Schilling for the Hall?

With Curt's retirement yesterday, this debate started up. 

Now I'm a big Schilling fan. I think he was a helluva pitcher, great in the postseason and I'd take him on my team anytime, but If I had a hall of fame vote would he get it? I'm not sure.... 

I think it all comes down to your definition of what makes a hall of famer. I think the Hall should be reserved for people that were outstanding and dominated during their era. I dislike letting guys in that were "marginal" or were good but not great.... 

My first thought when the Schilling debate came up was "no, he's not a hall of famer". Good over many years, exceptional for a few, 3 world series rings and incredible postseason numbers, but not one of the dominate pitchers during his era. You'd have to rank him 5th (and possibly as low as 7th) behind Maddux, Clemens, Johnson, Martinez and possibly Glavine and Smoltz... Great article by Tom Verducci today in Sports Illustrated discussing his candidacy (click on title to access article).

Now how much credit and weight to his postseason career will determine whether he get's in or not,  but I did come across some other numbers that were pretty impressive:

While Schilling only has 216 career wins, he does have over 3,000 strikeouts and a phenomenal strikeout to walk ratio of 4.38 to 1 (which happens to be the best strikeout to walk ratio since 1900). 

While he never won the CY Young award he was the runner up 3 times (behind incredible years of Johan Santana and Randy Johnson twice). In those 3 years here are Schillings stats:

2001: 22-6, 2.98 ERA, 293 strikeouts.
2002: 23-7, 3.23 ERA, 316 strikeouts.
2004: 21-6, 3.26 ERA, 203 strikeouts in 226 2/3 IP

Not shabby numbers. Throw in his Postseason record - 11-2, 3 World Series rings and 1 World Series MVP, and it's easy to see why he has a legitimate chance of getting in. 

As to his 216 wins, yes it's below the magical 300, but here are some other pitchers in the Hall that fell short of that number also:

Sandy Koufax   - (165)

Bob Gibson   - (251)

Catfish Hunter - (224)

Whitey Ford    - (236)

Bob Lemon    - (207)

Don Drysdale  - (209)

Lefty Gomez    - (189)

He also has a .601 winning percentage which puts him ahead of many guys on that above list. 

After looking at all the numbers I believe the question should be not whether he'll make the Hall, but which team he's going to be inshrined with. But that's a question for another day. 

Bill