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Hall of Fame Poll: Bert Blyleven

Poor Bert Blyleven has been on the ballot for years now. Last year he got 74.2% of the vote, just missing the needed 75%.

You all likely know his story as well as I do. 287 wins, 250 losses. 3.31 ERA. 3701 strikeouts in 4970 innings. 242 complete games. He led the league in innings pitched twice. Threw 325 innings in 1973. Can you imagine, 325 innings? Felix Hernandez led the AL in innings pitched this year with 249.2. Bert threw 75 more innings than that. He is 13th all time in career WAR for pitchers. 27th in career wins. 14th in innings pitched. 5th in strikeouts. He has 2 World Series rings.

Counting against him? He never won a Cy Young. In fact he never finished better than 3rd in the voting, finishing 3rd twice and 4th twice in his 22 season career. He only won 20 games once. It would be hard to point to a time when people thought he was the best pitch in baseball.