As we have watched Andy Pettitte’s career unfold, few of us have thought, “there’s a Hall of Famer”. But, after a great year at age 33 (17 wins, 2.39 ERA with ratios to match in 222 innings) with Houston, Pettitte deserves a second look.
Andy Pettitte was drafted by the Yankees in the 22nd round of the 1991 draft, a few days before his 19th birthday. He reported to rookie league after the draft and blew the league away in 6 starts and earned a promotion to the New York Penn League, where he fared well in a further 6 starts. He spent all of 1992 in Low-A Greensboro, posting a 10-4 record with a 2.20 ERA. He spent most 1993 in high-A Prince William, but earned a late season start with double A Albany, after another fine season. The 1994 lockout was perfectly timed for Pettitte, as he was putting the final touches on his minor league career, posting matching 7-2 records in double A and triple A with sub-3.00 ERAs. The outstanding feature of his minor league career was his ability to keep the ball in the park, as he surrendered only 21 homers in over 600 minor league innings.
Pettitte arrived in 1995 with the Yankees, and was immediately an effective pitcher, and then put together 2 fine seasons in 1996-97. In his 9-year stint with the Yankees, his seasonal ERA was usually over 4, despite good peripheral statistics, but he posted very pretty won-loss records. He is not alone in this. Some very fine pitchers started for the Yankees during this time- Cone, Mussina, Clemens, David Wells, and Orlando Hernandez, shared this experience. In any event, Pettitte got on his horse after 2003, and headed down to Texas. After losing half a season in 2004 to injury, Pettitte recovered in 2005 and had arguably the best season of his career in 2005 as the Astros made it to the World Series. What is most notable is how Pettitte allowed many fewer hits on balls in play in Houston than he did even in his best years in New York. It is likely that the improved defence up the middle behind him played a significant role.
Pettitte has had plenty of post-season experience, and unlike Smoltz and Schilling has not distinguished himself. He’s 14-9 with a 4.08 ERA in 221 innings, with peripheral statistics consistent with his regular season performance.
We are going to have a little fun with the comparables. Where does Andy Pettitte stand among lefties who have pitched with the Yankees since 1920, as of age 33? We will use Jimmy Key, Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford, Lefty Gomez, and Herb Pennock. We’ll leave the (ahem) obvious comparison with Randy Johnson for another day.
So, here’s the chart:
Pitcher IP(Seasons) ERA+ K/9(lg.) W/9(lg.) HR/9(lg.) DER(lg) W-L Pettitte 2098.0(8.9) 120 6.5(6.4) 2.8(3.6) 0.7(1.1) 700(686) 172-91 Key 2100.3(8.5) 124 5.2(5.7) 2.1(3.5) 0.9(1.0) 710(695) 151-91 Guidry 1767.0(6.4) 122 7.0(4.9) 2.5(3.3) 0.8(0.9) 705(702) 132-59 Ford 2295.0(9.2) 132 5.4(4.3) 3.5(4.0) 0.6(0.8) 721(707) 175-71 Gomez 2498.3(9.0) 125 5.3(3.4) 3.9(3.5) 0.5(0.6) 698(686) 189-101 Pennock 2583.3(8.9) 109 3.2(3.2) 2.5(3.3) 0.3(0.3) 681(685) 174-123
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