boggs clearly benefited from Fenway Park.

However, Chipper has been great over the latter half of the decade in a league that everyone seems to be better against: the National League.  So Boggs never had that advantage.  We are confident in saying that the NL is weaker.  And since Jones plays in the NL, then the advantage is there for his taking, and has been.  The NL hasn't always been weaker though, it just seems that way the past few seasons.

So both have arguments that help and hurt them offensively.  Boggs benefited from Fenway.  Chipper has benefited from a weaker league for about four or five years.

So what about the defensive side of the ball?

Well, both played the same position, which makes them easy to compare.  But how well did they play it?

According to "Fielding Runs Above Average," Boggs saved about 133 more runs than the average defender over his career.  Very good.

Jones has "saved" 106.  But has a few more years.  Although range is generally lost, not gained when one ages.  So I wouldn't count on Jones making up that ground.

Advantage: Boggs

Intangibles?  Who knows.  Chipper won a ring, and has always been great.  Boggs won a ring, but had a lot of help from that great Yankees dynasty.

Toss-up on the unknown intangible argument. Figured I would at least explore that a little, and try to open up some discussion in regards to it.

So offensively, Chipper gets the edge.  He has hit everywhere, leaving no signs that anything at Turner Field helped him significantly, while Boggs definitely had the aid of Fenway.  Although again, give credit to Boggs for being so adept at using the opposite field.

Defensively, Boggs seems to be at an advantage.  Pretty clear, too.

It is very possible though that Jones will come very close to the career accomplishments of Wade Boggs.  And one could even argue that had Boggs played in a neutral park, he would have been the lesser player of the two.

But arguing about who was greater, out of two bonafide great players, really isn't logical.

They were both great.  But just for purposes of discussion: Who will be greater once Chipper retires?