To me, the Hall is the ultimate honor in the game. I think that it should be left for the best of the best. The ideal, in my eye, is that the Hall should be left for the transcendent athlete. The best of the best.

Without setting concrete standards, I would say the top 10 at each position would be locks, and everyone else should be kicked out. Then, among the booted, the best would be let back in, sprinkling in the newly eligible. This standard would be expanded for pitchers, maybe to top 30 or so, just because there have been more great pitchers then greats at any other singular position.

That brings us to the Keltner List. This list, named after former Cleveland Indians third baseman Ken Keltner, is 15 subjective questions used as a type of analytical notekeeping. It helps organize the thoughts about the Hall worthiness of a particular candidate.

Here are the various Lists in this little project:
Jim Rice
Dwight Evans
Pedro Martinez
Burt Blyleven

What do I think?

Jim Rice

No.

Defenders of Rice said that he was the most feared power hitter in baseball during his prime. I don’t understand why really. He was a very good hitter, but I think I would have been more afraid of guys that could actually put the ball in play with out being doubled up.

I’m over simplifying of course, Rice was a hell of a baseball player. He was also overrated by putting up very good traditional statistics (BA, HR, RBI) in a Fenway that was doing it’s Coors Field 70s impression. When compared to contemporaries like Fred Lynn and Ken Singleton, Rice just comes up short.

His peak was pretty short, and his collapse was fast and embarrassing.

Dwight Evans

No.

I believe that Dwight Evans was actually a better baseball player then Jim Rice. Rice’s numbers were gaudy, but put up in an extreme hitter’s park, in a slight hitter’s era. Evans’s were more subtle, put up in a slight pitcher’s era, in a slight hitter’s park.

Dewey had walks, defense, some speed, a good amount of power, and a goofy batting stance. Rice had not many walks, not much defense, a great amount of power, and just looked like an RBI up there. Personally, I would take Evans’ skill set. His peak lasted a svelte 10 years, and his career actually started before, and ended after Jim Ed’s.

Unfortunately, Evans just wasn’t good enough. I would definitely put Dewey in the Hall of the Very Good though.

Pedro Martinez

Yes.

Pedro Martinez is linked to Sandy Koufax, because of their stretch of dominance, and their propensity to have arm problems. I did a Runs Saved analysis, which takes era and park into consideration, and it wasn’t even close.

Through 12 years of their career, Koufax saved 452 runs for his team. In Pedro’s first 12 years: 733. Considering a pitcher’s job is to prevent runs…

Burt Blyleven

Yes

Blyleven is boring. I will say that in the comment section of the Blyleven Keltner list, Gerbil said something along the lines “No one got pumped up for a Blyleven start.”

In asking people who had a chance to see Blyleven pitch they seconded his opinion. And I think that might be his hook. Blyleven was so good for 2 decades, but was overshadowed by flasher, and sometimes inferior pitchers. There was Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton, and Tom Seaver, and that made Blyleven fade into the background.

In dealing with this question, I had to ask myself, “Is it better to be a solid #2 for 20 years, or a #1 for 8, and a #4 for 12?”

Blyleven is, in essence, the #2 starter for the 70s and 80s. He was never excellent, but he was great for a long enough time. Plus, he’s the #5 (#3 when he retired) strikeout pitcher of all time, and has the most wins of someone not in the Hall for a guy that was on some pretty shitty teams. I think being consistently great for 20 years fills the criteria for the Hall of Fame.