Over/Under: Reactions to Andy Pettitte, Retirement, Playoffs, Hall of Fame

Posted by Dash Treyhorn.

Yesterday afternoon, Andy Pettitte announced, to the apathy of just about everyone not in the 212, that he was retiring from baseball at age 38, after 16 years in The Show. It was the final step of was a Favre-like will-he-won’t-he back and forth between Pettitte’s camp, the Yankees, his friends, former players, current players, bloggers, and the like.

Despite still having something left in the tank, he walked away from the team that was more than willing to pony up a nice chunk of change to give the lefty ample opportunity to make another run at the postseason and at a sixth World Series ring.

You know, let’s stop there. Right there, at the postseason. Because as far as Andy Pettitte is concerned, that’s the conversation. His career in the regular season, while fine and more often good than not while ever-so-briefly touching upon greatness, isn’t really worth talking about – especially when there is more than an entire season’s worth of postseason games to ponder over. And that, my friends, brings us to the narrative that is the career of Andy Pettitte: Is he a Hall of Famer?*

*Yes, it’s another one of those. I’m sure you’ve all read a dozen or so of these in the last 12 hours, so what’s the difference? Sue me, it’s the narrative.

Shortly after the news of Pettitte’s retirement broke, I made the following proclamation on Twitter: rather apocryphal tweet: “Cue the “Andy Pettitte for the Hall of Fame” columns in 3…2…1…”

Earth-shattering? No. But again, I was right on the money. The reactions poured in on Pettitte in the shapes of 140 character bursts and blog posts and radio interviews and on and on and on. It was everywhere, and why not? It’s the slowest time of the year as far as baseball is concerned, and there are only so many stories that can be written about the New York Mets and Bernie Madoff.

Let’s tap into the pulse of the baseball world to get their points of view on Mr. Pettitte…

Former ESPN’er Rob Neyer is making himself at home at his new digs over at SBNation and uses all sorts of numbers and comparisons to flesh out Pettitte’s case for Cooperstown…

By the Hall of Fame’s historical standards, Andy Pettitte is a marginal candidate who did everything well but nothing brilliantly, and would probably be enshrined after a moderately long wait.

…

Would I vote for him? That’s a tough one. There are pitchers like Pettitte who aren’t in the Hall, but there are probably more like Pettitte who are. I think I probably would vote for him, with those 19 postseason wins just pushing him over the bar. [SB Nation]

Sean Forman of the New York Times goes the other way with Pettitte’s postseason pedigree…

The second point commonly made is that Pettitte has won the most postseason games in baseball, with 17. Of course, it is rarely mentioned that he is also first in postseason starts with 39 (next is Tom Glavine with 35) and third in losses with 9. Appearing in 28 separate postseason series has a way of bumping those numbers up. Pettitte certainly contributed to those postseason runs, but he was blessed in having Rivera, the greatest closer ever, saving most of his wins (he has not pitched a complete game in the postseason) and also with an offense that gave him among the best run support ever. [New York Times]

ESPN’s Jayson Stark weighed in as well…

We like our Hall of Famers to be No. 1 starters, not No. 3′s. We like them to be dominators, not “competitors.” We look for signs of greatness, not sturdiness.

So I think Andy Pettitte is in for a long ride on the Hall of Fame ballot, a man who will attract hundreds of votes. But if I had to make this call today, I’d say he lands just on the side of “Not quite a Hall of Famer.” [ESPN]

Tom Van Riper, from “Fields of Green” over at Forbes.com offers his take, and hopes that the voters do right by Pettitte with a swift and quick entry…

Some observers are known to nudge Pettitte’s Hall credentials forward by proclaiming him a “big game” or “clutch” pitcher.  Nonsense. Pettitte’s career post season record (19-10, 3.83 ERA) is certainly good, but also virtually identical to his regular season career. Once that playoff sample size gets big enough, many players wind up performing at their expected, regular season level. So let’s congratulate Pettitte on an outstanding career, and hope the Hall of Fame voters do the right thing and elect him quickly. Now if they could only go back and do something for the pitchers that didn’t have that Yankee tailwind at their backs… [Forbes]

And finally, HardBallTalk.com’s Craig Calcaterra posits on the fate of Pettitte and compares him to another pitcher who relied heavily on his postseason performances…

But I have this sneaking suspicion that he’ll make it eventually.  It won’t be on the first ballot, but I think he’ll hang around a long time and eventually get over the hump.  People like Andy Pettitte. And for good reason.  And he’s got a non-trivial case for induction, even if it’s not up to snuff in my view.  Without hard analysis I think his case is better than Jack Morris’ for example.

But I suppose we can save all of this for 2016. [HardBallTalk]

And there you have it. It’s a pretty fair cross section from around the world of baseball, and there are sure to be a ton of other reactions in the coming days, weeks, months and years. If what Bert Blyleven went through, and if what Jack Morris is currently going through is any indication, then we are in for the long haul with Pettitte.

However, you’ll notice that I conspicuously didn’t touch on Pettitte’s admitted use of HGH. Why? To be honest, I didn’t get a sense that a lot of people were really talking about it. It was mentioned in some of the quoted articles, and if you look hard enough (mostly on Twitter), you’ll find stuff. To be honest, it’s almost as if people don’t care about it. Maybe it’s because he was never the best pitcher in the game, or that he never broke any records, or that people buy into his down-home-aw-shucks-demeanor, but really, it’s like people aren’t even talking about it. But maybe it’s just early.

As for my take? Well, like I said, Pettitte was a fine pitcher for his entire career, and he was sometimes good but never really great. His postseason track record is impressive, and folks will highlight his success there more than anywhere else. But where they see greatness, I see a 3.88 ERA over 263 postseason innings (most all time, by the by). The lights of October are hot, but not that hot.

But really, let’s just follow the lead of ‘Duk from Big League Stew and get it figured out now so we can shut the hell up about it and focus on more important things. Like pitchers and catchers reporting.

Posted on February 4, 2011 at 10:00AM

This Post tags: Andy Pettitte, MLB, New York Yankees, Over/Under

 

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