The Curt Schilling HOF Case
Curt Schilling is one of the best pitchers in baseball history. The only pitcher with a better strikeout to walk ratio than Schilling is Tommy Bond, who threw his last pitch in 1884. Bond had a career 2.4 K/9. Yet somehow, Schilling is not in the Hall of Fame. In his first year on the ballot he drew just 38.8 percent of the vote. Over the course of his career, Schilling has more fWAR than Warren Spahn despite pitching almost 2000 fewer innings, and he has an ERA- equal to Tom Seaver.
The arguments against Schilling are that he never won a CY Young award, he only won 216 games in his career, and his 3.46 ERA isn’t too impressive to the voters who don’t consider adjustments for park and era. Those arguments pale in comparison to the arguments in support of Schilling’s induction to the Hall of Fame.
Curt Schilling has more fWAR than all but 17 pitchers in baseball history. Yet, he threw only 3261 innings. Only Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez accumulated more WAR on a per-inning basis.
It took Schilling a little while for his career to get off the ground, but he had an excellent stretch from 1996 to 2004. Over that period, he compiled 59 WAR with a 9.53 K/9, a 1.78 BB/9, and a 3.23 ERA. Only Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson had more WAR over that time frame. In comparison, Jack Morris had 52.5 career WAR over the course of his 18 year career. Schilling also had 63 complete games in that period, the next closest pitcher was Johnson with 51.
Furthermore, Schilling has a phenomenal postseason track record. In 19 playoff starts, he threw 133.1 innings with a 2.23 ERA and 120 strikeouts against just 25 walks. His teams won 14 of those games. During the 2001 playoffs, Schilling had perhaps the best run of any starting pitcher in postseason history. He made six starts, throwing 48.1 innings, allowing just six runs with 56 strikeouts and six walks.
And, don’t forget the famous Bloody Sock game in the 2004 ALCS where Schilling threw seven innings against the Yankees on a badly injured ankle, surrendering just one run.
Curt Schilling is one of the best pitchers in baseball history. Even if you’re a believer in a small Hall of Fame, the failure to include Schilling is indefensible.
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3 Responses to “The Curt Schilling HOF Case”
strikeout to walk ratio doesn’t necessarily correlate to good pitching. it is an arbitrary ratio that is worth mentioning, but shouldn’t be a primary argument.
Actually you’re wrong. It correlates extremely well with good pitching. Look at FIP and xFIP or kwERA. Do some research or have a basic understanding of baseball before calling it an “arbitrary ratio.”
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