News: s-r blog:Oracle of Baseball

 
Bert Blyleven    \BLYE-lev-en\

Rik Aalbert Blyleven (twitter: @BertBlyleven28)

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 3", Weight: 200 lb.

Born: April 6, 1951 in Zeist, Netherlands
High School: Santiago HS (Garden Grove, CA)
Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 3rd round of the 1969 amateur draft. (All Transactions)
Debut: June 5, 1970 (Age 19)
Teams (by GP): Twins/Pirates/Indians/Angels/Rangers 1970-1992
Agents: Dick Moss, previously: LaRue Harcourt [*]
Final Game: October 4, 1992 (Age 41)
Inducted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA as Player in 2011 (463/581 ballots).
   View Bert Blyleven Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
    About biographical information

28
28
28
22
22
22
28
28
View team uniforms at Dressed to the Nines a Baseball Hall of Fame on-line exhibit / Report an error

Hall of Fame

Standard Fielding

Year Tm Lg Age Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG SB CS CS% lgCS% PO Awards
1970 MIN AL 19 P 27 25 5 164.0 22 5 16 1 1 .955 1.15 0.78 .951 1.86 1.85 6 8 57% 40% 1
1971 MIN AL 20 P 38 38 17 278.1 59 19 38 2 0 .966 1.84 1.50 .958 1.98 1.97 13 12 48% 39% 3
1972 MIN AL 21 P 39 38 11 287.1 66 18 45 3 4 .955 1.97 1.62 .950 1.86 1.85 18 9 33% 39% 0
1973 MIN AL 22 P 40 40 25 325.0 56 21 34 1 0 .982 1.52 1.38 .951 1.86 1.85 18 11 38% 38% 1 AS,CYA-7,MVP-26
1974 MIN AL 23 P 37 37 19 281.0 56 19 34 3 2 .946 1.70 1.43 .947 1.81 1.80 26 17 40% 38% 2
1975 MIN AL 24 P 35 35 20 275.2 70 16 48 6 5 .914 2.09 1.83 .940 1.87 1.86 25 18 42% 38% 0
1976 TOT AL 25 P 36 36 18 297.2 66 22 44 0 4 1.000 2.00 1.83 .950 1.87 1.88 34 11 24% 34% 0
1976 MIN AL 25 P 12 12 4 95.1 18 5 13 0 1 1.000 1.70 1.50 .950 1.87 1.88 14 6 30% 34% 0
1976 TEX AL 25 P 24 24 14 202.1 48 17 31 0 3 1.000 2.14 2.00 .950 1.87 1.88 20 5 20% 34% 0
1977 TEX AL 26 P 30 30 15 234.2 46 10 35 1 4 .978 1.73 1.50 .948 1.95 1.93 16 10 38% 39% 1
1978 PIT NL 27 P 34 34 11 243.2 53 11 41 1 4 .981 1.92 1.53 .951 1.91 1.89 28 5 15% 32% 0
1979 PIT NL 28 P 37 37 4 237.1 34 14 20 0 0 1.000 1.29 0.92 .951 1.80 1.80 28 11 28% 34% 3
1980 PIT NL 29 P 34 32 5 216.2 42 10 30 2 2 .952 1.66 1.18 .952 1.91 1.91 17 8 32% 31% 2
1981 CLE AL 30 P 20 20 9 159.1 26 9 16 1 2 .962 1.41 1.25 .963 1.98 1.98 9 10 53% 38% 1
1982 CLE AL 31 P 4 4 0 20.1 4 2 2 0 0 1.000 1.77 1.00 .958 1.81 1.80 3 1 25% 36% 0
1983 CLE AL 32 P 24 24 5 156.1 34 7 26 1 3 .971 1.90 1.38 .958 1.80 1.78 13 6 32% 33% 1
1984 CLE AL 33 P 33 32 12 245.0 53 21 30 2 2 .962 1.87 1.55 .958 1.79 1.78 17 3 15% 36% 0 CYA-3
1985 TOT AL 34 P 37 37 24 293.2 49 17 32 0 2 1.000 1.50 1.32 .953 1.86 1.84 34 14 29% 33% 1 AS,CYA-3
1985 CLE AL 34 P 23 23 15 179.2 30 11 19 0 0 1.000 1.50 1.30 .953 1.86 1.84 20 8 29% 33% 1
1985 MIN AL 34 P 14 14 9 114.0 19 6 13 0 2 1.000 1.50 1.36 .953 1.86 1.84 14 6 30% 33% 0
1986 MIN AL 35 P 36 36 16 271.2 46 15 31 0 0 1.000 1.52 1.28 .957 1.83 1.81 26 7 21% 34% 4
1987 MIN AL 36 P 37 37 8 267.0 64 17 43 4 3 .938 2.02 1.62 .955 1.84 1.82 33 9 21% 31% 0
1988 MIN AL 37 P 33 33 7 207.1 35 12 22 1 3 .971 1.48 1.03 .961 1.78 1.77 28 8 22% 31% 0
1989 CAL AL 38 P 33 33 8 241.0 52 14 38 0 6 1.000 1.94 1.58 .960 1.87 1.85 18 5 22% 31% 0 CYA-4,MVP-13
1990 CAL AL 39 P 23 23 2 134.0 28 3 24 1 0 .964 1.81 1.17 .953 1.78 1.76 4 9 69% 34% 1
1992 CAL AL 41 P 25 24 1 133.0 18 5 13 0 1 1.000 1.22 0.72 .953 1.72 1.71 10 4 29% 34% 0
22 Seasons P 692 685 242 4970.0 979 287 662 30 48 .969 1.72 1.37 .953 1.86 1.84 424 196 32% 35% 21
22 Seasons TOT 692 685 242 4970.0 979 287 662 30 48 .969 1.72 1.37 .953 1.86 1.84 424 196 32% 35% 21
Lg Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG SB CS CS% lgCS% PO Awards
Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.
View Complete Notes on Fielding Data
Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.
  • Pre-1945 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
  • From 1945 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1945 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
  • CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1916 on.
  • Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1945 to 1973 and complete from then on.
  • Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1916) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
  • Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
  • For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1945 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
  • For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Sabermetric Fielding

