Bert Blyleven, Waiting in the Wings: New Perspectives

During the course of baseball history, from the very beginning in 1876 until now, only 29 major league pitchers have forged their way to what I call an epic career—one that has included 4500 or more innings of pitching. (This includes Eppa Rixey and Eddie Plank, whose careers only lacked five or so innings from making the milestone.)

These are the pitchers who have won the most games in history.  These are also the pitchers who have lost the most games in history. 

In general, these are not the pitchers with the highest winning percentages, but probably the pitchers with the most guts and determination.

On this list with 4970 innings pitched, 14th all-time, is Bert Blyleven.  He was second in votes (62 percent) among players receiving less than the required 75 percent this past January.  He is essentially waiting in the wings for his turn for induction.

A Hall of Fame career is one of dominance, endurance and quality.  If a player has enough of those ingredients in some combination, they earn their way into the HOF.

For a pitcher, domination is really a term we have coined in modern times.  It's what we witnessed in the raised mound era—the epitome of the term being expressed by the work of Sandy Koufax.

During the era, ERAs plummeted, strikeout totals reached new heights, and the K/BB ratio witnessed marks higher than any posted in history.  Pitching dominated and the writers loved it! 

The new levels of domination became the standard of what was considered great pitching even after the mound was lowered and the strike zone made smaller.  The judges of greatness had become distracted by the recent events and spoiled.

Historically, dominance was displayed by the great pitching peaks of all-time; Walter Johnson's 1913 - '15; Christy Mathewson's 1905 - '08; Grover Alexander's 1915 season; Lefty Grove's peak - 1928 - '31; Sandy Koufax' 1963 - '66.

What statistics made these pitchers dominant? Win totals, low ERAs and high ERA+ marks, strikeout totals, and shutouts.

Part of the equation for pitching greatness also comes with the endurance these pitchers displayed.  They had high innings pitched totals and a high number of complete games.  A third stat that shows evidence of endurance to a somewhat lesser degree is the win.

The quality stats show how a pitcher got to these totals.  The modern statistician looks at H/9, K/BB ratio, WHIP, and other ratios to gauge the quality of work a pitcher produces.

Maintaining good quality stats over the course of an epic career is difficult.  Arms wear down and fastballs lose their zip.  Most careers show a natural decline in stats like K/BB, and ERA+ between 3000 and 4500 innings. 

How do Bert Blylevens stats compare to the greats of the game that have set their standards to be measured against?

Well, we know some of the raw numbers: 287 wins, 3701 strikeouts, and 60 shutouts.  That is part of the picture. 

K/BB ratio is used to measure a pitcher's command and stuff.  Are they the master of the strike zone, or do the hitters have control?  It is a stat of dominance and quality.

Blyleven's career mark for K/BB ratio is 2.80 (3701 K/ 1322 BB).  This is historically a high mark, especially considering he kept at it for 4970 innings. 

Walter Johnson, the most dominant pitcher in history, has a career mark of 2.57 (3509K/ 1363 BB).

In fact, among the pitchers (13) who have a longer career than Blyleven, only Greg Maddux has a higher ratio (3.37). 

(Pitchers from our most recent era (1990 - 2009) have posted K/BB ratios off the charts historically.  Much of this is due to the pitcher being relieved of the responsibility to finish the game.  They can pitch all out until the relief specialists are brought into the game.)

There is also the use of PEDs we cannot definitively gauge.  (I leave Roger Clemens out of my accounting of epic careers even though his inning totals put him in this group.)

In fact, going all the way down to the top 65 pitchers in career length, the only pitchers with a better K/BB ratio than Bert Blyleven are Greg Maddux, Ferguson Jenkins, Christy Mathewson, and Randy Johnson. 

Between 1921, the advent of the live ball era, and 1990 Blyleven is second in K/BB ratio among this group!  This looks like he stacks up pretty well in this revealing stat among a group including almost 40 HOF pitchers!

Sometimes I hear the comment about Blyleven that he was never that dominant a pitcher.  He was never the best of his era.

These detractors say that Blyleven was just a very good pitcher for a long time.  That he just accrued his stats over a long, not so eventful career.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?