Is Curt Schilling a Hall-of-Famer? Yes. Pretty Easily, Actually. But You Should Keep Reading.



Curt Schilling seems like a dick. More to the point, he seems like the dick friend many of us have. You’re sitting around laughing and drinking, but he wants to start a conversation about abortion.  He puts a campaign sign on his front lawn, and he wants to know if you will do the same. He takes tens of millions of dollars from the State of Rhode Island for a company with little chance of succeeding. Come on, we all have this friend.

 

 

 Unlike most of our friends, though, Curt Schilling is a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Should he be inducted in 2014 2015?

 

 

When I first posed this question during a heated debate with myself, I believed Schilling’s HOF case was built largely around his remarkable postseason runs with Philadelphia, Arizona, and Boston. I also knew he pitched a large portion of his career with those astro-turf having, John Kruk-employing, god-awful Phillies teams of the 1990’s, which explains the lower than expected win total. Overall, I was expecting a very good, but not great regular season HOF resume.

As usual, I was wrong. His regular season success nearly matched his postseason brilliance.

"Right now, I'm just laying low. Me and my old lady are living out by the abandoned marble factory."

 

First, let’s get this out of the way: Detractors will point immediately to his 216 career Wins as too low for the HOF. To these strawmen, I say, you have to remember the shit situation in which Schilling pitched half his career. From 1992 - his first full season in Philadelphia - through 2000 - when he was traded at the deadline to Arizona - Schilling pitched for some truly awful Phillies teams. Aside from the 1993 team that won 97 games and the N.L. pennant, the Phillies posted the following win totals: 70, 54, 69, 67, 68, 75, 77, and 65.

 

 

Rather than have his regular season numbers take the form of my painful, drawn out prose, I will let them stand on their own:



 "We don't play none of that hippity hop music in my clubhouse, pal."

• 2^nd All-Time – 4.38 3 SO/BB Ratio
• 2x – Led league in Innings Pitched (268.2 in 1998, 256.2 in 2001)
• 10x –200+ Innings Pitched
• 2x – Led league in WHIP (0.990 in 1992, 0.968 in 2002)
• 11x – Finished in Top 6
• 2x – Led league in Wins (22 in 2001, 21 in 2004)
• 3x – Won 20 Games
• 3x – Led league in Games Started (35 each in 1997, 1998, 2001)
• 4x – Led league in CG, including 15 in 1998.
• 3x – Finished second in CG
• 5x – Led league SO/BB Ratio, including a ridiculous 9.58 in 2002
• 5x – Led league in Fielding % for pitchers
• 6x – All Star
• 12x- Finished Top 8 in the league in WAR for Pitchers
• 8.69 K/Per 9 Innings – 22^nd All-Time
• 3,116 Strikeouts – 15^th All-Time
• 1.137 WHIP (Career) – 31^st All-Time (Sandy Koufax’s career WHIP is 1.11)

And finally, the  Schilling regular season accomplishment that most shocked me…

• 3x – 300+ Strikeouts (319 in 1997, 300 in 1998, and 316 in 2002)

And just for good measure, he struck out 293 batters in 2001. Since World War II, Schilling, Nolan Ryan, and Randy Johnson are the only pitchers with three seasons of at least 300 strikeouts. Koufax did it twice. Pedro did it twice. Steve Carlton accomplished it once.

As you can see, Schilling took the damn ball and didn’t let it go. He struck out an obscene amount of hitters, while issuing few walks. Schilling managed to compile historically great numbers on pathetic teams, costing him a few dozen career wins. Most amazingly to me, though, is his two WHIP titles came exactly a decade apart. That is incredible sustained excellence.

For my personal anecdotal support, I saw Schilling pitch against the Red Sox on June 22, 1998 at Fenway. The Phillies, and first year manager Terry Francona, were on their way to a 75 win season, while the Sox would win 92 games and the Wild Card. From the start, Schilling was off and the Phillies trailed 8-3 after five innings. Schilling, however, battled (I’m petitioning Webster’s for the word “battled” to be replaced by the phrase “Jack Morris Induced Old White Sportswriter Boner”), going seven innings, and allowing his team to scratch back in the game. The Phillies would win 9-8 in 10 innings on a Gregg Jefferies RBI single off of Tom Gordon. Schilling did not factor in the decision and his final line was subpar (7 IP, 8 ER, 12 H, 10 K’s, O BB, 120 pitches), but he refused to concede the game. My dad and I talk about that performance to this day. It was that impactful. On a bad team that was going nowhere, he battled like it was the World Series. And of course, in the midst of that rough day at the office, he still did not issue any free passes. Damn impressive.

So, that was my “Bob Costas Memorial I Saw Him When I Was A Kid” take on Schilling. But how does his regular seasons fair from an advanced metrics perspective? Jay Jaffe’s JAWS Systems is widely considered the most accurate measure of a player’s HOF worthiness.  A player's JAWS is their career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR. Schilling ranks 27^th all time among starting pitchers. He is ahead of such HOF enshrines as Tom Glavine, Jim Palmer, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, and Whitey Ford. Jack Morris ranks at 159.



In my correct opinion, Schilling is HOF-worthy, even if he never pitched an inning in the postseason. When it comes to Schilling, though, the conversation is not complete without discussing his postseason feats.  We know he was a monster in October, but just how next level was he? Let's review it briefly, just for fun...and to further drive home my argument in the most smug, annoying manner possible. Like I said, fun!


He won three rings between Arizona and Boston, and came within a Mitch Williams meltdown of winning a fourth in 1993 (Seriously, in Game 5 Schilling pitched a five-hit, CG shutout).   In 2001, he was World Series Co-MVP with Randy Johnson. In 2004, he was one of the main reasons Dan Shaughnessy can no longer collect residuals for “The Curse of the Bambino.”

Again, my words would not do justice to the numbers, so I will get out of the way and allow Schilling’s overall postseason resume speak for themselves:
 

19 Games Started, 11-2, 133.1 IP, 120 K’s, 4.8 K/BB Ratio, 0.968 WHIP

Breaking it down, Schilling average postseason start was seven innings, with almost five strikeouts for every walk, and less than a base runner per inning.

As amazing as those overall postseason numbers, his World Series numbers indicate he was even better in the Fall Classic:
 

7 Games Started, 4-1, 0.896 WHIP

And, to take it one step further, of his four World Series, his performance versus the Yankees in 2001 ranks among the all-time best for a pitcher:

3 Games Started, 1.69 ERA, 21.1 IP, 26 K, 2 BB, 0.656 WHIP

 

 

Good lord. He averaged more than a strikeout per inning, seven innings per start, and less than 2/3 of a base runner per inning. He posted an absurd 13.0 K/BB ratio and started what might be the most famous Game 7 in World Series history.

Those should be enough numbers. Schilling is arguably the greatest postseason pitcher in baseball history. His regular seasons were consistently great and downright dominant for eight or nine seasons. This makes him an easy, should-have-been first ballot HOF candidate. Here’s hoping he can rise above 29.2% in 2015.

But right now he wants to talk about the Affordable Care Act while we’re watching the Pats game. No, I haven’t checked out that website, Curt. I definitely will, buddy, but right now, I’m just trying to watch – What? Well, Hitler seems like a weird comparison, but – No, I don’t know what Sarah Palin said. You know what, I’m gonna go smoke a butt. No, you should stay here. Just yell out the window if they’re going to the Super Bowl. Thanks buddy.