It’s time for the baseball Hall of Fame debates to begin. From now until the results are announced, FanIQ will be taking a look at this year’s major candidates. Up next: Bert Blyleven.

Bert Blyleven was certainly a well-traveled ballplayer. The Dutch-born pitcher began his career in Minnesota, but over 22 seasons also spent time with Texas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minnesota again, and California. His Hall of Fame case has been hotly debated over the years, and is the personal pet project of Rich Lederer of Baseball Analysts. His stats can be found here.

Pros For Induction

Some simple numbers make the case very well. Blyleven struck out 3701 batters in his career, which remains fifth all-time. Blyleven won 287 games, 26^th all-time and 17^th since 1900. In an age where pitching shutouts are rare, Blyleven’s 60 career shutouts stand out. As it should, since it’s ninth all-time.

Blyleven pitched a long time, enough to accumulate 5000 innings. That doesn’t mean they weren’t quality innings though. From his debut in 1970 to 1978, his highest ERA in a season was 3.18 (his rookie year of 1970). He wasn’t as consistently brilliant year-to-year after that, but Blyleven would still put up some great years as he aged, including a 17-5, 2.71 ERA in 1989 with the Angels at the age of 38.

Despite pitching until he was 41 and having some inevitably poor “hanging around” years, Blyleven still finished with a career ERA of 3.18. That’s a lower ERA than Hall of Famers Lefty Gomez, Ferguson Jenkins, Phil Niekro, and Robin Roberts, as well as fellow candidates Tommy John and Jack Morris. Blyleven also kept batters off the base paths with a career WHIP of 1.198. That’s lower than the career figures of Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, and Lefty Grove.

For a guy with an “unclutch” reputation, Blyleven had a fine postseason record: 5-1, 2.47 ERA. He also threw a no-hitter in his career, and five one-hitters. Possibly as a result of playing for bad team, Blyleven won 15 games in his career by a score of 1-0. Only Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson have ever won more.

Cons Against Induction

250 career losses is a lot. That’s tenth all-time. This can be explained by the number of bad teams Blyleven played for. He only pitched for nine winning teams in his career, and most of those finished barely above .500. Despite that, and even though eight of the nine ahead of Blyleven are in the Hall of Fame themselves, that’s the one number that has really hurt Blyleven with the voters.

Blyleven was seen as a malcontent during his career. Now, I was either not alive or not cognizant of baseball during Blyleven’s career, but this charge seems to have merit given how many times he changed teams.

Despite being among the league leaders frequently, Blyleven was rarely at the very top. He also has very few All-Star Games (two appearances) and Cy Young votes. Quite frankly, I have no clue why this is. Looking at the some of these years, I’m not sure how they didn’t receive any All-Star or Cy Young consideration.

The Verdict

For whatever reason, Bert Blyleven was one of the most underrated players of his generation. It seems as if he had won 13 more games, he’d be in the Hall of Fame by now. However, given his other numbers, particularly his strikeouts, he has the bona fides for the Hall of Fame. As this article points out, Blyleven compares favorably to others who waltzed into the Hall. Blyleven was more a steady career guy than a big prime guy (although his first nine years are a pretty good prime), but players of both cuts are in the Hall, and so should Bert Blyleven.

Will He Get In?

Since Blyleven debuted on the ballot in 1998, his vote totals had gone up every year except 1999. That changed last year, when he dropped from 53.3% to 47.7%. Without last year’s two slam dunks on the ballot, look for Blyleven to least get back up over 50%. After that will be a race against time with just four more opportunities for Blyleven on the writer’s ballot.

One thing’s for sure though, Rich Lederer and others won’t be giving up.

Now it’s your turn. Discuss Blyleven's candidacy in the comments, and be sure to vote in both his individual poll and Seth’s poll encompassing the entire ballot.