Andy Pettitte...a Hall of Famer

Andy Pettitte, 38, ended his 16 year career last week by announcing his retirement. Throughout his career, Pettitte has collected 240 wins, 5 World Series rings, a 3.88 career ERA, and 2,251 strikeouts. Does Pettitte deserve to have ticket punched to Cooperstown? Let’s go inside the numbers…

If Pettitte is going to be remembered for anything, it is the fact the he is all time wins leader in the postseason with 19. Granted, he pitched in the postseason 14 out of 16 seasons he was in the major leagues. That is a crucial fact to the reason why he won so many games, mainly during the Yankee dynasty in the late 1990’s, but without Pettitte the Yankees might not have won all five World Series Championships.

Pettitte was a big game pitcher in the postseason as he always rose to the occasion and was usually dubbed with being the starter in game 2 of every series. He would either be the stopper from game 1 if his team lost or push his team to a 2-0 lead with another victory.

Some memorable postseason games:

1996 World Series – Game 5 (series tied 2-2) at Turner Field

Pettitte: 8.1 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, W

2003 ALCS – Game 2 (series 1-0 Boston) at Yankee Stadium

Pettitte: 6.2 innings, 9 hits, 2 ER, 5 K, W

2003 World Series – Game 2 (series 1-0 Florida) at Yankee Stadium

Pettitte: 8.2 innings, 6 hits, 0 ER, 7 K’s, W

2009 World Series – Game 3 (series tied 1-1) at Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia

Pettitte: 6 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 7 K’s, W

Yes, Pettitte is not the best postseason pitcher to ever live, but he did have a tremendous amount of success in October and should not be looked over. One thing that does get looked over a lot is the fact that for 13 seasons he pitched in the AL East, which has been considered a hitters division for many years. Pettitte won a lot of games against AL East opponents, let alone the rest of the American League. During the late ‘90’s and early 2000’s, there were a plethora of great hitters and DH’s like Manny Ramirez, Frank Thomas, David Ortiz, Edgar Martinez, and many others Pettitte had to deal with.

Looking back, Pettitte never won a CY Young Award, was an All-Star 3 times, only won 20 games twice, was not close to 3,000 strikeouts, and only won 240 regular season games. Putting numbers aside, he should be in the Hall of Fame because he was a fierce competitor, extremely durable, not afraid of the big game, pitched in a hitters league (American League), let alone in a hitters division, and was the core foundation for the Yankees for several years. He pitched with great control and had three effective pitches (fastball, cutter, and curveball) that made him extremely successful. Pettitte was a leader in the clubhouse, whether it was for the Yankees or the Astros and was someone who could be counted on to get the job done.

Overall, Pettitte won 240 games and had 100+ more wins than loses for his career. He had 10+ winning seasons 15 out of 16 years in the majors. He also had a sub 4.00 ERA pitching most of his career in the AL East and won 19 postseason games. How many pitchers in the Hall of Fame can say that? Not many!