Happy for Bert Blyleven!

One of the most deserving players that should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame received that honor today!

Bert Blyleven, in his 14th year of eligibility, made the Hall of Fame today, along with Roberto Alomar.

I have always thought it was a travesty that Blyleven wasn't in the Hall. He played in the Major Leagues from 1970-1992. He was known to have a devastating curve ball. He currently ranks 5th all-time in strikeouts (3,701, one of only 16 pitchers who have more than 3,000 in their career) and has 287 wins. He played for 6 teams and won the World Series with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and the 1987 Minnesota Twins.

The rise of sabermetrics as the measure of a player's real value was probably the reason that Blyleven finally made the Hall. One of my favorite websites is http://www.baseball-reference.com/. This site has everything you would want to know statistically about every ballplayer that has played the game. WAR is a statistic that measures a player's value in terms of runs saved or created for his team and then into the number of wins the player adds to his teams total. It then compares that win total to a replacement players total. Bert Blyleven ranks 13th amongst all pitchers all-time in that statistic! In fact, Blyleven ranks above Hall of Fame pitchers Christy Mathewson, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Fergie Jenkins!

Blyleven's inclusion in the Hall is well deserved. I am very glad to hear he has made it. My attention now to shifts to Barry Larkin, who finished third in this year's voting. 2012 will be his year!