Link Dump: Andy Pettitte Edition

February 3, 2011 by Mike Axisa 18 Comments

ALDS Yankees Twins Baseball — Walking away on your own terms is something few players get to do. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

It’s Andy Pettitte day, so let’s round up some links…

The official statement

Chad Jennings posted the team’s official press release about Andy’s retirement. “According to the Elias Sports Bureau,” says the release, “Pettitte, a three-time All-Star (1996, 2001, ’10) and 2001 ALCS MVP, holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in Major League history to post a record of .500 or better while making at least 15 starts in each of the first 16 seasons of his career.”

The press conference is tomorrow morning at 10:30am ET and can be seen on YES, mlb.com, and yankees.com. We’ll liveblog it one way or another.

Andy’s place in recent history

I don’t think any of us really considers Pettitte to be one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, but he’s certainly one of the best in recent history. Joe tackled that very topic at FanGraphs, finding that just a dozen pitchers can lay claim to a better career than Andy over the last 30 years. When it comes to recent Yankee history, no starting pitcher is even in the same ballpark.

The Hall of Fame?

Over at his new digs, Rob Neyer broke down Andy’s case for the Hall of Fame, which is borderline at best. I don’t think he should get in, but Rob states his case and shows that if nothing else, Pettitte will probably stick around on the ballot for a number of years. Maybe the Veteran’s Committee voted him in eventually, but sheesh, that’s two decades away.

http://twitter.com/steveh_MandAura Steve H

I don’t think Pettitte is a Hall of Famer. If you make the argument that his October resume puts him over the edge, wouldn’t you have to consider David Wells as well? Pettitte had a 3.88 regular season ERA, 3.83 in the playoffs. He was the same guy. Wells, while not quite the regular season pitcher that Andy was, saw his ERA drop by almost a full run in the postseason. Neither of them belong, but I have to disagree with people who think Andy’s Octobers get him there. He was just lucky enough to play on great teams and make a ton of postseason starts. Since he’s liked in the media, we read a lot more about his great starts in October than his bad ones. He’s just a step below the Hall of Fame, which is no shame. He had a hell of a career and will be missed.
felixbanuelos

he’s unfortunately not going to go in. Unless he played atleast 2 more seasons racked up some more wins and got to 2500 strikeouts, he still might not even be good enough
Sal

Yankees 2011 Team Slogan…..Sabathia and Hughes and then we lose!!!
- felixbanuelos
  
  is Greg Maddox available?
- Ted Nelson
  
  Which was also the 2010 slogan oddly enough.
  
  2010
  #1 CC 5.1 WAR
  #2 Hughes 2.4 WAR
  #3 Burnett 1.3 WAR
  #4 Pettitte – Moseley – Gaudin 1.2 WAR
  #5 Nova + Mitre – Javy 0.3 WAR
  Total = 10.3 WAR
  
  2010
  #1 CC 5.1 WAR
  #2 Hughes 2.4 WAR
  #3 Burnett 1.3 WAR
  #4 Garcia 1.3 WAR
  #5 Nova 0.5 WAR (in 42 innings)
  Total = 10.6
  
  That was CC’s worst season since 2005 and Burnett’s worst since 2004 (worst healthy season ever). They’re as likely to bounce back as to be in decline (CC is only 30 this season, AJ 34). Hughes could step forward, backward, or sideways. I don’t know. Garcia had a higher WAR, 1.6, in 2009 than 2010, so it’s not his first successful season since 1945 or whatever people are saying. And Nova showed promise in 42 innings. If he manages the same success he’d have 1.8 WAR in 150 innings or 2.4 in 200 innings.
nathan

if Schilling is Hof then so is Andy
- felixbanuelos
  
  Andy was not a K/BB monster and played on a great team. Curt played on the phillies for Pete sake
- http://www.twitter.com/jordansmed JGS
  
  Nope
- http://www.twitter.com/tomzig Tom Zig
  
  If Jim Rice is a HOFer than so is Bernabé “feared” Williams
  - The Real JobaWockeeZ
    
    That I agree with but Schilling was much better than Pettitte.
- Mister Delaware
  
  I hate everything about Schilling but he’s much closer to the HoF than Pettitte. Of course, Pettitte should be much closer than Jack Morris (although Andy made the mistake of having lots of great postseason starts, not just one … more than one makes it tough to remember the specifics).
- http://danielslifka.wordpress.com Jerome S.
  
  Schilling struck out the world, Andy doesn’t have that going for him.
- The Real JobaWockeeZ
  
  Schilling is 6th all time on FanGraph’s WAR list. Pettitte is 13th.
  - Pat D
    
    Can’t rely on Fangraphs WAR for pitchers.
the other Steve S,

“the distinction of being the only pitcher in Major League history to post a record of .500 or better while making at least 15 starts in each of the first 16 seasons of his career.”

I hate stats like that. Makes me wish computers had never been invented. Except for blogging, of course.
BigBlueAL

MLBN showed the pitchers with the highest K/9 in Yankee history (minimum amount of innings I forgot) and surprisingly Moose was #1, Pettite #3. I would think Clemens and Mo wouldve been listed if they had enough innings to qualify for whatever limit MLBN used.
Pat D

Here’s Jayson Stark’s take:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/.....hall-famer

Does a pretty good job of summarizing the things that show Andy just isn’t a HOF’er, though I’ll say I always considered Andy more of a #2 than a #3. Jamie Moyer, to me, is a great #3 starter.
Wil Nieves #1 Fan

Pettitte’s career numbers make him borderline, but his postseason success makes him a HOFer.