Tag: bert blyleven

Finally, Blyleven (and the last we’ll see of KB on the ballot)

Iā€™ve said it before.Ā  And even before that.Ā  Bert Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame.Ā  Now Iā€™ll shut up about it.Ā  Maybe.

No longer will he be the leader among non-eligible onlookers in strikeouts.Ā  Heā€™ll be looking from within.Ā  Or third in wins.Ā  Heā€™ll have his plaque up in the hallowed hall.

Glad to see him get his due.

One player who didnā€™t get much consideration was Kevin Brown.Ā  He got 12 votes. That amounts to just 2 percent of the vote which means he wonā€™t remain on the ballot next year.Ā  Iā€™m no KB fanboy but I would have thought his career would have garnered more than a passing ā€œCā€™yaā€.

211-144 over 19 seasons with great 3.28 ERA (considering the era he pitched).Ā  He pitched in six All-Star games.Ā  Letā€™s not forget he won five postseason games and won the Cy Young award.

Again, not a huge Kevin Brown fan but I expected to see him on the ballot for a while.

My take on the Hall of Fame balloting

 

The Hall of Fame balloting broken down Zealot-styleā€¦

New Hall of Famer Andre Dawsonā€™s most compelling statistic:

Heā€™s one of three major league players who has 400 homeruns and 300 stolen bases.  The other two?  Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

Andre Dawsonā€™s least compelling statistic (and the one you hear cited by his detractors ad nauseum):

His lifetime .323 OBP.  Enough said.

The 2010 HOF candidate most deserving to get into the Hall of Fame but didnā€™t:

My opinion?? Bert Blyleven.  Iā€™ve been on his bandwagon for a few years now.  Come on, vote him in already!  He has two more years of eligibility left.  The good news is that since 1999, when he got 14.1% of the vote, his percentage has gone up every year with the exception of 2007.  I predict that weā€™ll see Bert in the Hall next summer.

The reason Roberto Alomar didnā€™t get in his first year:

Three-fold.  1) the spitting incident didnā€™t help especially among the old guard of the BBWAA  2) the fact that some donā€™t want to vote anyone but the cream of the crop in their first of eligibility especially with reason #1 hanging around their necks and 3) Iā€™ve heard this factoid bandied aboutā€¦ that Alomar was pretty much done by the time he was 35 or 36.  Yes, I knowā€¦ he started out (full time) in the bigs when he was 20 and subsequently put in a good 17 years of service in the majors but that kind of thing sticks with writers, I guess.

Craziest Hall of Fame vote:

  Pat Hentgen 1 vote.  To be fair, Hentgen won a Cy Young and won one World Series game but with 131 wins and a 4.32 ERA that can take you only so far.

The ā€œItā€™s not crazy if there are two of usā€ award:

Eric Karros 2 votes. 

and finally,

The 2010 candidate I thought was dissed this year: 

Harold Baines.  Should he have gotten in?  I donā€™t know.  But I was surprised that he barely hung on for next yearā€™s ballot.  Yes, Iā€™m a Cub fan but Baines deserved more.  An interesting stat:  Baines had more career hits and more career rbis than any other HOF candidate.

Hall of Fame election tidbits

The baseball bloggers of the SB Nation affiliates held their own Hall of Fame balloting and the results are in.  If they were in charge, only one player would get in and that player was a bit of a surpriseā€¦ Bert Blyleven. 

Don’t get me wrongā€¦ Iā€™ve been a Blyleven supporter for years.  I just would have expected more support for Alomar or Larkin.  My guess is that there was a bit of the ā€œnot getting in the first yearā€ element factoring in.

 

Thereā€™s a shared document which has a list of 50 or so (and growing) BBWAA writers and their publicly announced Hall of Fame ballots. 

Itā€™s a small sample size of course but Iā€™m heartened to see a good portion of votes going to Andre Dawson (at this moment out of 53 listed, 41 are supporting his induction). 

 

Maybe itā€™s me but it seems like thereā€™s a bigger push for Edgar Martinez among a few for the Hall. 

 

More support for Dawson from Hal Bodley, senior correspondent for mlb.com who goes on to say that he thinks that this will be (or maybe more accurately ā€œshould beā€) the year for Dawson and Blyleven.  His ballot:   Dawson, Blyleven, Alomar and Jack Morris.

 

and it wouldnā€™t be Hall of Fame ballot time unless a writer wasnā€™t defending his ballot, right.  Only it seems now theyā€™re doing earlier and earlier before the official announcement.

HOF ’09: We’re Done!

Well, with Teddy Ballgame’s write-up on Greg Vaughn earlier today, we’ve concluded HOF ’09, our series of profiles of this year’s candidates for the Hall of Fame.  It’s been fun and I think we’ve even learned a bit along the way.

As for me, it was an interesting group of players to profile for a couple reasons.  A big one was that most of these players were big stars while I was a teenager and young adult when I was forming my serious interest in baseball.  Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson… I have fond memories.  Not to mention that some of these players played in the era when the Chicago Cubs finally became a post season threat (I can still remember the ’84 series against the Padres… ugh). 

Also, these players came from a time when baseball had more of a balance of power, speed, and pitching.  Appropriately enough, that is reflected in the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot.  With the speed of Henderson and Raines, the power of McGwire and Rice and the pitching of David Cone, Bert Blyleven and Tommy John, this class is well represented. 

