Glavine vs. Palmer

Last night Tom Glavine won his 268th game which ties him with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer for 32nd place on the all-time wins list. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two and use this comparison to gauge Glavine's HOF chances.

- Glavine got to 268 wins in 588 starts. In those games he also had 178 losses for a .600 winning percentage. Palmer got his 268 wins in 558 games. Palmer had 152 losses and a winning percentage of .638. Advantage Palmer.

- Glavine has a career ERA of 3.48 compared to Palmer's 2.86. Glavine's ERA+ (which is useful to compare pitchers from different generations) going into this season was 121. Palmer's career ERA+ was 125. Advantage Palmer.

- Glavine has 2,291 career strikeouts compared to Palmers 2,212. Glavine also has 1,317 walks to go along with those K's compared to Palmer's 1,311. Advantage Glavine (especially when you consider that Palmer played in more of a strikeout era).

- Glavine was 12-10 with a 3.58 ERA in playoff and World Series games. Palmer was 7-5 with a 2.61 ERA. Taking into consideration the different eras they played - slight advantage Palmer.

- Glavine was a 9-time all-star. Palmer a 6-time all-star. Glavine won 2 Cy Young Awards and was in the top 3 in Cy Young voting 6 times. Palmer won 3 Cy Youngs and was top 3 on 6 occasions. I call the awards a push.

- Glavine had 5 20-win seasons and led the league in wins each of those years. Palmer had 8 20-win seasons but only led the league 3 times. This is a push but it is useful to show the differences in eras.

I think overall, Jim Palmer has a slight edge over Tom Glavine in a head-to-head comparison. These two players are very similar in terms of their raw numbers though. However, I did not touch on their biggest difference - Palmer is a rightie while Glavine is a Southpaw.

If you look at Glavine in historical terms versus other lefties - you find that Glavine is 7th among lefties in all-time wins (only Jim Kaat and Tommy John have more wins and are NOT in the HOF but Glavine will probably pass both these players in wins). On the all-time strikeout list - only 12 lefties have more strikeouts (but of those 12 only 5 are HOF or sure fire HOF - Randy Johnson).

The case for Tom Glavine for HOF will be interesting. On one hand, Glavine is similar enough to Palmer that you could say that if Palmer is in then Glavine deserves induction. On the other hand - you could ask how much better Glavine was to Jack Morris or Jim Kaat and argue that if those two guys aren't in neither should Glavine.

Personally, I think Glavine deserves induction but I'm biased by his Massachusetts roots.