Thnaks for the insight. You’re right – I would not wish those numbers on any pitcher.

Just more proof as to how deserving Bert Blyleven is of the Hall of Fame. We can only hope that some more writers are getting the message and will vote for him.

The totals are:
82 games
658 innings
583 hits
185 runs
160 earned runs
184 base on balls
540 strikeouts
2.19 ERA
His record: 0 wins and 53 LOSSES. I repeat 0 wins and 53 losses with a 2.19 ERA

1970 0-3 2.09 9 games
1971 0-6 1.90 9 games
1972 0-9 2.35 13 games
1973 0-8 2.55 9 games
1974 0-8 1.80 10 games
1975 0-6 2.00 10 games
1976 0-8 2.29 15 games
1977 0-5 2.45 7 games

I understand that pitchers put up great games and get snakebit on occasion, but this accounted for almost 1 of every 3 starts, 82 of 279 to be exact or 29%. Show me a Hall of Famer that had to go through this year by year. Fortunately once Blyleven ended up in Pittsburgh and later some good Minnesota teams, this trend eased to what I would consider normal levels (I had researched this in the past but don’t have the numbers on hand)

Imagine 1974, your 17-9 in 27 games, and in the other 10, all of which are essentially quality starts, you post a 1.80ERA and go 0-8. You end up 17-17. If you don’t know the facts, and your voting for the Cy Young award, and you see 17-17. Do you cast a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place vote? Probably not. This is what Blyleven faced in yesteryear, and the same writers, who I contend do not know the facts, are what Blyleven faces every year in the HOF vote.

Go ahead, plug in a different year, or harken back to Baseball-reference and neutralize the stats, do it for every one of Blyleven’s contemporaries. The numbers don’t change much, but for Bert Blyleven, they do. The example given above is my attempt to show why. Teams that didn’t score runs and booted the ball around like it was a soccer match.

The answer seems to be Yes to both of your questions. That is, the only reason that I know of why Dick Allen is not in the Hall of Fame is because many sportswriters (and many fans) consider him to be “unworthy” for reasons that have nothing to do with his on-field performance. And, yes, Ty Cobb would almost certainly have failed on the same grounds.

With a NEWS score of 314, Dick Allen is the #36 best position player of the 20th century. That score ties him with Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Jr and Robin Yount. Not bad, eh? He should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago!

Dwight Evans 347 234 262
Jim Rice 282 233 245

The first number is the career win shares. Evans had considerably more than Rice. The second number is their core value (the win shares earned in their ten best seasons). Note how close these are – indicating that each player’s value to his team during their ten best seasons was quite similar. The third number is the NEWS score – suggesting that Evans had a better career than Rice. Dwight Evans is the #121 best position player of the cemtury.

For comparison, look at Darrell Evans’ numbers. Note how much better his core value is (253) than Dwight (234) or Rice (233).

Darrell Evans 363 253 281

Darrell is one of the 84 position players with a NEWS score of 280 or better – obvious HOF numbers.

I’ve always felt that Dwight Evans has been greatly disrespected by the HOF voters, especially in light of the fact that Jim Rice has gotten close to election a few times, while Evans barely registers a blip on the radar. I’m not convinced that either Evans or Rice is a legitimate Hall of Famer, but I would think that Evans would get more votes than he has, considering he was one of the best defensive outfielders of his era and his OPS+ of 127 is only one point lower than Rice’s 128.

Out of curiosity what is Evans’ NEWS score and where does he rank among position players?