Having a dude near the top of your rotation who during big games can compete with damn near anybody was SUCH a blessing with Pettitte and especially El Duque
Really wished he could have gotten that 20th post-season win, but (1) he wasted those years in Houston and (2) the Yankees stopped hitting whenever he started post-2010 ALDS.
He controlled everything in the infield = EVERYTHING HE MADE HIS TEAM LOOK SO GOOD ON THE FIELD, HIS CUTTER WAS PHENOMENAL & ANDY COULD GO THRU 7 IN THE POSTSEASON.
There's absolutely no one I would trust more in a critical game than Andy pettitte Andy pettitte really was a great great picture I don't think you got enough props
Andy Pettitte is one of the elite pitchers of his era, and should be in the Hall of Fame. When evaluating pitchers’ performance, using superficial metrics like ERA, like the HOF voters, you need to acknowledge that these metrics aggregate the performance of not only the pitcher, but the catcher, their defense, the opposing hitter, their manager (the situation and pitch count) as well as the run environment. They continuously fail to do that last part, and this is why Andy is not in the Hall. So let’s consider these factors. Catcher framing and blocking - Pettitte’s catchers were some of the worst. Pettitte suffered through one of the worst defensive catchers of that era-Jorge Posada-for much of his career. His pitch framing and pitch blocking was so bad, it really needs no further justification to anyone with any knowledge of the data. That potentially credits Pettitte 10-15 runs allowed in any given season Posada was his primary catcher-as much as 0.5 a run of ERA. That’s potentially the difference between 0 and multiple 3 Cy Young Awards, by itself. The steroid era-Pettitte’s career spanned much of this era, and some of his best seasons came when the average runs per game, per team, was almost a full run more than it is today. For instance, in 2000, he had a 4.35 ERA, one of the worst marks of his career, but still 11% better than the league average. Pettitte’s ERA+ was 11-77% better league average 13 times, and 30% or more 6 times. Attrition is another factor. The more you pitch, the worse the results-the more times through the order you persist, the more runs you give up. But given that there are a finite number of roster spots, durability in itself is valuable. Sure, you may not be as dominant in the seventh inning of your start than your first, but if you’re still better than Ramiro Mendoza, or you can save Mariano from pitching back-to-back games, and still get a win, that adds value via opportunity cost. When accounting for postseason innings-important given the Yankees dominance during Pettitte’s career-Pettitte averaged 200 innings a season, for his 18 season career. He holds the record for postseason innings pitched. His Yankees teams were steroid-era teams, built for hitting and not defense. He had below-average fielders at shortstop, second base, centerfield and right field, as well as his catcher. Lastly, Pettitte would have been even better, independent of his defense and run environments, had his coaches directed him to pitch optimally. One of his best pitches, his 4-seam fastball, was misused. Consistently, he was encouraged to pitch “down”, and try to pitch middle-in to right-handed hitters to “jam” them-especially with his cutter. He was instructed to “pitch to contact.” This is counter-productive, in actuality, you’re making it drastically easier for opposing hitters to pull and drive some of your best pitches. Later in this career, this becomes obvious, and his strikeouts spiked despite a decline in velocity-he started elevating his 4-seamer against both righties and lefties, and the flat approach angle and placement cut them down. Pettitte was elite despite everything working against him. He should be a HOF. One of the most dominant teams in history, leaned on him (demonstrable by his postseason innings).
