Gaylord Perry vs. Bert Blyleven

[Cowtipper]

Here are two of the best pitchers of the past 50 years (and, perhaps, a better matchup than Maddux vs. Perry).

Gaylord Perry won 314 games in his career. He had five 20 win seasons and eight years of 200 or more strikeouts, finishing with 3,534 in that category. Bert Blyleven, on the other hand, won 287 games in his career. He had one 20 win season and eight seasons of 200 or more Ks, finishing with 3,701 in his career.

Blyleven had less losses than Perry, but Perry had a better winning percentage. Blyleven had the higher OPS+ and WAR, while Perry had the higher black and grey ink.

Two excellent pitchers...but which one was better?

[chicagowhitesox1173]

I picked Perry but I can see how Blyleven could be considered better.

[JR Hart]

Perry had a number of seasons better than Bert's best season.

[Cowtipper]

Perry had a number of seasons better than Bert's best season.

I don't disagree. I guess who's better largely depends on how much stock one puts into WAR.

[leecemark]

--If you pick Blyleven over Perry then I think the answer is "too much" stock. Blyleven comes fairly close (but falls short) to matching Blyleven in career value, but he never achieved the heights than Perry did.

[TomBodet]

Gaylord of course.

It doesn't seem like he gets the love that Blyleven does from the Sabr crowd, but I donno why. He was around forever, he was a 2 time Cy Young winner, he was able to win in all kinds of parks and in both leagues for 20 years. He gets labelled a 'cheater' by some, but equating his greaser with roiding up ala Kevin Brown or Rocket to me is just silly.

[Bothrops Atrox]

It doesn't seem like he gets the love that Blyleven does from the Sabr crowd, but I donno why. .

Be cause he didn't have to wait 14 years to be elected into Cooperstown. If Perry hadn't...

[dominik]

Be cause he didn't have to wait 14 years to be elected into Cooperstown. If Perry hadn't...

yes. hadn't there been the spitball perry would very likely have been a first ballot guy. there was simply not much to discuss about him because he won 300 and so made the hall rather easily. blyleven on the other hand was subject for HOF discussions for a long time.

[Yankillaz]

Perry, barely. But it's closer that one must think. I pick Perry primarily for one reason only: higher peak. These two men had similar careers on different eras (60s for Perry early and 80s/90s for Blyleven late). Therefore Blyleven had allowed more HRs but struck out more batters.

[curveball]

TOP 10 WAR (pitchers)

Perry 11 times (8th, 8th, 8th, 7th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 1st)
Blyleven 13 times (10th, 10th, 8th, 7th, 4th, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st)

Blyleven finished in the top 10 more times, and with higher finishes.


TOP 10 ADJUSTED ERA+

Perry 10 times (10th, 10th, 9th, 9th, 9th, 8th, 8th, 6th, 2nd 1st)
Blyleven 12 times (10th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st)

Again, Blyleven finishes with more top 10 finishes, and with higher finishes.


I know that these are only 2 categories, but this matchup is a lot closer than the actual voting.

[abolishthedh]

This comparison involves two of my alltime favorite pitchers, and they were different for distinctly separate reasons. Blyleven had a wonderful curveball, and he was described by the media and radio announcers as having a unique personality. This was enough for my imagination. However, Perry was the outlaw, and that is a bigger deal to most teenagers. As I became appreciative of sabremetrics, I spent time with my Big Mac Encyclopedia and learned that Perry had one of the highest ratios of complete games to starts of his generation.

Look it up, he has a higher percentage of his starts turn into complete games than just about anyone in his era.

It is easy to imagine why this would be the case. In hindsight, it was commonly understood that Perry was adding something to the ball. He admitted this himself. And yet again, Perry was never caught. We can give Blyleven his due for having pitched on inferior teams for most of his career, but IMO Perry must be the better pitcher simply for having such a high rate of CGs per start. He gutted things out, even if he was gutting it out with a little help.