It has nothing to do with stats, he's just not in the same category as Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson, or even Greg Maddux. And he's certainly not in the same category as Babe Ruth. I think a lot of people feel this way. I, and undoubtedly Rob Neyer, are nerdy enough to enjoy stats, and the knotty arguments and complications that they present. But the non-nerdy among you can't share this passion.
Baseball is supposed to be fun, a pastime.
It's supposed to be something you can shoot the bull about and not expend too much time worrying about whether statistical regression analyses bear out your conclusions. I suppose, at some essential level, my deal is that I can't jibe with such imprecise thinking as the Blyleven argument detailed above. And I want my conclusions to be as uninfluenced by anecdotal conjecture, to be as universal and definitive as possible. I want to make absolutely sure that they're not based on bias. And the only way to do that is to use statistics.