Hall of Fame Polls: Andy Pettitte

I’m going to skip three players.

John Lackey isn’t all that far off where you would consider him for the Hall. Lackey played for 15 seasons, had a 188-147, with a 3.92 ERA in 448 games, 446 starts. He played for the Angels, Red Sox, Cardinals and Cubs. He made one All-Star team, got Cy Young votes twice (finishing third and ninth) and got MVP votes once. He had a 38.1 bWAR.

He never won 20 games, but he won 19 once. He threw 200 innings six times. He won a game against all 30 teams in the MLB

John played on teams that made the playoffs 10 times and has 3 World Series rings. In 29 games, 23 starts, he had a 3.44 ERA and an 8-6 record.

If you are interested in ‘character’, Lackey divorced his first wife while she was battling cancer.

Mike Napoli had a 12-year MLB career (that included four days as a Blue Jay) playing 1392 games, hitting .246/.346/.475 with 267 home runs in 1392 games playing with the Angels, Rangers, Red Sox and Cleveland. He made one All-Star team.

He was on eight teams that made the playoffs and has one World Series ring. He hit .228/.322/.396 in 66 playoff games.

His best season was 2011 when he had a 5.5 bWAR in just 113 games. But his next best season was a 3.7 bWAR.

Napoli came up as a good bat, poor glove catcher, then moved to first base and DH. He was a pretty good player but didn’t age all that well and was a good bit short of what most of us would consider a Hall-of-Fame career.

Jhonny Peralta played 15 years in the MLB for Cleveland, St. Louis, and Detroit. He hit .267/.329/.423 with 202 home runs in 1798 games. He made three All-Star teams and got MVP votes once, finishing 14th. His career bWAR was 30.4. He had two seasons with bWARs above 5 (5.1 in 2005 and 5.8 in 2014). He was pretty good defensively but far short of a Gold Glover at short.

He played on 6 teams that made the playoffs, hitting .256/.307/.441 in 58 games.

Jhonny was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for PEDs.

I was never a big fan of Andy Pettitte. For one, he was a Yankee. And I always thought he was overrated. Plus, I could never remember how many Ts are in his name.

But he did have a pretty nice career. 18 seasons. 256-153 record with a 3.85 ERA. 531 games, 521 starts. He is 40th all-time in games started. He had a 60.7 bWAR, good for 60th all-time among pitchers.

He was 3rd in Rookie of the Year voting in 1995. The following year he went 21-8 with a 3.87 ERA coming in second in Cy Young voting (Pat Hentgen won it that year in a very close vote). He would win 21 games again in 2003.

Pettitte pitched nine seasons with the Yankees and then signed with the Astros as a free agent. After three years there, he went back to the Yankees. Andy played there for five years and then ‘retired’. After sitting out the 2011 season, he returned to the Yankees for two more seasons. In 2013 Andy went 11-11 with a 3.74 ERA in 30 starts at age 41. After that, he retired for good.

Andy won five World Series rings, four with the Yankees and one with the Astros. He holds MLB playoff records for wins (19), starts (44), and innings (276.2).

And, of course, there was some controversy. Pettitte admitted using human growth hormones to “help recover from elbow surgery.” He said Roger Clemen’s trainer got it for him. He also stated that Clemons used PEDs. That must have made them closer friends.

I’m curious if that affects his vote total from the Writers. He played into his 40s, suggesting he may have had more help than just recovering from elbow surgery.

It is Andy’s fifth time on the ballot. Last year he was on 10.7% of the ballots. Unfortunately, he isn’t building any momentum.

His career numbers are here.