More on HOF - Why Not Blyleven?

[Q8offsuit]

Seems like the HOF voters neglect all-time great pitchers (esp. closers) and quickly usher in borderline position players.

Bert Blyleven, for example? Why the hell is he not in the HOF?

Retired THIRD on career strikeouts list with 3,701. Currently fifth.

Only thirteen wins short of 300.

242 Complete Games. 60 shutouts.

Pitched a no-hitter.

Won 2 World Series with a 2-1 record, 2.35 ERA.
3-0 in the LCS.

Negatives: Only won 20 games once (20-17 in 1973). Lost 250 games.
All the strikeouts came at the expense of a lot of HRs, especially near the end of his career.

3.31 Lifetime ERA is a little high, but compares favorably with Carlton (3.22), Ryan (3.19), Early Wynn (3.54), and some other HOF pitchers.

Very, very solid pitcher who is not in and does not seem to be close. I say 3,700 strikouts gets you in. Thoughts?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

GET HIM IN THERE!

[dabluebery]

I think the credibility in the strikeouts is meaningless, but that doesn't make Blylven a bad candidate. On the contrary, I think he's perhaps the most glaring example of a pitcher who should be in the Hall of Fame, but is not, for whatever reason.

Rob

[M2d]

he was never considered the best at his position during his time in the league.
I don't necessarily think that Blylevin doesn't belong wrt other inductees, but I do think that a lot of people in there don't belong.

[RogerZBT]

Blyleven comes down to 'good, not great.' His era is good, not great. He led the league in losses once, but never in wins. He's third in K's, but again, never led the league. But probably the biggest knock is he was basically a .500 pitcher, with a 287-250 record. That's an average 13-11 over his 22 years. Yes, the team he played for had something to do with that, but it's still a very hard sell for the voters.

[Paluka]

Blyleven is one of those players who I think should clearly be in compared to those already in, but I would prefer the HOF would have never put many of those players in the first place.

[jesusarenque]

Blylevin should defnitely be in. His exclusion is one of the biggest oversights, with Ron Santo being the biggest. It is a joke Santo is not in.

[dabluebery]

Black Ink: Pitching - 16 (128) (Average HOFer ~ 40)
Gray Ink: Pitching - 239 (23) (Average HOFer ~ 185)
HOF Standards: Pitching - 50.0 (36) (Average HOFer ~ 50)
HOF Monitor: Pitching - 120.5 (67) (Likely HOFer > 100)
Overall Rank in parentheses.

Act.- Denotes rank among active players, Car. - Denotes career rank
Click on the Car, Act or Year to see the career, active, or league leaderboard.


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Just based on a quick look at the numbers, it's pretty clear to me that he belongs in the hall of fame. These scores are from baseball-reference.com.

Agree, it's a separate argument that maybe many of these pitchers don't belong.... but in comparison to pitchers already there.... he's better than a lot of them. Read Rob Neyer.

[RogerZBT]

What site are you getting those numbers from?

[MrFeelNothin]

I dont think it makes a lot of sense to compare ERAs of pitchers who pitched in completely different eras. But I digress......what Blylevens case comes down to is the fact that he was never at any point in his career one of the best pitchers in the league. Also, pretty much any impressive stat he has is due only to his incredibly long career. As pointed out he only won 20 games once, lost 10 or more 15 times, gave up 430 HRs and he never came close to winning a Cy Young.

I'm a lifelong Twins fan and I do have to say that if he was a good guy and an ambassador for the sport my answer might change. But as it is he is a complete [censored] and can never resist plugging his HOF credentials into every Twins broadcast. You're not fooling us Bert, you were good but nothing special.

For anyone that disagrees, go to mlb.com and go to stats-historical. Pull up the year by year list of leaders in various pitching categories. See how often you can spot Berts name.