David Wells - Hall of Famer?

OK - I'll give you a second to recover from that headline. I'm not saying that Wells is a Hall of Famer but I am saying that his claim for fame is better than I first thought.

Consider that if Wells has a couple of decent seasons with the Red Sox then he should finish his career in the top 50 in both wins and strikeouts. That's pretty good.

Going into this season, Wells has a career record of 212-136 - a winning percentage of .609 and 1,974 career strikeouts. I can see him averaging about a 15-7 mark with around 130 K's over the next two seasons with Boston (a 20 win season also isn't out of the question with the run support he should receive with the Sox).

If these predictions hold - then his 242 wins place him in 52nd place (just one behind Juan Marichal and 3 from tying for 48th place). His 242 wins would be more than former Yankee greats Whitey Ford (236) and Catfish Hunter (224) among others.

If he adds 260 K's to his current total then that places him in 48th place all-time, just in front of Hall of Famer Jim Palmer.

Ford, Hunter and Palmer - that's pretty good company.

The past 5 full-time starter elected to the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers were Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Phil Neikro, Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver. If you compare Wells' stats to these guys then it is a pretty quick "umm no thank you" for Wells.

I'm a set the bar higher type of guy so I'd be against Wells in the Hall of Fame. I just wanted to point out that Wells does have a case to make.