#10

3B Chipper Jones

Chipper had his best season since 2002. Coincidentally, the 2007 season was the first one since 2003 where Jones had more than 600 plate apperances. That probably had something to do with the fact that he did so well. The usual injury bug bit, though, when Jones was accidently upended by Jose Bautista and injured both his wrists and his left quadriceps. I can't confirm this, but I think that Chpper had said that he contined to play with sore wrists after he came back at June 13th and didn't miss much time after that. If it's true, that's incredibly impressive.

Chipper led the National League in OPS (1.029) and was in the race for the batting average title until the final days of the season, when Matt Holliday cemented his hold on the title by his stellar performance in the wild-card playoff against San Diego.

I'd like to say that Chipper has improved his stamina over the past few seasons. I slso think that Jones missed a lot of time exclusively because of fluke injuries, not because his body gave out on him. If he can avoid the unlucky injury bug, Jones can enjoy a similar season; he still has a few of them left.

AVERAGE - 10 - Chipper has an uncanny knack when it comes to putting the ball in play and driving it. If he's not the best batter in the entire Atlanta Braves organization, then I can't imagine who is the best batter.

POWER - 9.5 - Chipper has an extremely high amount of doubles for his age and injury history and still pops a lot of balls out of the park. Here's to him continuing that work.

BASERUNNING - 7.5 - Chipper doesn't move often from first to third (5-27), but he does score from second when the situation calls for it (18-28). He even made it from first to home a few times (3-6). He was only doubled off once, and he knows when to swipe a base (5 for 6). Jones is smart when he's on the basepaths.

THROWING - 8 - Chipper has had a very srong and accurate throwing arm and he continues to have one.

FIELDING - 6.5 - Chipper only gets to balls that are hit right at him. Otherwise, he's a reliable fielder who isn't as bad as Baseball Prospectus says. ;)

TOTAL - 41.5 (A-) - Even though Chipper's nearing the end of his career, he still has a potent bat and is all right with the glove. That's all he can do, and that's why Atlanta loves him. Chipper's #10 will soon be beside the rest of the Braves' greats.

Chipper tweaked his right hamstring during batting practice today, but he says that it's not :a big deal". Let's hope not.