Ricky spurred me to post because he knows Bert Blyleven in the Hall of Fame is my quest ... I think Blyleven is an absolute lock, not a grey area guy. 5th all-time in strikeouts and 242 complete games are absolutely historically significant! Let me say it a different way 35.3% of his games were complete games, and when he retired he was third ALL-TIME in strikouts (and way ahead of a lot of other "locks"). Only Cy Young and Walter Johnson were ahead of him!
You don't like numbers? Well he had what was and is still considered the best right handed curveball in modern baseball history. Rookie of the year and comeback player of the year awards ... longevity is good! Two World Series wins, and for you glove guys, better fielding percentage than Maddux (which I throw in only because its a glove forum).
There are legitimate answers to ALL the little statistical knocks against him, and it's eye-opening to many who take the time to compare his stats against the locks from his era (which is my sweet-spot era). To compare against pitchers of his era:
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/20 ... of_fam.phpI hear you that 287 wins is not automatic, but he had an additional 178 Quality Starts (6 inning pitched, 3
or less earned runs) for which he only had partial control of the outcome of the game (his team needs to score runs). If he played significant time with teams who could score runs he'd be way over 300 wins, and if he had pitched for the Yankees he'd have been President by now. For you guys who didn't follow the American league in that era, take it from me, your team never wanted to face him ... even later in his career.
I also like
http://www.bertbelongs.comAs for the other guys I'd vote for Andre Dawson and probably Roberto Alomar, too!