Curt Schilling announced today he was retiring from Major League Baseball. A 200-game winner, three-time World Series Champion, six-time all-star and three time 20-game winner has a great resume, but it it enough to gain enshrinement Cooperstown?
Like most modern day players, longevity of time versus overall dominance plays a huge role in how one examines the career of the former Phillie, Oriole, Diamondback and Red Sox.
Not a Cy Young Award winner, Schilling seems to lack the consistent domination of peers such as Jim "Catfish" Hunter or Don Drysdale, both members of the Hall of Fame.
One area where Schilling lacks these peers is his % of complete games versus starts:
Hunter - 476 CG - 181 - CG - 42 SHO (38%)
Drysdale - 465 CG - 167 CG - 49 SHO (36%)
Schilling - 436 CG - 83 CG - 20 SHO (19%)
However, where Schilling is comparable is his performance in the post season where he posted a 10-2 record while Drysdale was 3-2 in World Series play and Hunter was equally impressive at 10-2.
While Drysdale (1962) and Hunter (1974) were CYA winners. Schilling did strikeout 3,116 batters to Hunter's 2,012 and Drysdale's 2,486.
In terms of wins, Schilling stands at 216 while Hunter won 224 and Drysdale 209. Other like candidates not in the Hall of Fame are Kevin Brown (211) and Orel Hershiser (204). Hershiser won the CYA in 1988 while Brown finished second for the award in 1997.
Is Schilling a true Hall of Famer?
Given his lack of year to year dominance and that his twenty win seasons came after the age of 30, it's tough to put Schilling in that category. But when statistics play such a crucial part of induction, it will be interesting to see if baseball writers will give the retiring red Sox the required 75 percent for admittance to the ultimate prize in professional sports.
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