THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

This writer was born in the Netherlands.  What could he possibly know about playing baseball?

Counting the playoffs he won 292 games.  Gets him a little closer.  He pitched great (2.47 ERA in 47.1 innings) in postseason play, including 2 world championships.  He pitched better in the postseason than another candidate who gets a lot more postseason credit.  They faced each other in the 1987 ALCS.  Bert won.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN198710080.shtml

I’m glad Bert is making his case.  If I knew nothing about him and I read that piece, I would think his credentials were amazing and the voters were nuts for ignoring him.

If I’m part of the 30% who vote against him, I’m thinking two things:

1. I’m not a good enough athlete to carry his jock

2. I’m not a good enough researcher to carry his plaque

I think Bert whomever is really cool for doing this. He KNOWS he is worthy of the HOF. But he doesn’t whine about it like R Santo, or cower in the corner acting all humble. Instead, he realizes that with the present voters and public, his case is now mainly a statistical one.

And he nails it--better than some saberist using WAR and FIP could ever hope to.

I think Dave/#5 nailed it. Bert made his statistical case without using something the voters would not look at. He deserves the Hall for his WAR, but he played well enough that he didn’t need those numbers (which the BBWAA would not have a clue about) to highlight how good a case for the Hall he has.

It’d be a shame if 13 wins costs him the Hall.

@rally: he makes up for it with his extensive knowledge about playing honkbal.