Blyleven and Alomar: the HOF Class of 2011
The votes are in... there will be two players enshrined in Cooperstown in 2011. Blyleven and Alomar, who came within 5 and 8 votes, respectively, of making the cut in 2010 will both be honored in July for their historic contributions to the game of baseball.
Blyleven, who ranks 5th all-time in career strikeouts and 9th all-time in career shutouts, waited 14 years for his call. The numbers show how consistent Blyleven was over the course of 22 major league seasons - despite never winning a Cy Young award and only making two all-star rosters, his cumulative 3.31 ERA and 1.198 WHIP tell you how dominant Bert really was. He played for some bad teams over those 22 seasons but the few times he did make the postseason, he proved to be very effective on the big stage- a 5-1 postseason record to go along with a 2.47 ERA in 8 career postseason games (6 starts). If Bert had played on a better team, there's no doubt that he would have retired with a better reputation. Blyleven was a horse and one hell of a pitcher.
Alomar finished top 10 in MVP voting five times. He was named an all-star team more than any other second baseman in history (12). He was named to the all-time Gold Glove team in 2007 at second base during the 50th anniversary of the Gold Glove award, an award which he won 10 times. Aside from the defensive prowess, the switch hitting Alomar also swung a decent bat; winning 4 Silver Slugger awards, maintaining a career .300 batting average and amassing 474 stolen bases. If not for an infamous spitting incident, he would have surely been a first ballot Hall of Famer as he was one of the best to ever play his position.
Congratulations to Blyleven and Alomar!
Blyleven, who ranks 5th all-time in career strikeouts and 9th all-time in career shutouts, waited 14 years for his call. The numbers show how consistent Blyleven was over the course of 22 major league seasons - despite never winning a Cy Young award and only making two all-star rosters, his cumulative 3.31 ERA and 1.198 WHIP tell you how dominant Bert really was. He played for some bad teams over those 22 seasons but the few times he did make the postseason, he proved to be very effective on the big stage- a 5-1 postseason record to go along with a 2.47 ERA in 8 career postseason games (6 starts). If Bert had played on a better team, there's no doubt that he would have retired with a better reputation. Blyleven was a horse and one hell of a pitcher.
Alomar finished top 10 in MVP voting five times. He was named an all-star team more than any other second baseman in history (12). He was named to the all-time Gold Glove team in 2007 at second base during the 50th anniversary of the Gold Glove award, an award which he won 10 times. Aside from the defensive prowess, the switch hitting Alomar also swung a decent bat; winning 4 Silver Slugger awards, maintaining a career .300 batting average and amassing 474 stolen bases. If not for an infamous spitting incident, he would have surely been a first ballot Hall of Famer as he was one of the best to ever play his position.
Congratulations to Blyleven and Alomar!
Other notes... Morris gains no ground, Parker fails in his final attempt, Larkin gets 61% (could be in next year), Bagwell gets 41% (decent first year showing but far from the 75% threshold) and steroid guys do very bad.
ReplyDeleteThe steroid guys were shown they won't get in. I was off on my predictions. Thought Bagwell would have a better showing and thought Morris would improve. No problem with the guys who did get in, they deserved it.
ReplyDeleteHarold Baines only got 4.6% of the votes and is off the ballot. I know he's not a hall of famer, but he should have faired better. He's a guy who should have least been on the ballot for a long time.
ReplyDeleteHalf these writers should lose their vote. Moral high ground, BS.
ReplyDeleteThat's one thing I don't quite get- it seems like guys that are borderline HOF'ers like Baines (guys that are on the wrong side of that line) deserve something more than 4%. They often lose consideration in later years...
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