Being Curt About Schilling

Right shoulder surgery will end Curt Schilling's 2008 season before it ever started, and it may end his career. That's all according to #38 himself. Assuming he has thrown his last pitch (personally I think it's too early to say he has) let's examine his Hall-of-Fame resume so far.

His 3,116 career strikeouts are good for 14th all-time. There are four people ahead of him who aren't Hall of Famers, although Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux will be five years after they retire. Roger Clemens is the third, and he's anyone's guess. The fourth is Bert Blyleven and he has nearly 600 more.

What Schilling really lacks is an impressive number of regular season wins, largely due to injuries and his decade spent in Philadelphia. His 216 W's don't even put him in the top-75. He's in Charlie Hough/Kenny Rogers/Kevin Brown territory with that win total, although there are more than a dozen pitchers who got into the Hall with even fewer victories.

He won 20 or more three times. That's also good, but not great. And the fact that he was never a Cy Young Award winner doesn't help either, although he was runner-up on three separate occasions and finished fourth in the voting another time. He appeared in six All-Star games, but never more than three in a row, so he wasn't exactly a staple there.

Up until this point, I'd say he's a long-shot for Cooperstown. But what I haven't mentioned is what's he done in October. And what he's done in October has been exceptional. He has three World Series rings, an 11-2 career postseason record, 2.23 postseason ERA, and 120 strikeouts in 133 1/3 IP. His totals for wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and innings pitched all rank in the top-10 all-time, meaning it is not unreasonable to make the argument that Schilling has been one of the best postseason pitchers ever. And it is for that reason that I think Schilling deserves a place in the Hall.

He may not be a first-ballot guy. And he may not be on the level of contemporaries Johnson, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz or Rivera, but Schilling still deserves a spot, even if he never throws another pitch.