Who will get elected?  Well, we put our opinions down who we think SHOULD get the call but as to who WILL get elected is another matter.  The BBWAA has been rather stingy lately and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s very possible that just one (Rickey Henderson??) will get elected and others will have to wait.

Time is running out for some, though.  The midnight hour is chiming for Jim Rice as it’s his last ballot.  There are some (myself included) who feel that his career and contribution is worthy of the Hall. 

We’ll find out tomorrow and the chips will fall where they may.  No doubt, many bloggers and pundits will be unhappy no matter how it goes.  I’ll predict at least one writer will have his credentials questioned and will be asked to step down from the BBWAA.  Unfortunately, THAT is the safest prediction I make right now. 

All that said, here are the opinions we’ve made in the last month.  Links go to our profiles on the players. 

Thanks for reading!

Hall of Fame Hall of Very Good Why is he even on the Ballot?
Harold Baines    
Jay Bell    
Bert Blyleven    
David Cone    
Andre Dawson    
Ron Gant    
Mark Grace    
Rickey Henderson    
Tommy John    
Don Mattingly    
Mark McGwire    
Jack Morris    
Dale Murphy    
Jesse Orosco    

Dave Parker

    
Dan Plesac    
Tim Raines    
Jim Rice    

Lee Smith

    
Alan Trammell    
Greg Vaughn    

Mo Vaughn

    

Matt Williams

    

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Teddy Ballgame and DonS for their help with his project.

Also, a lot of research went in to this.  I’d like to give props to the websites that were helpful. 

Baseball Reference:  I can’t say enough about this web site.  If there are baseball fans out there who haven’t seen this site and what it can do, you need to check it out.

Baseball Page:  Very helpful for bios and such.

Baseball Musings’ Day by Day Database:  Good for finding stats between established periods of time (and lots of other stuff).

Baseball Almanac:  another good bio site.  Good for the quotes too :)

HOF ’09: Bert Blyleven

“He was as good as there was for a long time. Bert is up there with the toughest four or five guys I faced in my career.”

Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett

 

The case for Bert Blyleven comes down to the argument of era dominance against longevity.  I’ve been a supporter for Blyleven for the Hall for a while and while his case isn’t open and shut, I think he’s got a shot. 

Blyleven Facts

  • Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the third round in 1969
  • Played for Minn (twice), Tex, Pit, Cle, Cal (1970-1992)
  • 287 wins, 3701 strikeouts, 3.31 ERA
  • Holds record for most HR allowed season (50 in 1986)

 

Bly came up in 1970 with the Minnesota Twins and won 10 games in his rookie season with a respectable 3.18 ERA.  Through the next five years with the Twins, he won at least fifteen games each season including a 20-17 campaign in 1973.  With ERAs never higher 3.00, he was a stalwart in the Twins rotation but became unhappy in Minnesota toward the end of his time there.  Demanding a trade, the Twins management complied in 1976, trading him to Texas Rangers in a deal that brought Roy Smalley and Mike Cubbage and some cash to Minnesota. 

He pitched well in Texas with sub-3.00 ERAs in 1976-1977 plus a no-hitter against the California Angels on September 22, 1977.  But as was true throughout much of his career, he didn’t get much support and won 9 games in 1976 and only 14 for his full season in 1977.

bly Blyleven was part of MLB’s first 4-team trade later that year that sent him to Pittsburgh.  With them, he went to the World Series in 1979 and helped them win it all by winning two games against the Orioles.  As an aside, Blyleven set a record in 1979 for the most no-decisions with 20. 

Onward to Cleveland in which the Indians sent Jay Bell (yes, that Jay Bell) to the Bucs in 1980.  After a few lean years, Bly broke out in 1984 when he won 19 games for the Tribe.  Not only that, he broke 200 strikeouts for the first time in 10 years. 

Bert won 17 in a split season with the Indians and the Twins who he rejoined after eleven years.  After three years with double digit wins but rather high ERAs, he was traded to the Angels.  In his final hurrah in 1989, he not only went 17-5 but took his ERA down to a level he hadn’t seen in an while, 2.76.  After two sub-par years with the Angels, he retired. 

Pros:  Very good career numbers… 287 wins, 60 shutouts (9th all-time), 3701 strikeouts (5th).  Longevity counts for something.

Cons:  Never won a Cy Young award or ERA title, only one 20 win season, only a two-time All-Star.  Lots of competition in his era. 

Honestly, after researching Blyleven, it does show me how much longevity plays in his value.  That’s not necessarily bad but given all the competition for the Hall from the pitchers from his era, it doesn’t help his cause. 

A couple links I’ll pass along… First, is The League of Nations that link to a few columnists who have opined on the Blyleven issue.  Then there’s Bertbelongs.com.  Well, you know where they stand.

For Blyleven, I’m giving a very tenuous vote for the Hall.

 

green checkmark

Hall of Fame
 

Hall of Very Good
  Why is he even on the Ballot?

 

 

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.  Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Profiling the Candidates

This winter, The Baseball Zealot will be doing profiles of the Hall of Fame candidates for 2009.  In addition, we’ll give our opinion on their inclusion in the Hall.   This post will serve as the entry point for the HOF ’09 series.

Here is the link to all the profiles written to date.  

The results will be announced on January 12th, 2009.  With any luck, we’ll get them all in before then.