POSTED BY Coley Ward ON 6:11 pm, March 23, 2009 - POSTED IN You Make The Call
Rob Neyer says yes. Jayson Stark says yes.
Three World Series rings. 214 career victories. 83 complete games. Three 300-strikeout seasons. The highest postseason winning percentage of all time (.846) for a starter with more than six postseason decisions. The best strikeout/walk ratio of any pitcher in the modern era.
[poll id=”26″]
Quite frankly I find that the argument around win totals to be incredibly silly. Most fans nowadays can vaguely agree that while a 20 win season is a nice mile marker, it’s kinda meaningless. Bartolo Colon went 21-8 in 2005 and won the Cy Young. He was in no way the best pitcher in the AL that year, he was a guy who the offense backed on the right day. That same year Johan went 16-7, more innings pitched, better strikeout rate, WHIP, pretty much across the board he was better. Yet for some damn reason, history states Colon was a better pitcher that year… but you want to know the real funny part: The Twins were 25-8 the same day Johan went on the hill. Angels went 22-11 the same year when Colon was on the hill (No, I’m not looking up the totals for Schilling, anyone who wants to debate the point find it yourself, I was simply bringing up an amusing story about why win totals are overrated).
Now I brought that part up purely for the “He only has 216 wins argument.” I know the Blyleven fans will sound off on me that Blyleven was on crappy teams. Actually more than half the time he was on a winning team and had 21 years as a starter. Schilling had 15 years as a starter and wasn’t on a good team for more than half his career (that part I just find ironic, considering the “Blyleven spent most his career on bad teams” argument that I keep hearing). The real difference is Schilling spent the last half of his career on a good teams, so people tend to forget. Another Funny thing about the Blyleven/Schilling comparison, if we are going to harp on about him winning 287 games, will we also consider the 250 the lost? 53.4% v. 59.7%… can you guess who’s winning percentage is which? Nolan Ryan had over 300 wins… he also came within 8 of having 300 losses. Anyway, enough about the win/loss argument, didn’t mean to bite anyone’s head off. I do believe a W/L record is meaningless, I just used it to make a point. People think if they have a stat it can argue just about anything. Schilling was better than Blyleven
Now for the Kevin Brown comparison. Here’s why I think Schilling should be in the Hall and Brown not, since they pitched in the same era let’s compare that alone:
1) Schilling’s K/9 ratio was 2nd best among righties (8.59), Brown had a 6.62.
2) Schilling also during this era had the 3rd best K total among righties.
3) Schilling also had the 3rd best WHIP among righties.
4) Same era, Schilling lead all righties in complete games.
5) Brown was a dud in the playoffs. 5-5 with a 4.19 ERA and he never won a game he started in the WS. Who think Schill doesn’t deserve in tend to think everyone else is bringing up the “bloody sock” game when we refer to Schilling as a postseason warrior. But:
-Schill was 11-2 with a 2.33 ERA in postseason and never lost an elimination game. Ironic I’m bring up W/L right? But if people want to use that argument against Schill I can fight fire with fire…
-That ERA is also 2nd best in postseason history for starters with more than 100 postseason innings.