Baker on Kent: ‘This cat should be in the Hall’
In the earlier 9 years, the very best vote proportion Kent acquired was final yr, with 32.7 p.c of the vote, a far cry from the 75 p.c wanted to be elected. If Kent will not be elected, he shall be off the BBWAA poll, however there stays the potential of being elected by an Era Committee down the street.
For his half, Kent seemed like a person resigned to ready it out.
“Too much head-scratching embarrassment,” Kent stated in a textual content message to MLB.com, “as baseball is losing a couple generations of great players that were best in their era because a couple of non-voting stat folks keep comparing those players to players already voted in from generations past. Unfair to the best players in their own era and those already in.”
Don’t inform Astros supervisor Dusty Baker that Kent doesn’t belong within the Baseball Hall of Fame. The approach the skipper sees it, Kent ought to have been enshrined in Cooperstown a very long time in the past. One may perceive why Baker feels this fashion.
Kent had a stellar profession, primarily with the Mets, Giants and Dodgers and together with quick stints with the Blue Jays, Indians and Astros. He performed arduous and performed the sport proper, using each little bit of expertise that he had. He was a participant who performed sensible and walked away from the sport with no regrets.
During his 17 years within the massive leagues from 1992-2008, Kent hit 351 of his 377 residence runs as a second baseman, which is tops on the place. At a place not identified for energy manufacturing, Kent has a reputable case as the best run-producing second baseman in baseball historical past.
“Jeff Kent was one of the best clutch men I ever had that played for me, and I love Jeff Kent,” stated Baker, who managed Kent from 1997-2002 when each had been with the Giants.
How good was Kent? He reached the century mark for RBIs eight occasions, higher than a few of the all-time nice second basemen — Joe Morgan, Ryne Sandberg and Charlie Gehringer. As nice as Roberto Alomar was on each side of the ball, he drove in 100 runs simply twice in his profession. Kent’s .290 profession batting common is larger than Hall of Famers like Morgan and Craig Biggio, neither of whom hit 30 residence runs in a single season.
Using wRC+, Kent is among the many all-time greats at his place. The stat is adjusted, so a wRC+ of 100 is Major League common and 150 can be 50 p.c above MLB common. Rogers Hornsby leads all second basemen at 173 wRC+, adopted by Nap Lajoie and Eddie Collins at 144, then Jackie Robinson and Morgan at 135. Hall of Famers, every body. Gehringer, one other Hall of Famer, stands at 124, with Kent proper behind him at 123. Alomar is at 118, as are Lou Whitaker and Chase Utley. Biggio and Sandberg are at 115.
During his six years in San Francisco, Kent and Barry Bonds had been a robust 1-2 punch in the midst of the Giants’ lineup. Together they gained a mixed three MVPs, with Kent profitable the highest prize in 2000. That yr, Kent completed second behind Bonds in wins above substitute (7.2 vs. 7.7 in keeping with Baseball Reference) and hit a profession excessive .334 with 33 residence runs and 125 RBIs.
“Whatever Barry left out there, Jeff picked them up with two outs,” Baker recalled. “Jeff Kent is a clutch man.”
Baker believes that Kent’s character could have prevented the writers from seeing how good he was on the diamond. It’s not a secret he didn’t have one of the best relationship with the media.
“Man, this cat should be in the Hall of Fame,” Baker stated. “I’m not pushing for him because he played for me, I’m pushing for him because my daddy told me to do what’s right.”
Another knock on Kent is that he was a below-average defensive second baseman, however he does fee — in keeping with FanGraphs — as about MLB common, with a 1.2 profession defensive WAR. Neither Baker nor Cito Gaston — Kent’s first Major League supervisor when each had been with the Blue Jays in 1992 — lifted him for a defensive substitute in late innings.
“Listen, he was a big second baseman. He caught whatever came his way,” Baker stated. “He had one hell of an arm and turned the double play. This is what kills me about the Hall of Fame. What is convenient, they use it against you. To me, Jeff Kent is in the Hall of Fame. What you see is what you get [regarding Kent].”
“Kent’s defense is what impressed me,” Gaston stated. “He played good defense for me. Sometimes people get on people’s range. He had solid hands. He made a couple of good plays. That’s why I kept bringing him back [during Spring Training in ’92]. Then he started to hit the ball to go along with the defense. That’s made him that much better. As you have seen in his career, he did great.”
MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds, who watched Kent from afar when Reynolds performed within the American League, stated Kent made all of the performs and there have been totally different methods and expectations defensively when Kent performed the sport.
“When we played defense during the time Jeff Kent played, you had to make plays,” Reynolds stated. “There wasn’t a shift rule. There was no slide rule defending the second baseman, none of that. You had to have the ability to do all of it. And you needed to do it with the gamers sliding into you and attempting to take you out. That was the runner’s mission at first base.
“You needed to catch floor balls. You needed to have the vary. He performed on AstroTurf. He performed on grass. Was Jeff one of many top-flight guys? No. But what he supplied and the way he performed, he was loads high-quality. Otherwise, managers would have by no means put him there. He had third baseman energy taking part in second base.”
