Kent is not known for postseason heroics, but his decisive home run in Game 5 of the 2004 NL Championship Series against Cardinals reliever Jason Isringhausen helped the Astros take a 3-2 lead in the series. He was also rarely the best player on his team, and even overshadowed by Barry Bonds in his 2000 MVP season with the San Francisco Giants. Simply, too many voters put a heavy emphasis on WAR, and Kent’s career 55.4 WAR ranks 19th among all second basemen. Kent and his wife Dana reside near Austin, Texas, where they raise their four children, a daughter and three sons. Unfortunately for Kent, he hasn’t come close to being elected into Cooperstown. Kent reached the century mark for RBIs eight times, better than some of the all-time great second basemen -- Ryne Sandberg, Joe Morgan, Paul Molitor and Charlie Gehringer. Now that he has announced his retirement, the debate will begin about whether Jeff Kent belongs in the Hall of Fame or not. Kent’s .290 career batting average is higher than Hall of Famers like Sandberg, Morgan and Craig Biggio, who never hit 30 home runs in a season. Many great players, such as shortstop Alan Trammell, have struggled to make the HOF because they don’t have an MVP Award. Kent scores 122 (“a good possibility”) on the Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor, but the average score for a Hall of Fame second baseman is 161. Is Jeff Kent a Hall of Famer? Now in his seventh year of eligibility, Kent will have stiff competition in 2020. He had great range going up the middle, throwing across his body because he had the shortstop arm strength. "I played on what the New York media calls the 'Worst Team Money Could Buy,'” Kent said, referencing the 1992 Mets. Realistically, Kent’s only chance to be in the Hall of Fame is in 2025 when he’s eligible to be on Today’s Game Era Committee ballot. We were able to be [one of] the best double-play combinations. "He really worked hard on his defense. He has two more years on the ballot after this year, and the ballot will be greatly diminished in a year with the eligibility of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling expiring. However, since hitting the Hall of Fame ballot in 2014, Kent has yet to receive significant support for his candidacy. The 40 year old Kent hit the most home runs of any second baseman ever and was one of the best hitters of my generation.On the surface, Kent should be an easy selection into the hall of fame… Kent garnered 15.2% of the vote in his first year, but his vote total has remained flat, not moving until last year when it jumped from 18.1% to 27.5%. Sometimes, when you take it, you get beat up. The stat is adjusted, so a wRC+ of 100 is Major League average and 150 would be 50 percent above MLB average. Jose Vizcaino was my favorite. Jeff Kent. This was the year he needed to make a big jump, but according Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of Fame tracker, he hasn’t budged at all. And it certainly didn’t help that Kent had a frosty relationship with the media. ", Maybe MLB Network’s Chris Russo said it best about Kent’s defense: “There wasn’t one game between 1997 and 2002 where I walked out of the building and said, ‘Geez, Kent’s defense. ". But his career stats and the eye test say he deserves consideration for the HOF. Kent never won a Gold Glove Award. The shame in that is Kent had what should have amounted to a Hall of Fame career. At a position not known for power production, he has a legitimate case as the greatest run producing second baseman in baseball history. I really cared about defense. Jeff Kent's case for the Hall of Fame looks good on the surface, but dig deeper and you'll find it doesn't hold up. I tried not to hide behind my bad play by leaving the locker room early. The next year, he fell to 14 percent, before rising to 16.6 percent in '16. He's the only second baseman in history with a higher slugging percentage is Rogers Hornsby (.577). The Case for KentLet’s start with why Baker feels so strongly about Kent being a strong candidate to make the Hall; for starters, he had a front-row seat from which to evaluate his performance. Yet apparently, not up to the Baseball Hall of Fame standards set by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He spent 17 years in the big leagues, but never led the league in any major offensive category. I want people to understand that as much as I loved to hit and drive in runs, it disappointed me more when I made errors. Only Rogers Hornsby, perhaps the best second baseman of all time, rivals his offensive production. But you're reading this because Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent were not voted into the Hall of Fame. I thought he was better than all right. He was on 27.5% of the writers ballots last year. He has a career 55.4 WAR, but the average Hall of Fame second baseman has a career 69.5 WAR. Kent, who played in the heart of the steroid era with bloated offensive numbers, simply might have come along at the wrong time. "The [baseball critics] sit there on their couches and say, ‘Well, he is a [6-foot-2] power-hitter, so therefore, he didn't have range up the middle.’ That is such a farce. Baseball writers are voting this month on who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, with the 2019 electees to … People always talk about his offensive numbers as a second baseman. It is Jeff Kent’s seventh time on the ballot. Sure, he has a higher batting average, drove in more runs and hit more homers than second base contemporaries Sandberg (2005) and Craig Biggio (2015), but the traditional numbers were crushed by the advanced metric stats. He should have had 10 more, but the Hall of Fame switched the rules to screw Bonds and Roger Clemens, which is a totally normal thing for a museum to do, and that will affect Kent’s chances. Who would ever imagine that you can hit more home runs (351 out of 377) as a second baseman in history, the second highest-slugging percentage by a second baseman (.500) and third in OPS (.855) and still get left out in the cold? Robert Hanashiro, USA Today San Francisco Giants: Why isn’t Jeff Kent in the Hall? I spoke the truth. But for now, he's at least in the Bay Area's hall. His voting has trended upward in recent years, going from 14.5% in 2018 to 18.1% in 2019 and 27.5% in 2020, which is by far the highest percentage he has received thus far. However, former teammate F.P. But if you ask the best reporters out there, they know I was respectful. I haven't cowed down to the bullies [reporters] who told me, 'I could make or break your career.' In his eighth year of eligibility, Kent garnered 32.4 percent of the ballot, up from 27.5 percent in 2020. Having looked at the issue a few different ways, I’m pretty confident that 1) Kent is, in fact, a Hall of Fame-caliber player, and 2) Kent is probably … Santangelo, now a Nationals broadcaster, said that Kent -- while never flashy -- always made the plays at second base. He also has a resume that includes five All-Star appearances, four Silver Sluggers, a National League MVP award, while helping lead four different teams reach the postseason. In a sense, the answer to the title of this piece can be summed up this way: Jeff Kent snuck up on the baseball world as a Hall of Fame-caliber player. Dustin Pedroia and Jose Altuve are not yet eligible for election. “I was right in the middle of that mix, traded for David Cone, who was a beloved East Coast guy. Gehringer, another Hall of Famer, stands at 124, with Kent right behind him at 123. Yet, it seems to some that the 2021 MLB Hall of Fame voting is somewhat unfair to Jeff Kent. "He was a lot better second baseman than people ever gave him credit for," Santangelo said in 2016. He still has a long way to go to gain enshrinement. Hornsby leads all second basemen at 173 wRC+, followed by Nap Lajoie and Eddie Collins at 144, then Jackie Robinson and Joe Morgan at 135. Boston writer posts worst Hall of Fame ballot of 2021 so far. He managed to get to 27.5 percent last year and would need a huge boost to make the 75 percent needed. It virtually dooms his chances considering this is a weak class where no first-time player on the ballot is even remotely making a push. His power and run production numbers are without peer among second basemen. We’ve seen some big leaps before – like Larry Walker and Edgar Martinez – but none like what would be required for Kent. And he ranks third in OPS among all second basemen behind only Hornsby (1.010) and Charlie Gehringer (.884). Using wRC+, Kent is among the all-time greats at his position. Draft: Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 20th round of the 1989 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA). Going from his now 27.5% to induction in two years is entirely unprecedented. Kent was an All-Star in three of those years (1999, 2000, 2001) and won the NL MVP Award in 2000, a season in which he hit 33 home runs and drove in 125 with a .334/.424/.596 slash line. He was never considered anything more than a below-average defender, and four times led the National League in errors by a second baseman. Kent never led the Major Leagues in any offensive category and he was widely considered a below-average second baseman. What’s hurting his chances?Kent is the first to admit he has had a strained relationship with most members of the media. Nationals broadcaster, said that Kent -- while never flashy -- always made the plays at second.. While Kent has the power numbers, let alone defensive ability he at... 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