Weekend Reflections: If Jeff Kent belongs in Hall, so does Dale Murphy

What I think about some things I saw over the weekend …

It’s not just that beloved Braves legend Dale Murphy didn’t make the cut for the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s also the fact that Jeff Kent did make it when his career accomplishments are no better than Murphy’s.

Murphy wasn’t voted into the Hall by the contemporary era committee over the weekend. It probably was Murphy’s best chance yet to make it into the Hall.

The committee always was going to shun alleged steroid users Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. It also was expected to turn away Gary Sheffield, who said he unknowingly took the infamous “cream” before one of his 22 seasons in the majors.

That left Kent, Murphy, Carlos Delgado and Don Mattingly as the strongest likely candidates. Kent received two more votes than the 12 necessary for induction, Delgado received nine and Mattingly and Murphy each got six.

Statistically, Kent and Murphy had similar careers. Kent is headed to the Hall, while Murphy will have to wait for his next chance in 2028. Perhaps Kent was helped by his outspoken stance against performance enhancing drugs in the game. Kent was teammates with Bonds in San Francisco, where they openly feuded while bashing a lot of homers.

Bonds, Clemens and Sheffield each received fewer than five votes. That means they won’t make it to the Hall any earlier than 2031 because of a rule change for this season that seems tailored to hurt the chances of suspected PED users.

Kent was voted NL MVP in 2020 while playing for the Giants. He compiled an .855 OPS while hitting 377 home runs. Kent’s 55.4 bWAR ranks 22nd among second basemen, though it’s below the average of 69.5 WAR for the 20 Hall of Fame players at the position.

Murphy was voted NL MVP in back-to-back seasons with the Braves, 1982 and 1983. Murphy compiled an .815 OPS while hitting 398 homers. Murphy’s 46.5 WAR ranks 27th among center fielders, though it’s below the average of 71.3 WAR for the 19 Hall of Fame players at the position (outliers such as Willie Mays, Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle pull up that average).

Kent is a very good ballplayer. Baseball’s Hall of Fame keeps out a lot of very good players, while other halls let them in. If Kent is worthy, then so is Murphy. Now it’s possible that Kent could be the lone Hall inductee in July unless Carlos Beltran and ex-Braves star Andruw Jones get a bump in support from Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters this time around.

Murphy will be eligible for induction by the contemporary era committee in 2028. If Kent meets the Hall criteria for those voters, then Murphy should, too.

Kennesaw State overcomes Jax State, refs for CUSA title

I’m glad the Kennesaw State Owls are Conference USA football champions. It would have been an injustice otherwise.

The Owls didn’t just have beat a tough Jacksonville State team on the road Friday night. They also had to overcome two egregiously bad decisions by officials that went against them in the fourth quarter.

First, Owls quarterback Amari Odom powered his way into the end zone on fourth-and-goal with help from teammates. Odom’s forward momentum never stopped. He fell over the goal line before he was down, with the ball in his possession.

That’s not the way game officials saw it. They ruled Odom short of the goal line. I thought the call surely would be overturned on replay review. It wasn’t. Instead of a 16-10 lead for the Owls, it was a turnover on downs.

The Owls got two of those points back with a safety. KSU fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, leading to a Jax State touchdown that reduced its deficit to 12-7. The Gamecocks scored the go-ahead touchdown when the officials missed an obvious penalty.

Jax State’s running back clearly moved before the snap. There also was another player in motion. False start or illegal procedure, take your pick.

Officials didn’t throw a flag before slippery quarterback Caden Creel ran for a 19-yard touchdown. The Gamecocks converted a two-point try for a 15-12 lead with 4:04 to play.

It appeared the Owls were going to take an unjust lost when an intentional grounding penalty led to a fourth-and-14 hole. But Odom made an outstanding effort to gain 14 yards on a run. Then he found Navelle Dean for a 14-yard touchdown that proved to be the game-winning score.

The Owls are CUSA champions despite the bad work by officials. They are headed to the Myrtle Beach Bowl to play Western Michigan on Dec. 19.

The SEC has CFP edge

Alabama was No. 9 in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings. No. 3 Georgia spanked the Crimson Tide 28-7 in the SEC championship game Saturday.

The Tide were still ninth in the final rankings Sunday, and the Bulldogs were still No. 3. Alabama is in the CFP field along with Georgia.

It was as if the SEC title game never happened. That’s bad for the prestige of a game that’s supposed to mean something. It’s good for the SEC’s interests in getting as many teams as possible in the playoff.

The CFP committee signaled that so long as a team makes it to the SEC title game, then it will make the 12-team playoff field regardless of the outcome. If that’s the case, then the SEC effectively gets two automatic bids (I suppose that might change if the title game loser enters with three losses, but that will be a very rare occurrence).

Alabama’s only victory against a team in the CFP field was at Georgia in September. One of the Crimson Tide’s losses was against Florida State, which finished 5-7. The Tide were trending down even before getting blown out by the Bulldogs.

None of those things mattered. In the end, Bama is in. When the CFP committee added a “record strength” metric for this year it seemed designed to help SEC teams most of all. It appears that’s how it turned out.

BYU didn’t get the same benefit as Alabama. The 12th ranked Cougars lost 34-7 to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game. It was BYU’s second loss of the season, both against Texas Tech. The Cougars were left out of the playoff field.

It’s good to be in the SEC.

ACC has CFP problem

It was the nightmare scenario for the ACC: Duke wins the title game over Virginia, then both teams are left out of the CFP, while two Group of Five champs got in.

That’s what happened. But the selection committee saved the ACC by including two-loss Miami in the field for reasons that are too convoluted and contradictory to explain.

ACC needs to change the criteria for its championship game. It’s a 17-team league that plays an eight-game schedule. The chances are high there will be ties for first or second place (or both) involving teams that didn’t face each other and/or didn’t play common opponents.

This year, five teams ended up tied for second at 6-2. Duke went to the championship game instead of two 6-2 teams that were included in the CFP rankings, Georgia Tech and Miami. The unranked Blue Devils beat No. 17 Virginia but weren’t among the five highest-ranked league champs to receive bids.

Preventing that outcome from happening again seems simple enough for the ACC.

Instead of using tiebreakers that become complicated with the lack of common opponents, the ACC should just put its two highest-ranked teams in its championship game. The CFP gives bids to the five highest-ranked league champions, so the ACC should do everything it can to produce one.

That system likely would encounter resistance from some ACC members. They’ll argue it sets up the possibility that a team can miss out on the title game even though it finishes with an identical (or better) league record as a team that makes it, and perhaps with a head-to-head victory.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips should tell the naysayers if they prefer being left out of the CFP altogether and missing out on the money.

My Weekend Predictions were 4-7

I had a decent day picking college games against the spread. I was right to back Georgia and Kennesaw State as favorites. I was feeling pretty good about NFL on Sunday after underdog pick Indiana won straight up against Ohio State.