Hall of Fame Polls: Jones, Kent, Lee

There isn’t much for Blue Jays news again this morning. There is a news that there will be new jersey this season, but we won’t see it for a few days.

And there is this:

I’m skipping Paul Konerko. H had a very good 18-year career. He hit .279/.354/.486 with 439 home runs and a 27.7 bWAR. He was incredibly consistent, he had a 14 year stretch where he had OPS+ numbers that ranged from 103 to 160 (except for a 83 in 2003). If there was a Hall of Fame for consistency, Konerko would be there. You could count on him for 150 games, 25 to 40 home runs and he didn’t strikeout out all that much. He played 16 seasons for the White Sox. He made 6 All-Star teams and got MVP votes 5 times (highest finish was 5th).

It’s Andruw Jones’ third time on the ballot. He got 7.5% of the vote last year....so he has a long way to go to get to 75. He’s not building any momentum.

Jones came up, with the Braves, at the same time as Vladimir Guerrero did for the Expos. They were the top prospects in baseball. But, Jones wouldn’t become the offensive star that Guerrero was.

Jones played 17 seasons, hit .254/.337/.486 with 434 home runs. Not bad numbers at all, but they pale next to Guerrero’s. But Jones makes up for some of that difference in value in his ability to play center field. Jones won 10 Gold Glove awards. He was terrific in the outfield.

Jones made 5 All-Star teams. He received MVP votes 5 times, finishing as high as second (in 2005, when he hit .263/.347/.575 with 51 homers and had 128 RBI, his best season in the majors). And he finished 5th in Rookie of the Year voting, in 1996, Vlad was 6th).

He played in 76 playoff games, but was never on a World Series winner. It wasn’t his fault, he hit .273/.363/.433 with 10 home runs in those games.

Jones played 12 seasons for the Braves, then had a season with the Dodgers, a season with the Rangers, a season with the White Sox and finished his career with 2 seasons with the Yankees.

He has a 62.8 bWAR.

It seemed, back at the time, you had to choose if you were a fan of Jones or Guerrero and I, of course, choose Guerrero, but Jones has a pretty good case for the Hall as well.

You can check out his numbers here.

It is Jeff Kent’s sixth time on the ballot, he was on 18.1% of the writers ballots last year. His vote totals: 16.7, 15.2, 14.0, 16.6, 16.7 and 15.2% I don’t think he’s going to make it. I think he’s borderline deserving, but if he went into the Hall and Bonds didn’t I’d chew off an arm.

Kent had a very good 17 season career that started with the Blue Jays. He was traded in the middle of his rookie season to the Mets for David Cone. We can’t complain too much, we won the World Series that year. He was pretty good for the Mets. He was traded to Cleveland in the middle of the 1996 season. After that season he was part of a big trade between Cleveland and the Giants. It was with the Giants he became a star. After San Francisco he went to the Astros and Dodgers.

In total he played 2298 games, hit 377 home runs, had 1518 RBI with a .290/.356/.500 slash line. Not bad for a middle infielder. He won the NL MVP in 2000, played on 5 All-Star teams and won 4 Silver Slugger awards. He had more than 100 RBI 8 times (helped along by opponents intentionally walking Barry Bonds).

His stats took a good leap forward in his age 30 season, his second year with the Giants. Maybe it was watching Bonds and seeing how to turn on a pitch. Before his age 30 season he had 107 home runs. From age 30 on, 270. I don’t remember hearing rumors about PEDs.

He also didn’t get along with Bonds, which is a bit of a plus in my book, though he really didn’t have to be such a jerk about it. It seemed, like his dislike of Bonds had a lot to do with jealousy.

He was also a contestant on Survivor.

You can see Kent’s stats here.

It is Cliff Lee‘s first time on the ballot.

Lee had a 13 year career. It wasn’t as consistent as Paul Konerko, but then the good years were very good. He won the Cy Young in 2008, with a 22-3 record and a 2.54 ERA in 31 starts. He received Cy Young votes four other seasons, coming in third in 2011. He made four All-Star teams and got MVP votes twice.

Career he had a 143-91 record and a 3.52 ERA in 328 games, 324 starts. He pitched over 200 innings 8 times (and over 220 four times). He could have used a few more seasons to get the bulk numbers that the writers like, but I think the Writers are going to have to get used to the idea that starters aren’t going to get to the win totals that they once did.

His good years were very very good, he had a 8.5 bWAR and two seasons of 6.8 bWAR plus a couple of years in the 4s. But then he had some crappy years mixed in there.