MLB HoF includes

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

It is about damn time that Blyleven got in. This is a good day for the Hall of Fame.

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was destroying Blyleven to the HoF a couple hours ago on his radio show. After he read all the stats for Bly's career two things jumped out to me. 1. I was surprised I was still listening and 2. If you have 3 great years in your career you are a special player, not many guys can do that in any sport.

I don't think I could pick Blyleven out of a lineup of two people.

[wuapinmon]

Great, two of the biggest assholes to ever play the game get in. I guess Pete Rose will be in next year.

[DrumNFeather]

It seems like some of the same arguments used against Blyleven are the ones used against Dale Murphy. Good, not great.

[Top Ute]

It seems like some of the same arguments used against Blyleven are the ones used against Dale Murphy. Good, not great.

Murphy doesn't have anywhere close to the resume Blyleven has.

[Indy Coug]

It seems like some of the same arguments used against Blyleven are the ones used against Dale Murphy. Good, not great.

Blyleven was very good for a lot longer and a lot more consistently than Murphy. Murphy had a lot of really bad years -- and I mean really bad by MLB standards, not just HOF standards.

[Indy Coug]

TANGENT: Is the 50 HRs allowed by Blyleven in 1986 a MLB record?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...lylebe01.shtml

[Top Ute]

TANGENT: Is the 50 HRs allowed by Blyleven in 1986 a MLB record?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...lylebe01.shtml

Yes. Broke the record of another HOF'er, Robin Roberts. But you'll find strong evidence of a juiced ball in the 1986-87 seasons, too.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Yes. Broke the record of another HOF'er, Robin Roberts. But you'll find strong evidence of a juiced ball in the 1986-87 seasons, too.

If the balls were taking steroids it had to be the cream, I don't see a ball taking a needle very well.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Joe Posnanski's write up on why he is voting for Murphy to me actually highlights why Murphy shouldn't be in the hall. As Posnanski puts it, quite accurately, he had 6 great season, 2 decent years (maybe), and the remainder of his career was awful.

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/12/31/hall-of-fame-the-borderline-five/

Dale Murphy: People who have followed my Hall of Fame votes (this would include my mother and perhaps my father) know that Dale Murphy is my Hall of Fame weakness. I have voted for him every year. And I have done this knowing full well that he has a tragically flawed Hall of Fame case.

The problem with Murphy is that his career is almost all peak value. He had six great years. He had one or two decent years in addition, but just one or two. And everything else was pretty awful. His heights, I think, were markedly higher than those of Jim Rice and Andre Dawson, the last two outfielders voted into the Hall of Fame. But Dawson had nine good-but-not-great seasons; Rice had four or five. Murphy had those one or two. And that is why they are in the Hall and Murphy probably won’t get there.

I get that. But I keep voting for Murphy anyway. I don’t know that six exceptional years is enough to make someone a Hall of Famer if they can’t back it up with some value in other years. Jimmy Wynn had seven terrific seasons, and, impossibly, did not get a single Hall of Fame vote (even Tommy Helms got a vote that year). But maybe that’s because people didn’t appreciate Wynn’s great seasons (so much of his value was tied up in his ability to draw walks).

People did appreciate Murphy. He won two MVP awards, he won five straight Gold Gloves, and he was the singular star for the SuperStation Braves teams of the 1980s, who fitfully wore the self-proclaimed mantle as “America’s Team.” He, as much as anyone I suspect, spread the gospel of baseball in the South with the way he played and the way he carried himself.

Murph, you probably know, began his career as a catcher. The line at the time was that one day the Braves decided that he was too tall to catch. The Braves made him a first baseman, where he wasn’t very good, and they came to realize that his great athletic ability might play in center field. At 6-foot-4, there was a gnawing feeling he was too tall for center field, too, but at that point they had to do SOMETHING with the guy. He was 24 years old, had a gigantic hole in his swing and his position was still up in the air.

But in 1980, he had his first great year, hitting .281/349/.510 with 33 homers, and he made a stunning defensive transition to center field. He was fluid, and he rarely made mistakes, and he showed off a strong arm. After an uneven strike year, he jumped into the conversation of best player in baseball. He won his first MVP in 1982 (.281/.378/.507) and his second in 1983 (.302/.393/.540 — led league in slugging and had a 30-30 season). He was helped out by his ballpark — the affectionately named Launching Pad — and a great defensive reputation that people still argue about (he won Gold Gloves both years, but some say that Murphy did not have enough range to play center). Still, he was legitimately great in both those years, and pretty close to great the next two years. And he probably had his best season in 1987, when he hit .295/.417/.580 with 44 home runs and made a smooth transition to right field.

