When is he saying that Greinke gave up on the Royals? He hasn’t said anything negative about the Royals (other than their time line for winning doesn’t match his) and, from all I’ve seen, gives it his all every outing. That’s some shoddy writing, even for him.

Here’s a paragraph from when he was signed from the Pirates by the Indians:

“Blyleven, *who has never performed up to expectations,* had a 8-13 record last season. But he was unhappy all year, having left the team for 10 days in April [complaining about being hooked too early]. The Indians will be his fourth team in his 11-year career, and they will pick up a contract that has four years to run.”

Here’s a paragraph from “The Pitching Prime of Bert Blyleven of Indians,” April 22, 1981. Note what his TEAMMATES say.

“‘I’d have to say the biggest difference in the staff this year is Blyleven,’ Spillner said. ‘He wants to go out and win and pitch a complete game doing it. We’ve all caught his spirit. His competitiveness.’”

Now notice what the press say. Same article.

“Although Blyleven has won a great many close games, he has lost perhaps more than his share. And over the course of his career, Blyleven, unlike most of the top pitchers of today, has a worse overall percentage than the teams he has played on.”
(This particular statistic was actually not false, but it wasn’t very accurately portrayed)

It goes on with a quote from Rod Carew (noted for threatening to boycott if Blyleven isn’t elected) about how you can adjust to Blyleven’s tempo…but he was probably talking about Bert as a rookie/first-few-years pitcher.

The press just did not understand this guy.

The other thing that I dislike about Heyman is that he injects too much politics into his writing. And I don’t mean just the annual Hall of Fame discussion (where many writers inject politics). Heyman clearly has his likes and dislikes in terms of teams and players and he makes damn sure you know about it in his columns.

He’s a talented guy with a lot of sources, but he’s just not particularly enjoyable to read.

You among others say compiler as though it is a dirty word. Compiling stats merely means accomplishing a lot during one’s career. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging the accomplishments of players with an extremely high peak who don’t last forever (Koufax, Pujols if he retired tomorrow, etc.), players who are good and durable for a long time but never the very best in the game (Sutton, Brock, Matthews, etc) , and players who were close to being very best and close to hitting milestones.

What I’m saying is quantity has value in a different way than quality is valued. Koufax is a legitimate HoF pitcher. Blyleven contributed much more over the course of his career. Koufax had a few better seasons and Blyleven had a much better career. Koufax had more black ink & Blyleven had more gray ink. One was at the top for a short while the other was near the top for a much longer time frame. Koufax gave his team 2,300 innings of 131ERA+. Blyleven gave his teams 4,900 innings (more than twice as much) of 118 ERA+.

I also agree with Wonkypenguin that Heyman is sounding more like Chass and Morgan but I am hopeful that he has the capacity to evolve by at least acknowledging that Blyleven does have stats at least equal to (I think much better than) Sutton and Niekro.

I will however still agree that sometimes, you need to see players on a day to day basis to get a feel for who is truly great and who is just a stat compiler. Sutton/Niekro were stat compilers just like Biggio was and he will get lots of support though I believe Kent to be better.

This whole piece by Heyman comes off arrogant and makes him look like a pompous a$$.

If I were Byleven, on the very day I’m inducted, I’d find Heyman and kick the living sh!t out of him. Then I’d laugh. Seriously though, Byleven didn’t make it personal, Heyman did.

” I will thank the small coterie of Internet zealots who kept calling attention to the value of strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, longevity and durability ”

What kind of idiot doesn’t vote for a pitcher based on these premises anyway? Along with other facts about performance. Yes, Facts. They don’t lie.

Did Hawk Harrelson briefly take over this post?

“Yeah, Nolan Ryan was only a couple games over .500, but he didn’t always get the run support he should have. Especially those tough years with Houston.”

Really Heyman? Really?

Isn’t that EXACTLY what you want out of a pitcher?

I’ll be happy when Blyleven gets in simply because I’m sick of hearing about his candidacy and just want it to go away.