While I am usually not one to hold the four Hall of Fame Stats in the highest regards in terms of a player’s worthiness into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, in the case of Curt Schilling I will. The reason being is that I could simply the end the debate before it even begins.
| Black Ink | Pitching - 42, Avg HOFer ≈ 40 |
| Gray Ink | Pitching - 205, Avg HOFer ≈ 185 |
| Hall of Fame Monitor | Pitching - 171, Likely HOFer ≈ 100 |
| Hall of Fame Standards | Pitching - 46, Avg HOFer ≈ 50 |
According to Black Ink, Gray Ink and Hall of Fame Monitor, Schilling easily is a Hall of Famer. The reason Schilling’s Hall of Fame Standards score is low at 46 while the average Hall of Famer scores a 50 is that it depends heavily on career wins and career win/loss percentage. Unfortunately, in his first 8 seasons with the Phillies starting in 1992 the team was 77 games below 500 while Schilling was 23 games above 500. The Phills had a .469 win percentage while he had a .569 win percentage
Period of Dominance
Hall of Fame voters will often judge a player on a “period of dominance” during his career. The reason being they do not want to induct an above average player that has a good line at the end of his career. They want someone that was dominant for an extended period of time.
In the case of Curt Schilling one can look at the ten seasons beginning in 1997 and ending in 2006. Schilling tallied a 3.41 earned run average and a .643 win percentage with 155 wins and only 86 losses. In each season he averaged 222 strikeouts, 40 walks, 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings and a 5.58 strikeout to walk ratio. He had 55 complete games, 11 shutouts, threw at least 200 innings in 8 seasons, won 20 games three times, and finished 2nd in three Cy Young Awards. Oh yea, and 3 World Series rings.
You want more dominance? In the 4 seasons between 2001 and 2004, Schilling ranked 1st in wins with 74, 4th in win percentage with .725, 2nd in strikeouts with 1,006, and 4th in complete games with 17.
Overall Numbers
For his career, Curt Schilling has the 2nd best strikeout to walk ratio with 7 seasons in the all-time top 100. Opponents hit just .244/.286/.389 during his 20 seasons while the Major League Average was .264/.333/.413.
- 18th in adjusted pitching wins
- 43rd in adjusted earned run average
- 15th in strikeouts per 9 innings
- 14th on career strikeout list
Postseason Numbers
In 12 post season series, Schilling tallied an 11-2 record and a 2.23 earned run average. He would stop the Yankees period of dominance in 2001 starting three games in the World Series striking out 26 batters in 21.1 innings. He would win the World Series MVP. In 2004 we saw the bloody sock game in which trainers performed open surgery to repair a tendon in his ankle. He went on to win the game and his second of three World Series Rings.
He has the lowest post season era (2.23) of all time with a minimum of 15 starts and the best win percentage (.846) of all time with a minimum of 10 starts. For his career he threw 4 complete games, 2 shutouts, and has a WHIP of .99.
What is even scarier is that his win-loss record could have been better in the post season. In the 1993 championship series he twice threw 8 innings giving up just 3 earned runs total and striking out 19. He received a no decision in both games. In the 2001 World Series he threw 14 innings in two starts giving up three earned runs and striking out 18. He again received a no decision in both games. In the 2002 division series he pitched another 7 inning gem giving up one earned run and striking out 7. And again, he received a no decision. In these 5 starts he threw a combined 37.1 innings giving up 7 earned runs and striking out 44 batters. His 1.70 earned run average in these 5 games added up to a 0-0 record.
Jan 6, 2011 at 20:14:16
Schill will get in, though not on the first ballot. Monitor score of 171 is pretty much a dead lock among those not associated with PEDs (of which there are plenty, come 2013). I’ll guess fifth ballot.