Jon Heyman is clever

by Adam J. Morris on Dec 28, 2007 4:05 PM CST in News

Bert Blyleven is one Cooperstown candidate who stirs a lot of emotion, sometimes from folks who barely saw him pitch and instead spent the past 10 years with their heads buried in a stat book.

I don't own a stat book, I don't think. I feel left out. I'm also disappointed that Heyman didn't make some reference to Blyleven supporters living in their mothers' basements.

Anyway...Heyman passes on Blyleven because:

Blyleven did some great things in his career, and he pitched a lot of dominating games. Yet he never had a truly dominating season. He threw 60 shutouts -- but won 20 games only once in an era when 20-game winners weren't nearly so rare as they are today.

Blyleven lasted a long time, long enough to have been the youngest player in the majors when he broke in as a Twin and the oldest when he bowed out as an Angel. As an Angels beat reporter in the late '80s, I was a traveling writer who covered Blyleven's last great year, when I recall him as the cutup of a surprising 1989 California Angels team. He also managed to go 17-5.

I do admire Blyleven's talent, and his longevity as well. But I still think Blyleven falls into that group of great compilers who weren't quite great enough players to make Cooperstown.

Dumb argument, as I've said before.

But then, Heyman turns around and has Jack Morris #2 on his ballot:

2. Jack Morris. The ace of three World Series teams, it's an abomination he may never get in. Morris made 14 Opening Day starts, tied with Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, Walter Johnson and Cy Young, behind only Tom Seaver's 16 (the others already are or will be in Cooperstown). Also pitched the greatest game of the past 25 years, winning Game 7 of the 1991 World Series 1-0 in 10 innings against a young John Smoltz. The only two reasons I can think of for him not making it are: 1) he got hit hard his final couple years and finished with a 3.90 ERA, and 2) he was no charmer. Neither is a good enough reason to omit him. His impact was great.

I'm starting to think that being a jerk to the media is a plus for guys with marginal HOF candidacies. Someone like Morris, or Jim Rice, is deservedly left off a ton of ballots, and their backers start screaming that the player is being blackballed because they weren't cooperative with the media. That starts a backlash that gets the player more support than he would have otherwise.

Anyway...

The argument that Morris's final few years unfairly skewed his ERA is specious. If you end his career in 1991 (the year of "the greatest game of the past 25 years"), he has a 3.71 ERA, which would be good for a 109 ERA+ instead of a 105 ERA+.

Of course, that's still inferior to Blyleven's 3.30 career ERA and 118 career ERA+.

No dominant seasons? He had 7 top 5 finishes in ERA, and 7 top 5 finishes in WHIP.

Morris, by comparison, had just 2 top finishes in ERA and WHIP, and then just barely, finishing 5th both times in ERA, and 4th and 5th in WHIP.

Strikeouts? Morris led the league once, and was in the top 5 four times.

Blyleven also led the league once...but he was in the top 5 thirteen times.

What about Morris's incredible postseason performances? 13 games, 92 innings, a 7-4 record and a 3.80 ERA?

Well, Blyleven pitched in 8 postseason games, starting 6, had 47 innings, and was 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA.

Even in the postseason -- the category which Morris supporters view as their trump card -- Blyleven was better.

HOF voters voting for Morris, and not Blyleven, is embarrassing and inexcusable. There is no rational justification for it.

And Heyman opting to go take shots at Blyleven's supporters, the way he did today, suggests that he knows it.

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Comments

Heyman

what i'd like to know is how on earth does 14 opening day starts factor in to HOF consideration??

is his logic that because the other guys with that many starts on opening day are in the hof that it should be used as an argument for morris? if thats the logic its stupid logic

Can you please Look into getting a less funny signature? That's sarcasm, btw. - Sharky

by rentz on Dec 28, 2007 3:52 PM CST reply actions

Jack Morris

I will say that his Game seven performance in the 1991 World Series was pretty incredible. Ten shutout innings. Morris's WS outing ranks near the top of big clutch postseason performances.

Jack Morris had a good, long career. Game 7 of the 1991 World Series is definitely a memorable moment in baseball history. However, Morris was very much a complier. His "most wins in the 80's" appears to be more a product of durability than exceptional pitching. Being five percent above league average for your career is not Hall of Fame caliber. Morris has quantity, but not enough quality of the Hall.

"Therapy can be a good thing; it can be therapeutic." -- Alex Rodriguez on the benefits of seeing a, well, therapist

by Joseph Mama on Dec 28, 2007 6:04 PM CST up reply actions

Sheesh

Heyman writes a good article, but is wrong just wrong slighting Blyleven. I guess I need to make a template copy of my previous rant to and about CNN/SI and just send it in with different names periodically.

'At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any.' Erk Russell / Georgia Southern

by Ed Coffin on Dec 28, 2007 3:54 PM CST reply actions

Damn Statistician!

Heyman should stop burying his head in a stat book!

by Requiem on Dec 28, 2007 4:05 PM CST reply actions

LOL

+1 for Req.

Free Alexi Ogando!

by ghtd36 on Dec 28, 2007 4:15 PM CST up reply actions

Who needs stats?

Geesh, all you have to do is watch every single game, and remember every single detail about every single player, then compile every single one of those memories and categorize them, then compare the compiled memory bank of an individual player and every single action in every single game that individual every played in (keeping in mind the context during which each game was played, for example the team, opponent, league, era, etc.) and then compare that mentally to a similar detailed memory bank of a different player.

Why the need for one of those damn stat books when you can simply go through the above exercise?

Juevos Daniels: biggest stones in the business.

by tricer on Dec 28, 2007 4:27 PM CST reply actions

I like how he uses stats..

.. to club the 'stat heads'. It must be that he uses gritty 'tried and true' statistics, and not any of those new fangled mumbo-jumbo 'computer nerd' stats.

by mattrpav on Dec 28, 2007 4:36 PM CST reply actions

Dripping in sarcasm...

Why look at ERA+ when you have opening day starts as your trump card stat?

ERA+ is for nerds who didn't watch the games. Opening day starts means Morris was better than all of the other pitchers on the staffs of the teams he played for 14 times. Amazing. If Bert Blyleven was really so great, he'd have least pitched first for his own team, right?!

by ghostofErikThompson on Dec 28, 2007 5:12 PM CST up reply actions

yup

Wasn't Ryan Drese our opening day starter one season? Doesn't exactly tell one a great deal.

But that river of tears has dried for all of us.

by trza on Dec 28, 2007 5:23 PM CST up reply actions

Right

So essentially Morris has played on better teams then Blyleven by using such meaningful stats as wins and opening day starts. That's his freaking case for the hall of fame. Brilliant!

You know that Reggie Sanders guy? He's played on like 20 different playoff teams and was a starter on them. He is a first ballot hall of famer if I ever saw one.

by slimshadty12 on Dec 28, 2007 6:08 PM CST up reply actions