Is Andy Pettitte a Hall of Famer?

Now that Andy Pettitte has officially retired, and it looks like he is actually done for good, we have five years to debate if his career his worthy of enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are a couple of issues here. Sure he did play in 8 different World Series, and sure he is a key figure of the steroids era. So far hall voters have kept the steroids era guys out of the hall, but Pettitte creates a whole new argument on the subject. Ultimately this comes down to stats, and for the most part (at least in the regular season) he compares very well to one Jack Morris. So is he Hall worthy?

Well, as a member of the steroids era I would be willing to forgive him since he was one of a few that came clean. His teammates forgave him, and I think a lot of sports writers have as well. I don’t think he did anything not most of everyone else was doing so I would not hold that against him. Hall voters may, but for now I am willing to look past that.

In 16 seasons he racked up a 240-138 win/loss record, with a 3.88 ERA. Jack finished with a 3.90 ERA so they are very comparable. So far Jack hasn’t made much progress towards the Hall and I think that will be the biggest argument against enshrining Pettitte. In the regular season he was a pretty good to a very good pitcher. Sure 8 different World Series appearances, but his record in those is 5-4 with a 4.06 ERA. So even in the post season he never was truly great.

This is a tough one. He is 60 wins short of the automatic enshrinement number and I don’t think he was ever the number one guy on his own staff (maybe his years in Houston but maybe not). He also never one a CY Young and that is a big deal, at least for me.