Jeff Kent, Hall of Famer?

It has long been speculated that Jeff Kent is a sure Hall of Famer, the latest example being last week when he, Maddux, and Manny all appeared in the same game, bringing the total number of Cooperstown-bound men to three.

The primary reason cited for Kent’s enshrinement is that his career numbers are so good for a second baseman. His 560 doubles, 376 homers, and career .290 average place among the top 5 second basemen of all time, alongside Joe Morgan, Rogers Hornsby, and Ryne Sandberg. There are precious few second basemen in the Hall of Fame, which is how Bill Mazeroski got there.

But the thing about all the aforementioned Cooperstown denizens is that they were good second basemen. Kent is not. He is an average fielder at best, with limited range. Were he a first baseman (a position he played a bit while with the Giants), his numbers would pale beside those of Gehrig, Greenberg, Foxx, and Killebrew. The player whose stats Kent’s most closely resemble is Orlando Cepeda, who hit 379 homers during the dead ball era. Kent hit his 376 in the steroid era, when dollhouse ballparks, crappy pitching, and a lower mound allowed homers to leave the park in record numbers.

So is Kent a Hall of Famer or not?

Broken from the ground up

I think another no-hitter is the key to solving the Dodgers' problems. They seem to do better when they don't get any hits at all.

As for a curse, why go looking to the supernatural when there are plenty of rational explanations for why this team stinks.

1) three gms in five years.
2) three managers in five years
3) three owners in ten years
4) unwillingness to go through a rebuilding year by any of these officers.

You can't just throw a team together and expect them to win World Series. Championships are bred, not bought. Look at the Yankees of 1996-2000. That team was built on home-grown talent that matured together through the years and complemented by a few well-placed veterans.

Since then, however, they've tried to restock every year, trading away young talent for overpriced veterans. They make the playoffs, but don't go far.

The Mets haven't won a World Series since 1986, but they're not cursed. And the Giants haven't won it all since moving to San Francisco 50 YEARS AGO! Nobody talks about them being cursed. Down here, we laugh knowingly at them at point to bad management as the cause of their problems. But we don't do the same with our own team.

This team has been poorly assembled from the beginning. Flanders attempted to do the right thing by building strength up the middle. But he pissed away all his money on players who for one reason or another haven’t delivered. He overpaid for Furcal, making him the second-highest paid shortstop in baseball. Now I like Furcal, and he’s definitely a leader. But you had Cesar Izturis coming back from surgery just a few months into the 2006 season, and could have spent that $13 million per year on a decent pitcher, a third baseman, or a top caliber center fielder.

Then he compounded the mistake by signing Pierre to a ridiculous deal, both in terms of money and length. Everyone knew Pierre had no arm and no power. But in the wake of JD Drew’s departure, Flanders rushed into a deal for a center fielder.

When he signed Schmidt, Giants fans all laughed (though they signed Zito, so who’s laughing now). How do you commit that much money to a guy with a history of arm trouble? He brought in Danys Baez to be the closer. The only reason nobody remembers that debacle is because Saito turned out to be so good. But he was fourth on the bullpen depth chart. I don’t think even Ned knew how good Saito would become.

Then Andruw Jones. Nuf said.

Frankly, the Dodgers would be a better team with half the payroll. Money in Ned’s hands is like an expense account in the hands of an SEIU union boss. The list of things to do in the off-season is so long already, I don’t even know where to start. But if I were McCourt, I’d think long and hard about whether I’d want Flanders making those decisions. His track record so far sucks.