Drysdale vs. Cooperstown's finest

Don Drysdale has been often criticized for his status as a Hall of Famer. He has a career 209-166 record, and his .557 winning percentage is tied with Darren Oliver for 286th on the all-time list. And it's been said that if Drysdale (209-166, 121 ERA+) is a Hall of Famer, then why not Milt Pappas (209-164, 110 ERA+)?

Well, if the difference in ERA+ (and the 2.95 - 3.40 edge in actual ERA) doesn't make it obvious, then look at this:

These are the ten batters whom Drysdale faced most (regular season only):

Hank Aaron 249 PA
Willie Mays 243 PA
Eddie Mathews 229 PA
Ernie Banks 202 PA
Roberto Clemente 172 PA
Orlando Cepeda 167 PA
Bill White 153 PA
Willie McCovey 151 PA
Ron Santo 147 PA
Curt Flood 143 PA

and the list of ten batters Pappas faced most (regular season only):

Tito Francona 102 PA
Jerry Lumpe 102 PA
Harmon Killebrew 98 PA
Woodie Held 97 PA
Roger Maris 95 PA
Vic Power 92 PA
Bob Allison 90 PA
Ron Hunt 87 PA
Rocky Colavito 85 PA
Ron Fairly 85 PA

The point isn't to revive the Drysdale vs. Pappas debate; it's just a single example. What I am pointing out is the incredible bulk of plate appearances of legendary performers against Drysdale and how it made me really think about how impressive this era of baseball was. It was perhaps the greatest era of baseball, due to the first wave of great black players to play a full career in the majors.

I next asked myself, how does this compare with other hurlers? So I began compiling lists of plate appearances of Hall of Famers against several pitchers. Of course I knew that due to expansion and the fact that some players have yet to become Hall eligible, the pitchers from earlier periods would easily beat out more recent pitchers... but by how much? And can anyone match Drysdale's formidable list of batters faced?

I dug into the matter by pulling up batter vs. pitcher logs on baseball-reference.com. Some games were missing from the records, and I did note how many games were missed. I took the combined number of plate appearances of Hall of Famers (excluding HOF pitchers and those inducted as managers, such as Sparky Anderson and Dick Williams) and divided it by the number of batters faced.

Here's what resulted:

Most BFA vs HOF (Through Class of 2011)
regular season only
(BFA -- HOF PCT -- man games missed
Don Drysdale - 14097 -- 2379 -- 16.86% -- 2
Larry Jackson - 13593 -- 2041 -- 15.02% -- 11
Lew Burdette - 12745 -- 1863 -- 14.62% -- 43
Sandy Koufax - 9497 -- 1371 -- 14.44%
Robin Roberts *** - 17637 -- 2537 -- 14.38% -- 49
Bob Buhl - 11045 -- 1551 -- 14.04% -- 32
Warren Spahn *** - 17458 -- 2338 -- 13.39% -- 41
Bob Friend - 15214 -- 2002 -- 13.16% -- 84
Vern Law - 11231 -- 1386 -- 12.34% -- 78
Jim Bunning - 15618 -- 1751 -- 11.21% -- 1
Bob Gibson - 16068 -- 1799 -- 11.20%
Ray Sadecki - 10694 -- 1193 -- 11.16%
Claude Osteen - 14433 -- 1587 -- 11.00%
Juan Marichal - 14236 -- 1463 -- 10.28%
Don Sutton - 21631 -- 2160 -- 9.99%
Gaylord Perry - 21593 -- 2113 -- 9.79%
Tom Seaver - 19369 -- 1802 -- 9.30%
Jerry Koosman - 15996 -- 1485 -- 9.28%
Rick Wise - 13157 -- 1180 -- 8.97%
Phil Niekro - 22677 -- 1975 -- 8.71% -- 30
Fergie Jenkins - 18400 -- 1560 -- 8.48% -- 2
Milt Pappas - 13198 -- 1110 -- 8.41% -- 2
Camilo Pascual - 12415 -- 1033 -- 8.32%
Doyle Alexander - 14162 -- 1169 -- 8.25%
Joe Niekro - 15166 -- 1232 -- 8.12% -- 1
Mike Cuellar - 11505 -- 913 -- 7.94% -- 3
Whitey Ford - 13036 -- 1031 -- 7.91% -- 2
Ken Holtzman - 12069 -- 940 -- 7.79%
Rick Reuschel - 14888 -- 1153 -- 7.74%
Catfish Hunter - 14032 -- 1082 -- 7.71%
Steve Carlton - 21683 -- 1668 -- 7.69%
Tommy John - 19692 -- 1487 -- 7.55%
Burt Hooton - 11025 -- 802 -- 7.27%
Jerry Reuss - 15582 -- 1122 -- 7.20%
Nolan Ryan - 22575 -- 1609 -- 7.12%
Mickey Lolich - 15140 -- 1061 -- 7.01%
Jim Palmer - 16114 -- 1126 -- 6.99%
Vida Blue - 13837 -- 962 -- 6.95%
Jim Kaat - 19023 -- 1310 -- 6.89%
Bert Blyleven - 20491 -- 1392 -- 6.79%
Luis Tiant - 14365 -- 947 -- 6.59%
Dave McNally - 11229 -- 612 -- 5.45%

*** Statistics since 1950

So, I was unable to find anyone as of yet (with a significant amount of batters faced) who could top Drysdale.

You may ask, what of the missed games? Consider that one missed game will be about three or four plate appearances, so for example Bob Friend's 84 missing games may generously be 320 at-bats. 320 at-bats on 15,000+ plate appearances is barely two percent, so it wouldn't be enough to surpass Drysdale. Also, I believe there's a decent chance for a posthumous election of Ron Santo to the Hall of Fame, and only Bob Gibson faced Santo more than Drysdale.

And what about guys like Nolan Ryan? There are several players who could possibly make the Hall of Fame... but even adding Pete Rose (84), Tim Raines (79), Dave Parker (71), Dick Allen (67), Ron Santo (32), Ken Griffey, Jr. (31), Omar Vizquel (28), Sammy Sosa (18), Barry Bonds (15), Barry Larkin (15), Frank Thomas (15), Gary Sheffield (11), Mark McGwire (10), and Jim Thome (5), that's only an additional 481 PA, which would augment his percentage to only 9.26%, still far below Drysdale's nearly 17 percent.

Here are a few active stars to ponder:

Roy Halladay (through 2010 season):
David Ortiz 109
Johnny Damon 108
Derek Jeter 104
Carl Crawford 86
Manny Ramirez 86
Jason Varitek 84
Alex Rodriguez 83
Melvin Mora 81
Jason Giambi 80
Aubrey Huff 79

Jeter, Ramirez, Rodriguez all most likely make it. Maybe Crawford. But far from 200 PA apiece against them.

Cliff Lee (through 2010 season):
Magglio Ordonez 56
David DeJesus 53
Derek Jeter 52
Paul Konerko 50
Curtis Granderson 48
Brandon Inge 48
Ichiro Suzuki 46
Mark Teahen 46
Juan Uribe 45
Mark Teixeira 44

Even less impressive. Jeter, Ichiro, possibly Teixeira. Konerko if he puts up Barry Bonds post 35 numbers.

This post isn't a definitive statement on anything in particular (maybe except the watered down talent of today's game); I think this is just an interesting statistical compilation to chew on. Made me truly appreciate the career of a guy who often gets the rep as the Robin to Koufax's Batman, despite the size difference.