300, 500, and 3,000

If no one else minds taking a late September hiatus from talking about Rotisserie, I don't either, especially because we're still talking baseball and the Hall of Fame.

A few responses that have come back concern that matter of benchmarks. Allen points out:

I think Blyleven's strikeout total should be factored too. He's #5 all time. That's pretty elite company.

It is. There are nine pitchers with 3,500+ strikeouts: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton, Blyleven, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, and Walter Johnson. All except Big Unit, Clemens, and Blyleven are in the Hall. I expect Big Unit to get there and I predict Blyleven will get in before his eligibility is up.

(I'm tired of making the some comment about Clemens over and over...)

Three thousand strikeouts does seem to be a benchmark for Hall of Fame pitchers. Seven pitchers are between 3,000 and 3,499 strikeouts: Greg Maddux, Phil Niekro, Fergie Jenkins, Pedro Martinez, Bob Gibson, Curt Schilling, and John Smoltz. Maddux is an automatic first ballot guy if one ever existed. Smoltz will get in, and I think Schilling will get in (even though I don't think he should). Pedro should get in; though I wonder how many voters will look at a lack of 200+ IP seasons and exclude him.

The issue with benchmarks is that not all pitchers who reach a benchmark should be considered equal. Sutton and Blyleven have more career strikeouts than Maddux, but I would lose patience with anyone who tried telling me that Sutton and Blyleven are in Maddux's league as pitchers. Schilling has one fewer strikeout than Gibson, but it's difficult to look at Schilling's injury-riddled career and put him on a par with Gibby.

The biggest issue with benchmarks, though, comes when we decide that a benchmark in and of itself isn't good any more.

Pitcher X: 141-138, 4.20 ERA, 1.247 WHIP, 385 G, 383 GS, 2475 IP, 2237 K, 107+ Adjusted ERA.

It's obvious that this pitcher doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame unless he buys a ticket like the rest of us.

But this is an active pitcher. And he's 33 years old.

OK, I'll spare the "suspense." This is Javier Vazquez.

And there's a good chance that Vazquez is going to strike out over 3,000 hitters if he stays healthy. He is averaging 186 strikeouts per season. If you factor in decline and say that Vazquez is "only" going to average 160 whiffs a year for the next five years that will put him at 3,037 strikeouts at the end of 2014, when Vazquez will be two months north of Age 38.

And Vazquez still won't be a Hall of Famer. He'll have just over 200 wins, his adjusted ERA will probably be similar to what it is now, and the strikeouts won't matter.

This isn't taking away from any of Blyleven's accomplishments. My point is that the milestones that are set in stone ultimately will get revisited along with everything else in baseball. As much as we like to think that the Hall of Fame is static, it is as dynamic and ever changing as the rest of Major League Baseball.