Quote:
Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector
Andy Pettite is way over him and Andy has an uphill climb
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Pettite is a doper and has no shot. Buehrle at least has a shot, a long long shot. He'd have to turn into Koufax or Ford for 3-4 seasons to be in the discussion. Buehrle was a very good pitcher on some pretty bad teams, but a Hall of Very Good, not a Hall of Famer.
The better comparison would be to Don Sutton who was an above average pitcher on some really good teams and managed 300+ wins by pitching forever and making the HOF.
Sutton WAR 67.4 WAR 7 34.0 JAWS 50.7
Buehrle WAR 57.5 WAR 7 35.8 JAWS 46.6
Sutton was a 4 time AS and finished top 5 in CY Young 5 years in a row with a 3rd place his best finish
Buehrle 5 time AS and only 1 top 5 Cy Young finishing 5th
Sutton 324 wins 3574 Ks 3.26 ERA 108 ERA+ 3.24 FIP 1.142 WHIP
Buehrle 200 wins 1780 Ks 3.81 ERA 117 ERA+ 4.11 FIP 1.284 WHIP
The only thing on Buehrle's resume that hints at HOF outside of those two games is his ERA+, which is already very marginal and likely to drop to below HOF standards in the twilight of his career.
Baseball Reference's most similar players are Bartolo Colon, Frank Viola and Milt Pappas, all Hall of Good, not Hall of Fame players. I can see the standards for the HOF dropping in the future, but not to the level of Buehrle, barring a miraculous turn around in his late 30s.