Well, Jeff Kent has retired and he will be missed by those teammates who enjoyed his company… both of them.
There’s something to be said about how big a jerk you are when Barry Bonds actually stood up from his recliner to defend young players from Kent.
You can’t help but wonder how big an a—hole he is behind the scenes when tight lipped James Loney says on the air “Jeff Kent isn’t our leader. We don’t listen to what he says.”
The total tonnage of his d-baggery probably can’t be measured when one his Astros teammates said “Jeff Kent isn’t a racist. He’s hates everyone.”
The astronomical levels of dickdom he reached can almost be measured. It was mainly Kent who made Grady Little’s life miserable when the 2007 Dodgers collapsed down the stretch. And when Kent went on the disabled list in 2008, the Dodgers went on a tear. When he came back they slumped.
What complete enveloping of creepiness do you need to have Milton Bradley call you out on your leadership skills?
How much of a jackass can you be to trash Vin Scully?
You do you know what unattainable level of sh-ttiness he reached? Kevin Kennedy had a bad thing to say about him on his XM Show! I love Kevin Kennedy, but he doesn’t have a bad thing to say about ANYONE!!!!! And yesterday he was on his show saying Kent was a bad influence.
That’s Sir Edmund Hillary territory… a peak scaled by nobody before!
And now you hear people calling him a Hall of Famer.
A guy who was a mediocre fielder at best.
A guy hated by every team he played for. (Remember when he was Jeff Can’t in New York?)
A guy whose teams tend to IMPROVE when he leaves.
A guy whose Hall of Fame stats were padded while he played in San Francisco as a teammate of Bonds with Giambi and Tejada across the Bay… I wonder if we should be suspicious?
Spare me any discussion of Jeff Kent in the Hall of Fame.
Is there a soul who would rather have Kent over Lou Whitaker, Bret Boone, Marty Barrett, Tony Phillips, Chuck Knoblauch, Luis Castillo, Placido Polanco or Fernando Vina at second base defensively or in the clubhouse?
Of course not. And none of those guys are Hall of Famers.
And if he does get elected, don’t expect a single Blue Jays, Mets, Indians, Giants, Astros or Dodgers fan to show up.
Hell, I wonder if even JEFF would show up!!!
Are you kidding me? He should be a Hall of Famer, regardless of his shitty attitude. Ty Cobb's in the Hall and he was a major A-hole. Kent is the all-time leading home run hitter among second basemen with 351, which is 74 more than the next closest, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. He also retired with a .290 batting average, 1,515 RBIs, 560 doubles and a .500 slugging percentage. Those numbers alone, especially the HRs should get him in. I was never a fan of his, but give credit where credit is due!
ReplyDeleteI dunno. Kent is not an easy player to evaluate. There are several different things I don't like about his career. Then there are some hard to ignore stats. He and others like him are the best reason we have the five year waiting period.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me only in one case did the team do better while he was gone the giants woul have never been as good with out him and his fielding stats are higher than half of the second basemen in the hall of fame
ReplyDeleteThe Astros went to the World Series after he left.
ReplyDeleteFYI
Jeff Kent is a first ballot hall of famer, look at the stats, that is all you need to look at. The BBWAA are making a lot of mistakes keeping great MLB players out of the hall for several stupid and non-sense reasons. Just to mention a few, the DH case, the Coors Field stadium and the alleged "suspicious" of some players using PEDs, that is so non-sense.
ReplyDelete