Year Tm Lg Age Pos Rtot Rtot/yr Rtz Rtzhm Rtzrd Rdp Rof Rctch Rdrs Rdrs/yr Rpm Rdp Rbnt Rof Rhr RerC RsbC RsbP
1970 MIN AL 19 P
1971 MIN AL 20 P
1972 MIN AL 21 P
1973 MIN AL 22 P
1974 MIN AL 23 P
1975 MIN AL 24 P
1976 MIN AL 25 P
1976 TEX AL 25 P
1977 TEX AL 26 P
1978 PIT NL 27 P
1979 PIT NL 28 P
1980 PIT NL 29 P
1981 CLE AL 30 P
1982 CLE AL 31 P
1983 CLE AL 32 P
1984 CLE AL 33 P
1985 CLE AL 34 P
1985 MIN AL 34 P
1986 MIN AL 35 P
1987 MIN AL 36 P
1988 MIN AL 37 P
1989 CAL AL 38 P
1990 CAL AL 39 P
1992 CAL AL 41 P
22 Seasons P
22 Seasons TOT
Lg Pos Rtot Rtot/yr Rtz Rtzhm Rtzrd Rdp Rof Rctch Rdrs Rdrs/yr Rpm Rdp Rbnt Rof Rhr RerC RsbC RsbP

