LAST EDITED ON 10-18-12 AT 12:10 PM (EST)I think he's a Hall of Famer. As Byo said, he is the all-time leader in HR amongst second basemen and he was one of the best run producers in all of baseball for a number of years, regardless of position.
Second base is not usually known as a power position. Compare Kent to Ryne Sandberg who is in the Hall of Fame -- Kent has more HRs (377 to 282), more RBIs (1518 to 1061), a better batting average (.290 to .285) and both have one MVP title each. Kent's Hall of Fame Career Standards score is higher than Sandberg's. The only real advantage Sandberg had over Kent was his defense and his likeability with the media.
About Survivor affecting Kent's candidacy next year ... at first glance, I said no way, but now that I think about it, it might really help him if enough writers watch Survivor out of curiosity to see how he does. As well-documented elsewhere, Kent was known to be a churlish prick as a ballplayer, so any kind of "softening" of his personality and image in the year before he goes on the ballot can only help him as Kent has shown to be a pretty decent guy to get along with in camp and a great team guy in the challenges. It should be noted, though, that writers voted him as MVP so they didn't let his personality get in the way of giving him that title.
I think Kent will get in, but not until after maybe 10 years or so on the ballot as there's a number of shoo-ins over the next three or four years who will hog all the attention at first.