I don't like Andy Pettitte. It's not personal. He never slashed the tires on my car, slept with my girlfriend, or ordered the last pumpkin scone from Starbucks while I waited in line behind him.
Outside of the steroids and the Favre-ian routine, it's the Yankee stink on him that I can't stand. He's been a good pitcher for a lot of years. Elected to 3 All-Star squads and even won 5 championships. The biggest compliment that anyone can give him is that he's been consistent. Never truly dominating. Simply consistent. He's no where near deserving of the attention and praise he's received. Where he a Kansas City Royal, most people probably wouldn't even know who Andy Pettitte is.
But I don't need to sit here and try to convince you that he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. Kevin Dame at VisualBaseball.com has done it for me. Infographic style.
With Rankometer, we examine a pitcher’s career by visualizing how his WAR stacked up against his peers each season. Since a Hall of Famer should be performing at an elite level, we look at the top 30 starting pitchers in each season, since they would seemingly represent the “elite” (each team’s ace, the top 20 percent, however you want to look at it). So let’s take Rankometer for a spin and see what our eyes tell us.
Throughout his career Pettitte could only be considered 'near-elite' 4 times. Be sure to head on over to the site to see how Pettitte stacks up against Mike Mussina and Greg Maddux. It ain't pretty.
Sorry Yankee fans, but the proof is in the infographic. I'll vote for Pettitte's candidacy for the "Hall of Consistency", but there's no way he should crack the Hall of fame.
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