andruw jones is the greatest CF since willie mays discuss

Sal Bando maybe for third base. Giambi maybe for 1st although young very relative here. Darryl Strawberry RF (Tony Oliva also good possibility). LF no one jumps out.

yeah Ripken didn't start to get actively submediocre til 36, but I was addressing clemenza's introduction of "career arc" as a component of worthiness.

Mattingly slipped my mind--he seems like the obvious Andruw choice at first. (I know what you mean about Giambi, but with a good season at 35, an okay one at 37, and the fact that he's still hanging on at 42, he doesn't quite fit the Andruw profile.)

Some of those other guys that James mentions are like Mattingly that they played for a while, but they topped out with being great around 30 or so. Cesar Cedeno (played to 35) and Fred Lynn (played to 38) were still playing in their later mid-late 30s, they just were not as good or were constantly being injured and missing 50 games a year.

Outfielders-
Juan Gonzales
Jose Canseco
Rocky Colavito

3B- Scott Rolen

Starting pitchers - Bret Saberhagen, Vida Blue

That's a few more off the top of the head.

Keith Hernandez & Dave Stieb

Steib's a better choice than Gullett: great/dominant for six seasons, strong for another four (with one awful season between), finished at 32.

RF for the Andruw team: Tony Oliva. 42.6 WAR by the age of 32, .313/.361/.507 (mostly through the pitcher-dominated '60s), three batting titles, coming off eight straight seasons where he got MVP votes. He gets hurt and barely plays in '72, then he becomes one of the pilot DHs, where he has three decent but not especially distinguished seasons. Retires at 38, but he was essentially finished at 32.

Oops--Alex already mentioned him.

Giambi's career arc is a lot more like Thome's than Andruw Jones'.

Nobody mentioned Dick Allen yet. He had his last great season at 30, his last good one at 32, and was finished at 35.

Dick Allen is a poster-child def. but I think a large reason he did not get consideration was also because he was not well liked (although shortened career def. did not helped). His offensive #s are amazing for that period.

Albert Belle
Jim Wynn (also lost a ton of HRs to Astrodome most likely...)

Then you got the really big dudes that were good until they hit their 30s. They are pretty similar to guys like Killebrew or Thome, except they flat lines where those two were still productive into their mid-late 30s.
Richie Sexton
Frank Howard
Mo Vaughn
Ted Kluszewski
Ralph Kiner (still got in the HOF though...)

I like Belle for LF. My team:

C: Munson
1B: Dick Allen (there's a paradox in picking someone like Allen over Mattingly--Allen probably should be in the HOF, and therefore, at least for me, he becomes less Andruw-like than Mattingly, who clearly falls short--but Allen nonetheless fits the profile well)
2B: Knoblauch
SS: Nomar
3B: Troy Glaus (very solid till he's 31, 300 HR and 38.0 WAR, then he's finished; Rolen and Bando and others were clearly better, but I think their declines were more normal than sudden)
LF: Belle
CF: Andruw
RF: Oliva

Starters: Gooden, Sam McDowell, Messersmith, Stieb
Closer: Robb Nen

Manager: Joe Schultz

I just want Joe Schultz as my manager no matter what. He has nothing whatsoever to do with Andruw Jones.

Jody Davis is a pretty good catcher for a list. The Cubs just wore that dude down to a nub and his back went bad.

I'd frame the argument differently, but I don't think Andruw Jones belongs in the HOF either.

http://www.billjamesonline.com/andruw_of_center_field/