Appearances

Year Tm Lg Age G GS Batting Defense P C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF OF DH PH PR
1970 MIN AL 19 27 25 27 27 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1971 MIN AL 20 38 38 38 38 38 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1972 MIN AL 21 39 38 39 39 39 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1973 MIN AL 22 40 40 0 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1974 MIN AL 23 37 37 0 37 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1975 MIN AL 24 35 35 2 35 35 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1976 TEX AL 25 24 24 0 24 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1976 MIN AL 25 12 12 0 12 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1977 TEX AL 26 30 30 0 30 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1978 PIT NL 27 37 34 37 34 34 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
1979 PIT NL 28 38 37 38 37 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
1980 PIT NL 29 37 32 37 34 34 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
1981 CLE AL 30 20 20 0 20 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1982 CLE AL 31 4 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1983 CLE AL 32 24 24 0 24 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1984 CLE AL 33 33 32 0 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1985 CLE AL 34 23 23 0 23 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1985 MIN AL 34 14 14 0 14 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1986 MIN AL 35 36 36 0 36 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1987 MIN AL 36 37 37 0 37 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1988 MIN AL 37 33 33 0 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1989 CAL AL 38 33 33 0 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1990 CAL AL 39 23 23 0 23 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1992 CAL AL 41 25 24 0 25 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22 Seasons 699 685 218 692 692 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
Lg G GS Batting Defense P C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF OF DH PH PR
Appearances table is calculated solely from full RetroSheet play-by-play data available from 1973 on. A combination of RetroSheet (starting with the 1916 season) and non-RetroSheet data is used for other seasons.

Advanced Fielding -- P*

Putouts Assists Errors Double Plays
Year Tm Lg Age PA BIP% GBIP% Fld F2O% FC Tot Cgt 31 Tot 1B 2B Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 163 GB LD bFld bF2O%
1970 MIN AL 19 675 76% 25% 17 82% 1 5 0 2 16 10 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 2 100%
1971 MIN AL 20 1126 78% 26% 46 96% 0 19 2 11 43 35 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 4 75%
1972 MIN AL 21 1159 77% 25% 46 96% 0 16 1 13 45 35 5 3 0 0 3 0 4 3 3 1 5 100%
1973 MIN AL 22 1321 78% 24% 38 97% 0 20 1 17 37 30 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 100%
1974 MIN AL 23 1149 75% 27% 34 100% 0 19 0 16 35 27 2 3 0 1 2 0 2 2 2 0 4 100%
1975 MIN AL 24 1104 76% 26% 49 92% 2 16 0 13 47 40 5 6 0 4 2 1 5 4 5 0 8 75%
1976 TEX AL 25 819 80% 33% 35 91% 1 17 0 15 31 23 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 5 60%
1976 MIN AL 25 406 78% 22% 12 100% 0 5 1 4 12 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 100%
1977 TEX AL 26 935 76% 29% 39 92% 0 10 2 7 36 26 4 1 0 0 1 1 4 3 3 1 5 100%
1978 PIT NL 27 1011 79% 26% 47 89% 1 11 0 10 42 32 4 1 0 1 0 1 4 4 4 0 9 100%
1979 PIT NL 28 1018 78% 24% 23 78% 0 14 1 10 20 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 100%
1980 PIT NL 29 907 79% 28% 34 91% 0 10 0 6 32 27 2 2 0 0 2 0 2 1 2 0 4 100%
1981 CLE AL 30 644 81% 29% 20 95% 0 9 1 6 17 13 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 2 2 0 1 100%
1982 CLE AL 31 89 71% 27% 2 100% 0 2 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1983 CLE AL 32 660 77% 29% 32 81% 0 6 1 4 27 17 3 1 0 1 0 1 3 1 2 1 1 100%
1984 CLE AL 33 1004 78% 26% 30 100% 0 18 0 17 30 25 4 2 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 4 100%
1985 CLE AL 34 743 79% 24% 18 100% 0 12 1 8 17 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 100%
1985 MIN AL 34 460 83% 25% 12 100% 0 6 0 5 14 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 2 100%
1986 MIN AL 35 1126 78% 28% 27 100% 0 15 0 14 30 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 100%
1987 MIN AL 36 1122 78% 32% 48 92% 1 17 3 14 43 34 4 4 0 2 2 2 3 2 2 1 4 50%
1988 MIN AL 37 895 81% 30% 26 85% 1 12 1 10 22 15 2 1 0 0 1 0 3 2 3 0 5 40%
1989 CAL AL 38 973 83% 36% 39 95% 2 14 0 14 37 29 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 4 5 0 10 90%
1990 CAL AL 39 578 86% 35% 24 92% 0 3 0 3 23 21 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 67%
1992 CAL AL 41 568 85% 31% 14 100% 0 5 1 3 13 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0
22 Seasons 20492 79% 28% 712 93% 9 281 16 224 671 522 56 30 1 13 16 8 47 36 42 5 92 87%
MLB Averages 81% 29% 91% 88%
Lg PA BIP% GBIP% Fld F2O% FC Tot Cgt 31 Tot 1B 2B Tot Cch Fld Thr ROE Tot 163 GB LD bFld bF2O%



