Jeff Kent

Great player, doofy guy.

Yes, he belongs in the HOF and yes I think he is a complete douche.

revenge of the seeth?

Love the flow chart.

I do think Jeff Kent belongs in the Hall of Fame, but please note he took more than 500 extra ABs to approach Cepeda’s numbers.

But that’s comparing apples to oranges. Two different eras. Back in the day, Raging Jackass was a weekly publication.

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/article/sabermetric_neophytes_meet_jeff_kent/

until I saw the flow chart

I hate the bastard but I think he’s a Hall of Famer and a good addition to the collection of Giants in there.

…does his plaque have an “SF” on it?

I think it has to; he played 6 seasons for the Giants, with 3 All-Star appearances and one MVP. Four seasons, one All-Star appearance for Hell and two seasons, one All-Star appearance for Hell of Texas. (You know, like Miami of Ohio.)

Unless he’s still pissed off about the french vanilla unis and picks LA out of spite and the HoF goes along with it.

I voted drool, but mostly because I thought it was funny.

out

nose

damn you

not sure if anyone has posted this, but I found this piece pretty entertaining

http://sportsonmymind.com/2009/01/22/jeff-kent-the-hall-of-famer-that-barry-bonds-produced/

that is, he was for sure until I read the following thread:

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/72591/

In it, a poster (Dave concecption… Dan R) makes a very cogent arguement that Kent was basically = Willie Randolf as a borderline HOFer, not quite in. The summary:
1) Kent was a good hitter (+20 wins), but avg defense & baserunning
2) 2B in the 90s-00s is not the 2B of previous years. It’s very close to 3B on the defensive spectrum. That is to say, replacement value for 2B is higher than “we” (I guess those who think Kent is a HOFer) think.

Not quite convinced, but it is certainly an interesting point

One cover photo of Raging Jackass Quarterly, please…

We should come up with a list of First Ballot Raging Jackass Hall of Famers:

1) Jeff Kent
2) Ty Cobb
3) Shane Victorino
4) Curt Schilling
5) Pete Rose
…

He’s only 90th on the all-time outs list. And tied for 90th, no less! With some dude named Zach Wheat*. If you don’t know who that is, he’s Mack Wheat’s brother. That should clear it up.

* He’s also a hall of famer….

>8 all-star games=HOF
takes into consideration longevity and one of best players of that position.

will be poppin wheelies

How do we feel about the “Gray Ink”, “HOF Standards” and “HOF Monitors” from Bill James, via Baseball Reference?

I went through and selected several HOF second basemen. Here are their numbers for those categories:

///////////////////////////////////////////////////// HOF ////// HOF
 /////////////////////////////////// Grey ////// Stds ////// Mon
Jeff Kent: 71 ///// 50.9 ///// 122.5
Joe Morgan: 131 ///// 54.9 //// 172.0
Craig Biggio: 104 ///// 55.9 ///// 169.0
Paul Molitor: 145 //// 59.2 ///// 165.5
Nellie Fox: 131 //// 30.9 ///// 163.0
Tony Lazzeri: 91 //// 37.9 ///// 89.0
Red Schoendienst: 92 ////// 29.9 ///// 109.5
Jackie Robinson: 121 ///// 38.0 ///// 98.0
Bobby Doerr: 128 ///// 39.9 //// 95.5
Joe Gordon: 111 ///// 29.9 //// 87.5
Ryne Sandberg: 134 ///// 41.9 ///// 157.5
Bill Mazeroski: 12 ///// 14.9 ///// 71.0

10th all time batting average for second basemen? I know he had a couple of good years for average in there, but I’m surprised there aren’t a few dozen Slappy Whites ahead of him.

If Raging Jackass is a quarterly magazine, and Kent appeared on the cover 78 times, that’s 19.5 years on the cover.

who gives a fuck whether Kent is a douche or not. Why is he supposed to just smile and shut up? Who cares?

Look at his career as a whole. As a player, he was one of the best at his position offensively and adequate defensively for most of the time. It doesn’t matter that he was playing out of position (if he had one) – that’s where he played for a long time, so it must not have been too bad. He was the best power hitting 2nd baseman ever. That’s all that matters.

No question, he’s a Hall of Famer of the 1st Ballot variety. He might not go in that way because the voters are, for the most part, a few additional IQ points away from being fucking retarded, but he certainly should.

Jeff Kent appeared on the cover of Raging Jackass Quarterly 78 times

Do you remember the issue with the cover of Kent and Bonds together? I took a copy to a Spring Training game the next year, and was all, like, Mr. Kent, sir, can you sign this for me, please and he was all sure and he took it and he signed it and then he wouldn’t give it back.

Man, I was pissed. That was the same issue that had a profile of my brother, too.

Matt Vasgersian asked him if he were to be elected to the Hall of Fame which hat he wear. He said he would dance around the answer but mentioned a big part of his growth as hitter was Dusty Baker and also mentioned JT and Bonds. So without saying it, sounds like he would pick “SF”.

Sorry about the drool.
Munchies muy malo , dontchaknow. Hey , bro…got a light?

Did I once love Jeff Kent? Yes. Do I hate him forever now? Yes. And he hates me. These two facts make me doubly enjoy the fact that he’ll be inducted to the Hall of Fame as a Giant, because he deserves it, and he’ll hate being inducted as Giant.

Jeff Kent was told he didn’t have good range for a second basemen, so he moved his porn mustache to Texas and bought a range.

Interesting note from Bagg’s latest entry:

By the way, Kent is now eligible to be added to the Giants Wall of Fame and it’s safe to say he’ll be inducted when the club brings him to AT&T Park at some point early next season. Kent has already agreed to make the trip.

Extra Baggs

This begs the question: will you cheer or will you boo?

Oh, and I’ll add this tidbit too:

Late last season, Kent told the Mercury News’ Andrew Baggarly he looks fondly upon his time in San Francisco and would love to return for reunions and other events. Baggarly also reports that Kent has told Giants officials that if the Hall calls, he will go in as a Giant.

Mercury News

Sean Smith had this to say about Kent:

I’ve got Kent as essentially an average fielder, -5 runs for his career. He’s also +9 turning the DP.

+6 baserunning, -18 hitting in to DP’s, +298 with the bat.

His total wins above replacement is 59.5

For his fielding, he uses his system known as TotalZone, which you can read about here and here

because Kent is a big… you know what.

But, yeah, a HOFer. Unless he bet on baseball.

There’s a candy bar named after Jeff Kent?

when i was 11 or 12, i sent jeff kent a baseball card and asked if he would sign it. i didn’t expect much, but sure enough, a few months later he sent the card back signed. for that, i’ve always had a soft-spot for him, regardless of all the douchey stories.

Jeff Kent is undoubtedly a Hall of Famer. Awesome Giant, “gamer,” clutch. In terms of his personality, I’m totally biased… I met Jeff Kent on four different occasions, and he could not have been nicer every single time.

One of Sabean’s biggest mistakes (and there have been a few doozies) was letting Kent go to the Astros without much of a fight. Sabean’s ego got in the way of baseball logic; Sabes has admitted as much. Or at least he’s gone on record saying that he regrets the way Kent’s departure from SF was handled).

Perhaps Sabean predicted a sharp decline… a decline which didn’t come for 5 more years. I don’t know what it would have cost to keep Kent in SF. Because of Sabean’s war of the words, there was no “hometown discount” in play. But topping Houston’s two year / $17m contract was certainly in the Giants budget.

Kent > Alphonszo + Durham
 
P.S. Gatta give Kent some props for dubbing the uni’s “french vanilla.” Sometimes his candor was appreciated.