Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 17 - Catfish Hunter

    Catfish Hunter pitched from 1965 through 1975 for the A's in both Kansas City and Oakland and for the New York Yankees through 1979. He was a pretty good pitcher, but not a Hall of Famer. Let us look over his career. 
    Hunter started out with the Kansas City A's in 1965 and went 8-8 with an ERA of 4.26. In his second season, he went 9-11 with a 4.02 ERA, giving him an adjusted ERA of 84 in his first 309 2/3 innings. In 1967, however, Hunter had a good year, 13-17, 2.81, 196 strikeouts, and the A's moved to Oakland for the 1968 season. Hunter, at age 22, pitched a perfect game on May 8, but altogether had another rather disappointing season and wasn't much better in 1969 or 1970, either. Hunter won 21 games in both 1971 and 1972, posting ERA's of 2.96 and 2.04, respectively. From then he went 21-5 (despite an ERA only 107% better than the league average) and 25-12. In 1974, Hunter won the Cy Young Award and led the AL in ERA to help the A's to their third straight World Series title. After that season, Hunter was granted free agency and signed with the Yankees, enjoying one last good season in 1975. In 1976, Hunter turned 30, and from then on his career started to fall apart. That season, Hunter led the AL in earned runs allowed and home runs allowed for the second time each. From 1976 through his final season of 1979, Hunter went 40-39 with an adjusted ERA of 91. He was finished after his age 33 season, when he went 2-9. 
    Catfish Hunter's career record is 224-166 (.574) with a 3.26 ERA. The ERA was good only for an adjusted OPS of 104, since he pitched in the most pitcher friendly era of baseball history. His record is inflated too, because he pitched for some of the best teams in baseball. 

My opinion: Catfish Hunter is not a Hall of Famer. 

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