Last week, Andy Pettitte announced he would be retiring from baseball as opposed to returning for his 17th season in major league baseball. In his 16-year career with the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros, Pettitte’s career record is 240-138 with a 3.88 ERA. He is a two time 20-game winner and won at least 15 games seven other times during his career. He pitched in thirteen post seasons and participated in 30 postseason series. He also finished in the Top 5 of the Cy Young Award voting four times.
The biggest question that people are asking about Pettitte (and about every very good to great player) is “Is he a Hall of Famer”? With this week’s Top 5 list, I take a look at the Top 5 arguments and discussions regarding Andy Pettitte and the Hall of Fame.
#1 – Since 1901, Pettitte has the 23rd best record for pitchers with at least 200 decisions. Pettitte’s record of 240-138 is a winning percentage of .635. Active pitchers on that list include Roy Halladay (6th), Johan Santana (7th), Tim Hudson (9th), Roy Oswalt (17th) and CC Sabathia (20th). However to show the value of the list, the top player on the list Sam Leever had a 157-64 record between 1901 and 1910 for a .710 winning percentage. He is not in the Hall of Fame.
#2 – Pettitte has won 100 more games than he has lost in his career. He becomes the 24th member of that club. Every Hall of Fame eligible pitcher in this group has made the Hall of Fame to date. Players to have retired in the past five years that are also members of the club are: Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Pedro Martinez. Maddux, Glavine, Johnson and Martinez are locks to get into the Hall. Clemens will get in if the players linked to PEDs are eventually voted in (Pettitte and PED discussion will follow later in the article). Mussina is considered borderline.
#3 – In the history of baseball, there are only 25 players that have more than five World Series rings, which is how many Andy Pettitte has (along with 27 other players that also have five rings). In discussions of how good a player is, we always ask the question, “How many rings does he have?” Andy has five. Of the 28 players that have five rings, seven are former teammates of Pettitte.
#4 – Speaking of the postseason, Andy Pettitte is the career postseason leader in victories, with 19 wins. He has pitched in 42 career postseason games (most in a career). He is the career leader in postseason innings (263.0) and second in postseason career strikeouts. In the 2009 playoffs, he became the first pitcher to be the winning pitcher in all three rounds of the playoffs, winning all four of his starts during those playoffs.
#5 – Andy Pettitte admitted to the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). After his name was in The Mitchell Report, Pettitte quickly held a press conference stating that he did take HGH for the recovery of an elbow injury in 2002. He claimed to have used HGH twice and never took steroids. Pettitte is a player that many people respect and do believe that he took the HGH for the benefit of his recovery to benefit his team, not for personal gain. However, with players already mot being voted into the Hall of Fame that have been tied to steroids, Pettitte may not have many options for Cooperstown.
Will Andy get in at some point in 2016 or beyond? Before him many pitchers will be inducted or have their eligibility discussed; Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz and Mike Mussina will all be eligible before Pettitte. After all of their discussions have happened and they have all been voted upon, 2016 will be the year to discuss Andy Pettitte. Have a good week all, see you on the other side.
