Mlb hof tracker

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Topps206

I just don't know about Pudge being a Hall of Famer. Did he take anything? Was Canseco right? When asked if he took or not, why would he say, "Only God knows"

Pudge went from a mini Lou Ferrigano to a normal sized guy in 1 off season when testing was announced. Claimed he lost all the muscle to extend his career.LOL

[packs]

I can't believe Jorge Posada gets only 3 percent of the vote and falls off after one ballot. He deserved better.

[Topps206]

So we likely get four next year - Vlad, Hoffman, Chipper and Thome.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Topps206

So we likely get four next year - Vlad, Hoffman, Chipper and Thome.

That's a good, less controversial class.


.

[dgo71]

The lack of support Jeff Kent received is criminal. His stats are impressive in general, but when compared to second basemen he is in the top 3 (1st in many) on just about every offensive stat that matters.

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by dgo71

The lack of support Jeff Kent received is criminal. His stats are impressive in general, but when compared to second basemen he is in the top 3 (1st in many) on just about every offensive stat that matters.

The fact that that Kent has stayed on 4 years is not criminal when compared to other, arguably, more qualified. In their first years on the ballot the following players didn't make it past 5%:

Bobby Grich only got 2.6%
Lou Whitaker - 2.9%
Willie Randolph - 1.1%

A quick comparison in stats that are used to compare between era and teams:
Name****WAR****oWAR****dWAR****OPS+
J. Kent****55.2****59.3****-0.6****123
B.Grich****70.9****62.1****16.2****125
L. Whitaker****74.9****67.1****15.4****117
W. Randolph****65.5****53.6****19.4****104

The only stats that seem to matter to you are HR, SLG, RBI (since these are the only stats he is top 3 for first basemen). His HR only was in the top 10 once in his career (2002-37, 7th). RBI top 10 6 times, but top 5 only three times. His slugging only made it in top 10 twice.

His negative dWAR (also his runs from fielding being -42, and leading the league in errors 4 times) shows that he could have been put at another position as he wasn't any better than the average replacement player at 2nd base. You do this and his comparison for Offensive play doesn't hold up anymore.
Also you need take into account his offensive stats were inflated batting after Bonds. His time with the Giants his WAR average was 5.23, the rest of his career his average was 2.16.

[dgo71]

OK, my quick glance wasn't accurate, but Kent is still at the top of the leaderboard in many important areas.

HR - 1st with 377
Doubles - 4th with 560
Hits - 12th with 2461 (ahead of Whitaker marginally, ahead of Grich and significantly ahead of Randolph)
OPS - 6th with .855 (behind Ryan Schimpf who has 89 career games and Ross Barnes who played in the 1880's...others ahead of him are Hornsby, Gehringer and Jackie Robinson - pretty good company)
SLG - 3rd at .500 (again behind Jackie and the apparently HOF-bound Ryan Schimpf...)

5 All-Stars, 4 silver sluggers, 2000 NL MVP with 3 other Top 9 finishes.

I do hear defense as a detractor for Kent, but his career fielding average is just a couple points lower than Grich and Whitaker, and slightly ahead of Randolph. Kent never once led the league in errors. Do you mean he led second basemen in errors? That's plausible, but he never led the league in that category.

Not taking away from Grich or Whitaker because I could definitely get behind their enshrinement as well (Randolph not as much) but Kent has more than enough on his resume to garner much more consideration than he's getting. I really think the biggest knock on him was the fact that nobody really liked the guy. Media and teammates alike were all pretty consistent in feeling he was a jerk and that's coming back to haunt him, which is a shame really because it shouldn't be a popularity contest. If he had those stats with Kirby Puckett's personality he would've been a first ballot guy.