Hall of Fame Polls: Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones

It is Jeff Kent’s seventh time on the ballot. He was on 27.5% of the writers ballots last year. His vote totals: 16.7, 15.2, 14.0, 16.6, 16.7 and 18.1, so he took a nice jump last year. 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 an excellent 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. They traded Jeff 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.

He played 2298 games, hit 377 home runs, and 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 bWAR is 55.4.

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 didn’t get along with Bonds. Many didn’t, but he didn’t have to be such a jerk about it. It seemed like his dislike of Bonds had a lot to do with jealousy.

Second basemen are underrepresented in the Hall of Fame, maybe because if they are good defensively they tend to play on the other side of second. Kent has great offensive numbers for a middle infielder. But my memory says that he wasn’t a good glove. I think he was more a third baseman who ended up at second.

He was also a contestant on Survivor.

You can see Kent’s stats here.

It’s Andruw Jones’ 3rd time on the ballot. He got 19.4% last year (up from 7.3% in his first time on the ballot). He has time to make it, but a bump this year would help.

Jones came up, with the Braves, at the same time as Vladimir Guerrero, Sr 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.