Cooped up

By Eric Wilbur

2 minutes to read

About the biggest argument I’ve heard this week about Curt Schilling not being a Hall of Fame caliber player is that he never won a Cy Young Award.

That’s it?

It’s inane to judge anyone’s candidacy on a subjective decoration decided upon by baseball writers, who in some form or another, at some point in time, have biases that shouldn’t get in the way of enshrinement. Walter Johnson never won a Cy Young Award. Of course, if didn’t exist yet, but we digress.


Perhaps the most concrete case for Schilling’s Hall of Fame likelihood, aside from the gaudy postseason stats, being 15th all-time in strikeouts, and possessing a strikeouts-to-walks ratio (4.38) that happens to be the second-best in baseball history, is this nugget from Arizona Republic writer Bob Young:

Sabermetrics creator Bill James uses a “Hall of Fame Monitor” test that awards points for various statistics to predict whether a player will get into the Hall of Fame. According to Baseball-Reference.com, a score of 130 makes a player “a cinch” to be named to the Hall.
Schilling scores a 171, ranking 33rd all-time among pitchers and ahead of 27 pitchers in Cooperstown.

Indeed, Schilling’s score is just one point behind Dennis Eckersley, who made it to Cooperstown on the first ballot. Every retired pitcher ahead of him on the list, save Jim McCormick, has been inducted.
Here are James’ criteria:
• 15 points for each season of 30 or more wins, 10 for 25 wins, 8 for 23 wins, 6 for 20 wins, 4 for 18 wins, and 2 for 15 wins.
• 6 points for 300 strikeouts, 3 points for 250 SO, or 2 points for 200 or more strikeouts.
• 2 points for each season with 14 or more wins and a .700 winning percentage.
• 4 points for a sub-2.00 ERA, 1 point if under 3.00.
• 7 points for 40 or more saves, 4 points for 30 or more, and 1 point for 20 or more.
• 8 points for each MVP award, 5 for a Cy Young award, 3 for each AllStar Game, and 1 point for a Rookie of the Year award.
• 1 point for a gold glove.
• 1 point for each no-hitter. This is not currently included.
• 2 points for leading the league in ERA, 1 for leading in games, wins, innings, W-L%, SO, SV or SHO. Half point for leading in CG.
• 35 points for 300 or more wins, 25 for 275, 20 for 250, 15 for 225, 10 for 200, 8 for 174 and 5 for 150 wins.
• 8 points for a career W-L% over .625, 5 points for over .600, 3 points for over .575, and 1 point for over .525, min. 190 decisions.
• 10 points for a career ERA under 3.00, min 190 decisions.
• 20 points for 300 career saves and 10 points for 200 career saves.
• 30 points for 1000 career games, 20 for 850 games and 10 for 700 games.
• 20 points for more than 4,000 strikeouts, and 10 for 3,000 SO.
• 2 points for each WS start, 1 point for each relief appearance, and 2 for a win.
• 1 point for each LCS or LDS win.
For the record, Jim Rice scored a 144. Looking way down the road, Josh Beckett is only a 31, Jonathan Papelbon a 38 (tied with Keith Foulke), and Tim Wakefield a 25. David Ortiz is an 87, Dustin Pedroia a 49, Jason Varitek a 39, and Julio Lugo is an 11. Manny Ramirez is a 211, 37th-best all-time among batters.

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