Happy Birthday to the great Andy Pettitte, one of the clutches and greatest postseason pitchers of all time.

Career Statistics/Accolades (1995-2010;12-13)

256-153 W-L, 3.85 ERA, 3,316.0 IP, 1.351 WHIP, 2,448 SO

  • 3x All-Star
  • 5x World Series Champion
  • 2001 ALCS MVP
  • Most Career Wins in Postseason History 19

Picked by the Yankees in the 22nd Round of the 1990 draft, he went through the Yankees minor league system with fellow longtime teammates Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Bernie Williams. The left-hander Pettitte would make the team in 1995 and be named a Rookie of the Year finalist. The following year in 1996, he finished runner-up in the Cy Young voting as the Yankees would win the World Series. Pettitte brought a four-seam, cut-fastball and several off-speed pitches like a slider, curveball, and changeup. One of the perks to being a left-handed pitcher is an advantage to pickoff runners at first base, and only Steve Carlton has more career pickoffs than Pettitte.

In regards to him being a Hall of Famer? There was nothing generationally dominant regarding Andy Pettitte. You look at the back of his baseball card; he has few black-type statistics and never won a Cy Young. You had about 5-6 years of what I like to call “Hall-of-Fame” seasons. However, Was Andy Pettitte a franchise big-game starting pitcher? Yes, he was. When he was on the mound, regardless of the team he was facing, he was always capable of not giving up many runs, keeping his teams in games. In his 18-year career, he didn’t have a losing season once. For ten seasons, he logged in 200 or more Innings, which is becoming even rare today. But, the postseason or any must-win game is when Pettitte rang the bell. In the postseason, Pettitte was 19–10 with a 3.81 ERA, appearing in eight World Series. No Starting Pitcher has ever won more games, started more games, or logged in more Innings in the postseason than Andy Pettitte. You can argue that if the Yankees held onto Pettitte not letting him go to the Astros after 2003, they wouldn’t have lost to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS.

I’m not saying he belongs in the Hall of Fame or not, but overall, considering that he pitched in the steroid era for at least two-thirds of his career, Pettitte had one hell of a career. If you’re making the Yankees’ all-time 25-man roster, besides Whitey Ford, he’s probably the best pitcher in Yankees history. Had he not spent three seasons with the Houston Astros, he’d have all the Yankees Starting Pitching Statistical Records. I’ll end with this Pettitte may not have been the best pitcher of his era, but you win a World Series because you have an Andy Pettitte type of pitcher on the mound.

Reference:

  1. Andy Pettitte Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pettian01.shtml
  2. Andy Pettitte via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Pettitte#