Peter -- As you suggest, Andruw's "case" is largely about the fielding as a CF. The claim is that he was in the Willie Mays category as a CF before he got heavy and then couldn't/didn't stick around to run up his hitting stats to 500 HRs or even 2000 Hits. He got to the majors as a fleet teenage prodigy and was DHing by his 30's
I find the fielding stats kind of hard to digest but he put together a run (with Gold Gloves from 1998-2007) that was historically great.
There are plenty of lesser offensive players in the HOF because of their fielding excellence -- middle infield and catchers. I think he rates highest of all outfielders in lifetime DWAR (defensive WAR)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...f_career.shtml
and scores second all-time for
all fielders in something called "Total Zone Runs" which is another combined fielding metric.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...f_career.shtml
SORRY ABOUT THE WAR STATS --- didn't see Darren's post or Butch's post until I finished mine -;(
Of course that's not to say that defensive excellence means that they
should be in the HOF.
--- He has a son ("Druw") who is listed as a top prospect -- he too plays CF.