[BluesDuke]

Blyleven's problem is twofold: a) He doesn't have the gaudy counting stats to make him look more obviously like a Hall of Famer; and, b) he was hurt by his home parks. If he could have played even one season more in even a neutral park, never mind a pitcher's park, he would have nailed 300 wins. Not that I think a 300-win career should be a concrete benchmark, but Blyleven was hurt by his home parks.

By the way, did you know how deadly Blyleven was in the postseason? He's 5-1 with a 2.47 lifetime postseason ERA, including 2-1 with a 2.35 in the World Series. There are a lot of Hall of Famers who only wish they had been that deadly in the postseason.

Blyleven is almost a classic career-value Hall of Famer. (By the way, "borderline" can also mean you're in: it can mean, essentially, that while you don't think he looks like a Hall of Famer at first glances you don't think he doesn't, either.)

Blyleven also meets the criteria for an average Hall of Famer. First conjugated by Bill James, the average Hall of Fame pitcher would meet 50 percent of the Hall of Fame Pitching Standards and score 100 on the Hall of Fame Pitching Monitor. Blyleven meets exactly 50 percent of the former and scores 120 on the latter.

[thefactor]

Blyleven will get in once people realize he had, I believe, 60 shutouts. In the next decade or so people will realize the pithcers they are voting in have around zero complete game shutouts.