November 24, 2009

Pettitte bolsters Hall of Fame argument

Andy Pettitte has the most wins of any active pitcher since 1995, and is second in starts and innings pitched, trailing only Greg Maddux.

I read that fact in Tom Verducci’s Sports Illustrated article earlier this month, titled “World Domination.” The premise of the story is that the Yankees had a lot of performances from older players exceeding expectations.

Anyway, after reading that fact about Pettitte, I started thinking about how he was a borderline hall of famer going into last year. Now he can call himself the winningest pitcher of his era, and that includes World Series rings as well. Here’s a look at his career line:

Years W L GS IP ERA SO WHIP
15 229 135 458 2926.1 3.91 2150 1.361

What I think hurts him most is his high ERA.

I argue that it isn’t that high for the Steroid Era. Plus, he has a lot of other things going for him.

  • He’s collected the most wins of any pitcher during his time
  • He has five World Series rings and 18 postseason wins
  • He has one of the best pickoff moves ever
  • He has won 21 games in a season twice
  • He spent most of his career on the big stage of New York

One thing I neglected to mention is his use of HGH. He admitted to using HGH twice in order to recover from an injury more quickly. His usage should hurt his chances a little bit, but I don’t think as much because at least he admitted it. Barry Bonds hasn’t admitted anything yet.

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