And then … he fell off a cliff. He didn’t just fall a cliff, he did a Wile E. Coyote fall off a cliff and then had a big chunk of rock fall on top of him. After his a decent 1988, he hit .236/.304/.403/.388 the rest of his career and was just barely above replacement level.

Is that enough to make a Hall of Fame career? Most would say no. I wrote on Thursday that I loathe the Hall of Fame character clause, and I do. But if it is going to be there — and I have no illusions that it will ever go away — shouldn’t it be there to REWARD class and dignity as much as to PUNISH players who don’t quite live up to standards? Bill James suggests — and I concur — that the clause may have been a direct effort to reward a player like Eddie Grant, a light-hitting infielder from the early part of the 20th century who hit .249/.300/.295 over 10 seasons for four teams from 1905 through 1915. But he went to Harvard, was widely respected in baseball, and he gave the last full measure of devotion when he died in battle in France during World War I. Our guess is that Kenesaw Mountain Landis may have written the Hall of Fame character clause to encourage people to vote for Eddie Grant. Few actually bought the argument — Grant never received more than three votes. But it seems likely that the clause was not put in to exclude as much as to INCLUDE.

Murphy tried to be a role model … he took that seriously. He was a class act, and he promoted the best of the game with the way he played and the way he carried himself. Like Musial, I would say that you probably can’t find anyone who dealt with Dale Murphy — teammates, fans, media, anyone — who did not love and admire the guy. I’m not saying that this alone should get him into the Hall of fame. But I do think it can be part of his case.

I’m under no illusions that Murphy will ever get any Hall of Fame momentum. He is drawing fewer votes now than he did in his first couple of years, and I suspect that with the loaded ballot this year he will take a big drop. I was torn about who to give my 10th vote to … but in the end I decided to stick with Murphy for another year. At his peak, he was a Hall of Famer, and a six-year peak is pretty strong historically. I voted yes.

But I’ll admit, I wish he’d had a few even reasonably productive years after age 32. If he did, I think he’d be a solid Hall of Famer. Through age 31, his numbers compared very well with those of Reggie Jackson and Dave Winfield. Those guys had a second act. Murphy decidedly did not. It seems silly that what is keeping Murphy out of the Hall of Fame is not additional greatness but rather a few years of solid mediocrity. But baseball is a tricky game.

[Parrot Head]

Yes. Broke the record of another HOF'er, Robin Roberts. But you'll find strong evidence of a juiced ball in the 1986-87 seasons, too.

He also had the 2nd highest number the following season (46). In '86, his teammate Frank Viola also gave up a huge number (~42). It must have been fun going to the Metrodome!

Joe P. also had another piece on creating the "Willie Mays Hall of Fame" that's long but pretty funny.

Craig Calcaterra gave this overview:

...he’s simply taking the reasoning of current Hall of Fame voters to its logical conclusion.

There are people who only want a small Hall of elite players. OK. There are some who vote now who want to keep out the cheaters. OK. Some won’t vote for guys on the first ballot. OK. Some won’t vote for guys who didn’t “feel” like Hall of Famers at the time. Others won’t vote for guys who are roughly comparable to players who aren’t already in. There are a dozen reasons for these kinds of votes. We’ve seen them all in the past few weeks alone.

Joe runs down the entire Hall of Fame roster and eliminates guys one by one who, if up for election today, wouldn’t be voted for by some people if they remained consistent with their currently-stated standards.

Joe is way too nice to say “F-You” to the Hall of Fame electorate in so many words. But in this brilliant passive-aggressive post he does so in 4000 words.

[New Mexican Disaster]

It is about damn time that Blyleven got in. This is a good day for the Hall of Fame.

No shit on Blyleven, its a crock of crap that it took this long.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Somehow Bert Blyleven doesn't make it again. The BBWAA are idiots.

This is truly turning into the summer of mpfunk!

[Green Monstah]

Curt Schilling:

Hall of Famer or not.

Discuss.

[wuapinmon]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,7013189.story

Ron Santo & Minnie Miñoso are eligible for Veterans Committee voting this year.