Red Sox: Curt Schilling worthy of Hall of Fame induction
By Tracy Katzke
The Baseball Evidence Speaks Volumes
It should not go unrecognized that Schilling pitched in the most offensively advantageous era in baseball history, and his career requires evaluation within said parameters. It would be unfair to compare Schilling’s statistics to those hurlers who produced far better numbers, albeit in significantly friendlier pitching environments. It is imperative that he is judged relative to his contemporaries and not Hall of Famers from a different era, as many of those enjoyed pitching in an era devoid of steroids, and prior to 1969, from a 15-inch pitching mound.
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If one feels such statements are hyperbole, then please consider the following facts: Only nine pitchers who began their careers after 1968 are enshrined in Cooperstown, while 15 pitchers who began their careers in the 14 years between 1955 and 1968, inclusive, are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In order to remove the inherently biased human element from the voting process, and to objectively quantify Schilling’s Hall of Fame credentials, I would like to present the results of the widely-accepted metric of Hall of Fame Worthiness, the Jaffe WAR Score system, alternatively referred to as JAWS.
The Starting Pitcher JAWS Leaderboard, was developed by sabermetrician Jay Jaffe as a means to measure a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness. A player’s JAWS is his career WAR averaged with his 7-year peak WAR.
Of the 62 Hall of Fame players classified as “Starting Pitchers,” the average scores for JAWS, the Baseball-Reference.com career WAR, and the Baseball-Reference.com 7-year peak WAR are 62.1, 73.9, and 50.3, respectively.
Curt Schilling’s three scores are 64.5, (27th in baseball history), 79.9, (26th in baseball history), and 49.0, (49th in baseball history), respectively.
It should be noted that no “Starting Pitcher” who played after 1900, with the exception of Roger Clemens, has a JAWS score greater than Schilling’s, and is not enshrined in Cooperstown. In fact, Schilling’s JAWS score trumps those of Tom Glavine, Nolan Ryan, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller, Juan Marichal, Carl Hubbell, Don Drysdale, John Smoltz, and Sandy Koufax, all of whom upon which has been bestowed baseball’s ultimate honor.
In addition, among all pitchers with a minimum of 1500 IP, Schilling is first in the entire history of Major League Baseball, with a 4.38 K/BB ratio, a feat rendered even all-the-more remarkable when one considers that Schilling is one of only 16 pitchers in baseball history to amass 3000 strikeouts.
In fact, with the exception of Clemens and Schilling, all 16 members of the 3000 strikeout club are enshrined in Cooperstown.