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Analyzing the Best Contemporary Era Hall of Fame Candidates: Jeff Kent
Tom Verducci
Tom Verducci

00:01:30 |

Analyzing the Best Contemporary Era Hall of Fame Candidates: Jeff Kent

Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci breaks down the best candidates from the pool of Contemporary Era players up for Hall of Fame selection on Sunday. Today, he analyzes Jeff Kent's resume and explains why the former Mets, Giants and Dodgers second baseman deserves a spot in history.

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Transcript

Hi there.

It's SI senior writer Tom Verducci, and this week, we've been discussing the three best candidates on the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame era committee ballot.

We've already discussed Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy.

And today, we're talking about the greatest home run hitter at second base all time.

It's Jeff Kent.

Jeff Kent was a career 290 hitter who was even better with runners in scoring position, hitting 300.

And in the postseason, he put up an 880 OPS.

That's the highest ever by any second baseman with at least 150 plate appearances.

But it really is this simple.

Jeff Kent has more home runs, more 100 RBI seasons, and more games batting cleanup than any second baseman in history.

He was a true outlier.

Take out steroid users and take out pitchers.

Every other all-time leader in home runs at any position on the field has been elected to the hall by the writers, or will be .

The cast includes catcher, Mike Piazza, shortstop, Cal Ripken.

Third baseman, Mike Schmidt.

Center fielder, Willie Mays, right fielder, Hank Aaron, and soon to join them, 1st baseman, Albert Pujols.

Jeff Kent is on that very short list.