In response to Spencer’s post yesterday about the Hall of Fame (which I thought would be filled with things such as facts, my bad) I have prepared my counter argument, why Bert Blyleven is an undisputed Hall of Famer. Some of the more stubborn people out there I’m sure won’t be convinced, but then again I think you could take Roman into outer space and he’d still believe the Earth was flat.
Let me start out with some raw data: Bert Blyleven is just one of 8 pitchers who rank in the top 20 all time in wins, strikeouts and shutouts. Bert is 17th in wins, 5th in strikeouts and 8th in shutouts. The other 7 pitchers are: Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Walter Johnson, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver and Don Sutton. For the record, there is only one pitcher on this list, or otherwise obviously, who ranks higher than Bert in all three categories, that being Nolan Ryan.
Some idiots people have brought up Blyleven’s conspicuous lack of Cy Youngs. Well, the easy response to that is that the Cy Young voters are stupid. Case in point: here are two pitchers’ stats in 2005:
Pitcher A: 21-8, 3.48 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 157 K
Pitcher B: 16-7, 2.87 ERA, .97 WHIP, 238 K
It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that pitcher B (Johan Santana) had a much much much better season. However, Pitcher A (Bartolo Colon) won the Cy Young. Apparently voters are of the impression that pitchers are able to control the amount of runs their teams score.
Back to Bert: 8 times in his career he was in the top 5 in runs saved above average. In 1977 he actually led the AL in RSAA. He also was 7th in the league in strikeouts and 2nd in the league in ERA. Guess how many Cy Young votes he got? Zero.
Based on Wins Above Replacement Player, Blyleven also gets the shaft. Among hall eligible players who are not enshrined, Blyleven is far and away the best of those. Tommy John, who some non-knowledgeable people have compared to Blyleven, has 65 Wins Above Replacement. Bert has 92. When lumped together with the list at the beginning of the post, Blyleven is second only to Tom Seaver.
Blyleven also has extremely good postseason numbers: a 2.47 ERA in the postseason and 2.35 in the World Series. He is a two time world series winner.
Bert Blyleven’s career record is 287-250. I probably shouldn’t even acknowledge this as a valid point for keeping him out, because pitcher wins is an awful stat. But, even if it is a valid case, all the points above should be enough proof for anyone. But, to provide further proof, Michael Wolverton, who once wrote for BP, found Blyleven’s record to be the 7th unluckiest in the history of Major League Baseball, alluding to the offensive parks he pitched in and horrible offensive teams he pitched for. Blyleven’s naturalized record is 312-225.
Fortunately, based on his recent voting totals, it appears Bert will get in soon. Hopefully he’ll see this article and let me introduce him. Circle me Bert!
I could go on forever explaining why Bert Blyleven deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, but not without swearing a lot and sullying our creator Hef’s great reputation. I’ll leave that to other people.
Sold. Bert for President!
next in line for Hall of Fame Induction: Paul Sorrento, Marty Cordova, Moises Alou, Frank Viola…
if you have to explain why someone deserves to be a HoF’er, they probably aren’t one.
really? I’m a retard for ignoring Bert’s naturalized record? come on fetchy.
and the point i was making was making more stringent standards for the HoF, not saying why Bert didn’t deserve to be in exclusively, just using him as an example of why the current HoF is oversaturated with players who really don’t deserve the recognition that the all-timers do. i didn’t need to produce concrete facts to back up my argument because it was purely based on opinion, which i thought was pretty evident in the way i constructed my argument.
sorry fetch, while you produce some solid arguments as to Blyleven being an elite pitcher for his era, you haven’t done anything to convince me that he deserves to be mentioned alongside guys like Bob Feller who left an indelible impact on the game that’s still felt today.
but, no hard feelings, just agree to disagree.
first off..stop kissing Hef’s ass..it’s just silly…secondly I don’t think Don Sutton is a fucking Hall of Famer so please take him out of the equation…thirdly I like Bert and don’t have any animosity towards him and his Hall of Fame hope…fourthly…you never saw him pitch…I only saw him when he was old…a bunch of guys who actually saw good old Bert pitch don’t think he is HOF…I can’t control that but there is something too it (the Sutton thing is still a Wins thing that bothers the shit out of me) Fifthly…The Earth is round…if I thought it was flat I would just look at numbers and not the big picture and in essence tell you Bert was a HOF because he was “unlucky”
Spence, I thought your article was gonna be about Bert specifically, hence the title, and I was too lazy to switch it.
As for the “memorable” thing–When I’m 70 and I think back on the 2008 college basketball season, besides Chalmers’s shot, the first thing I’ll think about is how Russell Robinson shut down everyone he guarded all year, including OJ Mayo and Jerryd Bayless. But guess what? Robinson was like the 4th best player on his team, yet if I was making a hall of fame I’d say “wow that was memorable, he deserves to be in” when he really doesnt.
fetch..way to take spencer’s argument and shit on it with a 3 week tournament…he is talking about an era of 5 to 10 years..part of my argument against Jack Morris is when you think of the 80’s tell me the pitcher who defined the Decade…I give you two..Doc Gooden and Fernando Valenzuela…they flamed out or snorted up and killed their chances for the HOF but no one can tell me Jack was better than Doc Gooden
Well Roman when you set up your own personal Hall of Fame you can base it on people you watched play and who you thought was good, but as long as there is a real hall of fame, it will have to be based on stats and facts, sorry to ruin that for ya.
all i have to say to that is that you don’t see many people saying robert horry should be in the HoF.
and i still like the title.
RWH, Sutton is in because of his perm – much like Gary Carter.
so…by that rationale
rafael palmeiro > mickey mantle? ted williams? lou gherig?
A ton of people say Robert Horry should be in the hall. They have that conversation every year during the Finals. It’s an embarassment.
Spence, people take stats into historical perspective. Mantle>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Palmeiro and you’ll never hear anyone say different. In fact, you’re kind of proving Fetch’s point for him.
Hef…i was being a douchebag of the highest order. plus, i just wanted to slander raffy a little more.
and nobody seriosuly thinks horry should be in the HoF, anyone who does should be shot on sight.
I got nothing.
Seriously… every comment here is actually about baseball? wtf?
Gaddamit Spence you keep misspelling Lou Gehrig’s name! I would never disrespect Omar Visqueer like that, you know.
sorry, clwon.
Huh. Who would have that fetch was on his knees for Bert to get into the HOF?
I have no affiliation and I think it’s a travesty that he isn’t in.
oh, you have affiliation all right, you smarmy, blog operating, nut hugger afficianado. affiliation out the ass.
fetch you arrogant ass…I don’t vote..you don’t vote…people that watch baseball for a living vote…and they elected members to the HOF..are some of the people the voted for a bit questionable..sure..but overall they have hit the mark..the veterans committee had been the abomination…they fixed it..the people who vote do use stats as a barometer but they also get to see the guy perform…Bert is not biased out either..he is a broadcaster that visits at least half the league a year, interacting with the writers…
Has anyone tried Anti-Monkey Butt powder? I think I got the Monkey Butt from the Walmart greeter I banged last night.
nomo…it’s about supression
the weird thing about the Cy voting back in the day is that only like 2 or 3 people would get any sort of significant votes even if there were other deserving candidates. There might be a couple people with 1 vote here and there, but somehow the writers were in near consensus. I don’t know what has changed though the balloting process has changed. Nowaday the max number of pts a pitcher could receive is 140 back then it was 120, so i don’t know if that’s due to more voters or choosing more pitchers