A Blog? Ok. But a Paper?

It's one thing for a baseball blog to falsely state that Kent's position doesn't matter when it comes to the Hall of Fame, it's another for someone associated with a published paper. These are the kind of guys that vote on the Hall of Fame, it's getting to be ridiculous.

"But I say Kent cannot be looked at as a second baseman, especially in this day and age where middle infielders all over baseball are putting up numbers usually posted by outfielders and third baseman. We have to start judging players - other than catchers - as all part of the same pool. Is Nomar Garciaparra a Hall of Famer because he put up big numbers at shortstop?

Kent was never a great fielder. He had to hide somewhere and most teams chose to put him at second base. Also, Kent played in the steroids era, so all of the numbers from that time have to be judged on some sort of scale. 600 homers may have to be the new 500 homers.

And while Kent’s numbers may have gotten him into the Hall of Fame 10 years ago, they are comparable to several other players who will be retiring soon or have already retired and likely won't ever get in.

Albert Belle has more homers (381) than Kent. Is he a Hall of Famer?
Gary Sheffield has more homers (499), hits (2,615) and RBIs (1,633) than Kent. Is he a Hall of Famer?

Andres Gallarraga (399), Dale Murphy (398), Joe Carter (396), Jason Giambi (396), Vlad Guerrero (392), Graig Nettles (390), Dwight Evans (385), Harold Baines (384), Larry Walker (383) and Matt Williams (378) all have more homers than Kent. Only Guerrero has a legit shot to make it to Cooperstown."

How can you compare Kent to Nomar? Kent played in 17 full seasons, every single on of them primarily at 2b. Nomar has played in parts of 13 seasons 4 of which he wasn't really a short stop. Just because there are a few great middle infielders, once again does not mean they should be considered the same as outfielders. Albert Belle had his career cut short, if he didn't he would be a Hall of Famer, Gary Sheffield is by most smart accounts Hall of Fame worthy. Just because you can name a slew of corner infielders and outfielders that just have more homers than Kent does not deem them worthy. Placing Jim Rice in the Hall of Fame gives more credence to Dale Murphy, Baines, Walker etc, in the Hall, not Jeff Kent. And if this idiot had a ballot I'd imagine he'd vote in Rice.

How much more can you say about this, it's just too obvious but there are apparently enough clowns going around. Maybe someday we have to reconsider some of the landmark numbers like 500 homers and so on. But regardless, if Kent leads every 2b that has every played the game in that number, should we not consider that because Hanley Ramirez and Chase Utley are very good hitting middle infielders? Mr. Price says that middle infielders are usually putting up numbers like outfielders, and that we have to judge everyone the same, minus catchers of course. I guess because they usually put up those kind of numbers that we shouldn't give credit to the position they play. And I guess we can all agree catcher is a more demanding position and but at this point all the others are the same. Ugh, these guys reasoning is laughably pathetic, and I think I'm done talking about it.