Blyleven & Alomar get in the HOF

[nolemmings]

I'm biased in favor of Bert, who not only didn't pitch in the AL East but who also was not widely liked by the media--he was far from the affable fellow on TV these days. Still, 60 shutouts just doesn't lie, especially with that many strikeouts. That's a guy taking the mound and you not being able to do a damn thing to beat him, oftentimes not even to put the ball in play. That is dominant, IMO.

Blyleven had one fewer shutout than Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver, and more than Gibson and Carlton--only 4 deadball pitchers and Warren Spahn (63) had more. He finished in the top 5 in WHIP seven times, ERA seven times and Ks/Ws thirteen times. Compare Carlton 5-5-7, Seaver 9-7-7, Palmer 6-10-1 and Jenkins 4-0-9.

Count me among those who places little on All-Star appearances, especially for pitchers and during an era when at least one team had to have a representative. On Bert's teams, this meant Carew and Stargell/Parker for the first 11 seasons of his career, and Puckett for several more later. Of the four seasons he played in Cleveland, Bert made the game once and should have made it a second time, 1984, when his season numbers were better than four of the five starters--only Boddicker had him in wins 20 to 19 (although Boddicker had 2 more losses) and ERA 2.79 to 2.87--and where one, White Sox lone representative Richard Dotson, finished under .500 with an ERA of 3.59. At the end of his career in Anaheim, he had another All Star year, going 17-5 with a 2.73 ERA and league-leading 5 shutouts at age 38. These numbers were stronger than any of the All-Star starters other than World Champion A's Dave Stewart and Mike Moore. No All-Star game for Bert then either. Big deal.