* - Disclaimer & Completeness Note

* Many Detailed Statistics are based on play-by-play accounts accumulated by RetroSheet. These totals may be incomplete (3.6% of all plays from 1945 to 1973 are missing or have incomplete accounts, click link for year and team summary of data completeness) for some players prior to 1974 and even complete seasons may not match the official totals due to errors in both the official totals and the play-by-play accounts. Pre-1954 seasons have a substantial numbers of games missing play-by-play accounts and should be viewed as essentially incomplete.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame
1998 BBWAA (17.5%)
1999 BBWAA (14.1%)
2000 BBWAA (17.4%)
2001 BBWAA (23.5%)
2002 BBWAA (26.3%)
2003 BBWAA (29.2%)
2004 BBWAA (35.4%)
2005 BBWAA (40.9%)
2006 BBWAA (53.3%)
2007 BBWAA (47.7%)
2008 BBWAA (61.9%)
2009 BBWAA (62.7%)
2010 BBWAA (74.2%)
2011 BBWAA (79.7%)
Selected to HOF in 2011 by BBWAA

All-Star Games
1973 *
1985 *

MVP (yr lg (rk, shr))
1973 AL (26, 1%)
1989 AL (13, 8%)
0.09 Career Shares (951st)

Cy Young (yr lg (rk, shr))
1973 AL (7, 1%)
1984 AL (3, 32%)
1985 AL (3, 6%)
1989 AL (4, 6%)
0.45 Career Shares (108th)

Putouts as P s c a p y
1973 AL  21 (5th)
1976 AL  22 (5th)
Career  287 (22nd)

Assists as P s c a p y
1987 AL  43 (5th)

Errors Committed as P s c a p y
1975 AL  6 (2nd)
1987 AL  4 (5th)

Range Factor/Game as P s c a p y
1975 AL  1.83 (3rd)
1976 AL  1.83 (5th)

Fielding % as P s c a p y
1973 AL  .982 (5th)
1976 AL  1.000 (1st)
1979 NL  1.000 (1st)
1985 AL  1.000 (1st)
1986 AL  1.000 (1st)
1989 AL  1.000 (1st)
Career  .969 (89th)

Salary s c a p y
1986 AL  $1,450,000 (6th)

Oldest s c a p y
1990 AL  born 1951-04-06 (10th)
1992 AL  born 1951-04-06 (6th)

Youngest s c a p y
1970 AL  born 1951-04-06 (1st)
1971 AL  born 1951-04-06 (5th)
1972 AL  born 1951-04-06 (8th)

Other Resources & Links

Error?     Compare     Search SABR's Baseball Index     Other Links@google.com     Baseball Library     Baseball-Almanac.com     Retrosheet     The Baseball Cube     WahooSam.com     WhatIfSports: Bert Blyleven    

Viewed 257,722 times through June 19, 2013.
Name and misspellings: Rik Aalbert Bert burt blylevan Blyleven blylevin blylevyn byleven

Player Page Tricks and Tips

Sum any set of rows by clicking anywhere (not red or blue) on the first and last rows of your selection. We will then compute the totals for the player between and including those two seasons.
Default Setting for this feature: Turn On / Turn Off
Summation of season totals only works for the initial case when the table is in year order. On a sorted table the results may get a bit goofy.

HIGHLIGHTING: Adding a range or series of player's career seasons or career game numbers (like '#1972:batting_standard', '#1970-1980-sum:batting_standard', or '#1998,1999,2001,2002,sum:pitching_standard') onto the end of a player page url causes the seasons to the highlighted and summed. After changing address bar, reload the page to see highlighting. This will work even in links e-mailed to others. Note that for tables with multiple pages the first table is the default. If you want to create a sum for a table other than the first one, select the rows and after the summation window appears click on "permanent link" link.

The play-by-play information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet.