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Andy Pettite? A Hall of Famer? I’m not sold.

Written by Redbird One on February 19, 2011 — 1 Comment

…..Nor do I think he should get in five years from now, or beyond, for that matter. However, he may eventually get in someday, but he’s, obviously far from a lock.  Skimming over some of the basic numbers( 240 wins, 3.88 ERA, 2251 SOs), he looks like he compiled a pretty, if not, very good resume, but is it Hall of Fame worthy?  Of course, there are other statistics in which are more beneficial in determining his Hall of Fame candidacy, or his unworthiness. OF course, how else is one supposed to judge a pitcher, but rank them against the men who are already there, right? It would mean comparing him to other Hall of Fame left-handed starting pitchers, naturally, I would assume.*

* I’ll also include Randy Johnson as well. No, he’s not a Hall of Famer yet, but we all know he’s going to be.

I decided to hand-select 9 current Hall of Fame left-handed pitchers, and one who is a soon-to-be first ballot Hall of Famer.

Lefty Grove (1930s)

Sandy Koufax (1960s)

Warren Spahn (1950s)

Randy Johnson (2000s)

Carl Hubbell (1930s)

Steve Carlton (1970s)

Whitey Ford (1950s)

Eddie Plank (1900s)

Hal Newhouser (1940s)

Rube Waddell (1900s)

These are the ten that I decided to go with, if you’re going to compare, why not compare the best of the best? Of course, the generational gap varies greatly, you’ll just have to go with it anyway, OK?

Of course, we’ll get to that in a minute.

For now, we’ll take a look into where Andy Pettite ranks all-time for pitchers in some statistical categories:

Wins Above Replacement:

49.7 Career. (249th all-time)

WAR for Pitchers:

50.2 (77th all-time)

Win-Loss%:

.635 (43rd all-time)

K/9:

Career 6.631 (133rd)

Innings Pitched:

Career 3055.3 (123rd)

Games Started:

Career 479 (60th)

Base on Balls:

Career 962 (124th)

K/BB:

Career 2.340 (127th)

Adjusted ERA+

Career 117 (171st)

Adj. Pitching Runs

Career 209 (72nd)

Win Probability Added (WPA)

Career 22.9 (48th)

Now, amongst some of the top ten greatest left-handers of all-time, where does Pettite stand?

We’ll start with former Yankee great Whitey Ford.

-Stats in which Pettite leads when compared to each individual player will be in bold.

498 G, 438 GS, 3,170.1 IP, 2.75 ERA, 133 ERA+, 236 W,  7.9 H/9, 1.22 WHIP, 45 SHO, 4.1 SHO/40, 1,956 K, and 1.8 K/BB

Now for Andy Pettite, we’re going use a more side-by-side comparison of each player.

489 G, 479 GS, 3055.1 IP, 3.88 ERA, 117 ERA+, 240 W, 9.4 H/9, 1.357 WHIP, 4 SHO,

I’ll contiue with the other nine tomorrow, and explain in detail why Andy Pettite falls short of Hall of Fame criteria.

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1 Comment to “Andy Pettite? A Hall of Famer? I’m not sold.”

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  1. how much house can i afford's Gravatar how much house can i afford
    September 5, 2011 at 7:51 am | Permalink

    i love your blog, i have it in my rss reader and always like new things coming up from it.

    Reply

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