Well, in case you missed it, Jeff Kent announced his retirement Wednesday and somewhere Barry Bonds shed a single tear. As his illustrious baseball career comes to a close, his car washing (motorcycle riding) career can begin anew! Anyway, all joking aside, the debate about his historical significance can now begin. Where does Kent rank all-time among other second baseman? Well, I’m glad you ask! Much to the chagrin of my wife, I spent a good portion of tonight crunching the statistics of HOF second basemen as well as a couple “no-doubt” guys, Biggio and Alomar. Now, before looking at the stats, and having been raised in the era of the home run (I’m 28), I have been conditioned to believe that anyone that played prior to 1989 is going to have inferior offensive stats to those that didn’t…provided their name wasn’t Williams, Ruth, Mantle, Cobb, etc… We all seem to have been conditioned that way, because when I was looking over some comments on the MLB message board, it seems that a large number of commentors made the same assumption. Well, we are all wrong.

There are currently 24 2B in the Hall of Fame. Some from the “Dead Ball” Era, some from what is considered the modern era, and one named Bill Mazeroski that just doesn’t belong (but thats another blog entry). For the sake of our discussion, I have included 3 more “HOF” names: Roberto Alomar, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Kent. Here is where Kent ranks:

Runs: 14th (Biggio #1)

Hits: 14th (Molitor #1, Biggio #5)

Doubles: 6th (Biggio #1, actual HOF’er is Nap Lajoie)

HR: #1 (With a comfortable lead over Hornsby and Biggio at #3)

RBI: #3 (Nap 1, Hornsby 2)

BB: #15 (Joe Morgan walked a LOT! Biggio #5)

SO: #2 (Biggio #1 wasn’t so good with the slider low and away)

B.Avg: #14 again… (Hornsby hit .358)

Slugging: #2 No surprise.

As an Astro fan, I am compelled by emotion, as well as statistics, to place Mr. Biggio at the head of the “overall’ class. However, guys named Rogers Hornsby and Nap Lajoie have a pretty strong case as well.

It looks like this has turned from a Kent retrospective to a Biggio love-fest, but I’m an Astro fan…what did you expect? Especially when the numbers back me up? I don’t want to diminish Kent’s career, but it just surprised me a bit to see that his cumulative numbers weren’t higher than they are. It just seems that we always hear about how we are living during the greatest offensive period in baseball history, but maybe it actually illustrates how great players like Hornsby, Lajoie, and Collins were. 

Regardless of how great Hornsby, Lajoie, and Collins were there is no doubt Kent should be enshrined, especially if Sandberg made it in as easily as he did… Notice you didn’t see Ryne-o anywhere on my breakdown there (man, I hate the Cubs…). So, we’ll see you in a few years Mr. Kent, you deserve it. Let us not forget, he hit what may be the biggest home run in Astro history! The walk-off job in game 6 of the 2004 NLCS against the Cardinals… It was epic! Thanks for the memories and the workmanlike attitude you brought to the park here in H-Town.

Thanks for stopping by, and tell your friends!