Today Jeff Kent will announce his retirement, and the Hall of Fame questions have already started. The most common label: ?The greatest offensive 2nd baseman in baseball history?. This phrase is a nice way to acknowledge his questionable fielding (his range is particularly poor) but also his unprecedented power hitting for a second baseman. The early media consensus and fan voting polls indicate that Jeff Kent is Hall-of-Fame worthy. David Shoenfeld writes: ?He?s had one of the more remarkable careers of this ? or any ? generation. Through age 28, he had 78 home runs, 583 hits, 318 RBIs, and a career average of .278. The odds of a player with that profile becoming a Hall of Famer would have been somewhere well short of 1 percent. Since then, he?s driven in 100 runs in one season eight times, becoming one of the great RBI second basemen of all time. He?s won an MVP award, increased his career average to .290, and earned more than $80 million. It?s a tribute to his work ethic, ability to adjust to age, and under-rated athleticism. (Joining Barry Bonds helped a bit, too.)? Did joining Bonds help ?a bit? or a whole lot? After being traded to the Giants, Kent would soon learn what Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke, Will Clark, and Matt Williams did before him ? there is nothing like batting alongside Barry Bonds. His absurd slugging and on-base percentages (OBP) make Bonds that very special player that significantly enhances two players ? the men batting both before and after him. Kent usually batted behind Barry who was gracious enough to post a .450 OBP during Kent?s Giant tenure. In turn, Jeff enjoyed the majority of his plate appearances with men on base, plenty of fastballs, and one of the greatest RBI opportunities of all-time. Kent?s 1518 RBIs over 17 seasons should make him an easy Hall pick ? until you realize that 45% of those ribbies came during only six seasons. Below are Kent?s average season totals with and without Bonds: (A) Bonds Effect: AB/H/BA/HR/RBI 6 Seasons with Bonds: 572/170/.297/29/115 11 Seasons without Bonds: 460/131/.285/19/76 With Bonds? A first-ballot Hall of Famer. Without? His power numbers take a huge hit. To make a fairer and more generous comparison of production, we will inflate Kent?s numbers to reflect the same 572 at-bats per season he averaged with the Giants. (B) Average Year without Bonds ?Inflated?: Kent?s 11 Seasons Adjusted fo ABs AB/H/BA/HR/RBI 572/163/.285/23/94 Definitely better. But Hall of Fame worthy?? How much was Barry or Kent?s new maturity and batting stance once he arrived to SF. This may help. (C) Kent - Average Season: AB/H/BA/HR/RBI Pre - Bonds 5 (Tor.; Mets; Cle): 425/117.274/16/65 Post-Bonds 6 (Astros; Dodgers): 490/143/.292/21/85 Kent?s post-Bonds career indicates an improved player from his pre-Bonds' time, yet still a way off from his Giants' years. With a move from San Francisco?s spacious ballpark to Houston?s short fences, Kent?s power numbers should have risen dramatically ? but they didn?t. Batting behind Jeff Bagwell + smaller ballpark still does not = Barry Bonds. And while Kent has been Barry?s greatest teammate, Bonds was able to win multiple MVP?s both before and after Kent?s stay. The Bonds Effect: Even when adjusting for at-bats (see ?B?), batting behind Barry was still worth an extra 21 RBIs per season for Kent. Unfortunately, this fact was lost on voters in 2000 when they awarded Kent the MVP over Bonds despite Barry?s far superior 49 homers, .688 slugging percentage, and 1.128 OPS. Many voters pointed to Kent?s 125 to 106 RBI differential, the very advantage that Barry produced [1]. Relative to his talent, the RBI category has always been low for Bonds precisely because pitchers would rather face the next guy. In 2000, pitchers voted 21 times to intentionally walk Bonds with runners in scoring position but only six times for Kent. None of these pitchers were eligible to cast MVP votes. As it turns out, four times Kent was a top-10 MVP candidate ? all with Bonds. He has the record for most consecutive seasons (6) with 100 RBI by a 2nd baseman ? his six seasons with Bonds (only twice in rest of career). Kent?s top three seasons in ?power stats? like doubles, HRs, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage, and OPS? They all came with Bonds. Considering Kent?s sub-par fielding, the single greatest reason that we are discussing Jeff Kent as a HOF candidate is because of Barry Bonds. The Bonds Effect raises two important Hall-of-Fame questions: one statistical and one ethical. 1) Will voters hold ?The Bonds Effect? against Kent the way they might hold ?The Coors Field Effect? against Todd Helton? 2) Will voters who already oppose Barry Bonds entrance into the Hall of Fame on the grounds of suspected steroid use also withhold Jeff Kent from indirectly benefiting from that alleged use? The first question is straight-forward, but the second must be weighed morally by a voting contingent that prides itself on its self-perceived morality. While Mark McGwire?s poor hall-of-fame showing should have no bearing on Barry Bonds, there is anecdotal evidence that Bonds will not get into the Hall of Fame any time soon [2]. So even if Jeff Kent never did steroids himself (a separate question of ?the steroid era?), shouldn?t he be punished for driving the get-away car with bags full of unmarked stats? Or like the MVP voting of 2000, will Bonds be punished while his greatest beneficiary get rewarded? For a teammate of any other athlete the second question would not even be asked, but pitchers based their entire game strategy by not pitching to Barry Bonds which had a unique impact on the game and Jeff Kent. Whatever question is answered, it seems that a hall-of-fame vote for Jeff Kent is a hall-of-fame vote for Barry Bonds. And to admit the former without the latter would be another act of hall-of-fame hypocrisy. Notes [1] In 2000, the majority of Kent?s plate appearances came with men-on-base including 77 more times than Barry ? who was often walked in favor of Kent. [2] Many voters who believe McGwire took steroids do not believe that Big Mac could have achieved HOF success without them. In contrast, all agree that Bonds is a HOF caliber player whether steroid allegations are true or not. Even still, insider journalists (see Buster Olney) who have spoken to many HOF voters indicate that Bonds will not get into the Hall. Charles Modiano or ?MODI? is a contributor to RealGM and regularly writes at Sports on My Mind, and can be reached at modi@cosellout.com