Pettitte and Sabathia: Both Became Hall-Worthy in 2012
Nov 9, 2012 by Adam Darowski
Each season, we watch as some of the game’s top veterans make progress towards major career milestones (like 3000 hits, 500 home runs, and 300 wins). The Hall of Stats has a version of this, too. We like to see active players cross the hall-worthiness threshold. Specifically, we like to see them scale a Hall Rating of 100 (which represents the Hall of Stats borderline).
Two players reached that milestone in 2012—Yankee pitchers Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia. Each went about it quite differently.
40-year old Pettitte has already been discussed in Hall of Fame terms. That happens when you retire, like Pettitte did after the 2010 season. After sitting out the 2011 season, Pettitte returned and pitched very well in a dozen starts before missing the remainder of the year due to injury. He was worth 2.2 WAR in those twelve starts, pushing him over the line to 104.8 wWAR (for a Hall Rating of 103.5).
Sabathia, meanwhile, simply added another impressive campaign to his dominant resume. His WAR was a bit lower than usual (3.3), but he still went 15–6 with a 3.38 ERA (124 ERA+) while leading the league in K/BB in 200 innings. Through Sabathia’s age 31 season, he already has 191 victories. Here’s guessing the “we’re never going to have another 300-game winner” talk was, once again, garbage. Sabathia now has 102.3 wWAR and a Hall Rating of 101.
Who’s next? Among active players, Lance Berkman is next with a Hall Rating of 97. He is followed by Jason Giambi (93), Mark Buehrle (92), Johnny Damon (88), Miguel Cabrera (88), Mark Teixeira (88), and Joe Mauer (87).
Note: The Hall Rating formula has changed slightly since this article was published. The Hall Rating figures used are from the time of publication.