They should judge it on the worst players who got in, if they're better they are in if not try again in the next life.
Ha I caught you! That's FJM's find not yours. That page is funny, although I find this entire piece equally disturbing. For those of you who don't know what FJM it's Firejoemorgan.com and one of the funniest, smartest sports blogs you'll find out there. That Keith Law and Rob Neyer don't got HOF votes despite both having brains and Woody Paige does is beyond me. Then again, those guys are just stupid nerds who probably only like baseball because they can play with all their nerdy numbers on their laptops.
The fact that Blyleven isn't in is still the biggest joke in the Hall of Fame today... and since a few of these arguments are the strongest evidence against him shows that a bunch of these guys have no clue what they're talking about.
He shouldn't be in along w/ many others that are in. The Hall should be for the best of the best and Blylevemn was a good pitcher just not an all-time great. 2 AS appearances, the highest he finished in the Cy voting was 3rd(heck wang already has finished 2nd), the highest in the MVP vote was 13th, never led in ERA, never led in wins, he doesn't belong.
All Star appearances? You think AS appearances should have any weight at all on a player's HOF status? Mike Schmidt got voted to the AS team 2 months after he retired when he was hitting 200 in May. Citing wins and AS appearances in relation to a player's HOF credentials is like citing the number of arrests made for sex with dead deer while a certain president is in office, which is to say it is entirely pointless. He has 8 200+ strike out seasons, 5 seasons with a 140 or above era + ,he's 9th in career shutouts and 17th in Runs Saved Above Average. Baseball-Reference lists him as most similar by career to Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry, two slam-dunk HOFers. That's pretty damn good and should be more than enough to land the player in the Hall of Fame.
He's also had a lot of pretty average to below average years, and the Bill James HOF monitor has him at 50, which is average. I never saw him play and don't really care if he gets in or not, but he seems borderline to me just from the stats.
Your schmidt point is perfect, it is easy for a HOF caliber player to make AS games and yet he only made 2. he was a good player jst not geat. Is he in line w/ other HOF players? sure but b/c they made mistakes enshrining others doesn't mean they have to make another mistake. Blyleven is simply not one of the all time greats.
Fair enough. I'm with you in that I don't really care either way if he gets in, not voting for him because of number of AS appearances or because he never reached a certain level of wins in one season is just stupid. He isn't a slam dunk HOFer, but if he shouldn't be put in it's because of what you said and not because he never led the league in wins.
Did I say he doesn't belong b/c of AS apps or # of wins in a partcular season? That was part of the info I passed along, part of the reasons not to allow him in. The Hall has become a joke w/ Blyleven type players being allowed in and it should stop. I wish they could remove certain undeserving players but they can't so going forward they shouldn't repeat the mistakes of the past.
Although some of his stats and the fact he never won it all may point towards him staying out, Mattingly should definitely be in the hall in my opinion.
If Mattingly never gets hurt he's a lock despite ever winning a Championship but his #s are not Hall worthy.
