posted by JD

I gotta be honest, I’ve never given a ton of credit to Don Sutton and his career previously. Sure, the guy is a Hall of Famer and his 324 career wins rank 14th all time in baseball history. But was he ever great? Did he have any seminal baseball moments? He never had the same mound presence as guys like Seaver, Bob Gibson, Clemens, etc. But looking closer at his career…he kind of was great in several ways.

I noticed that he pitched the seventh most innings in baseball history. That alone speaks volumes. The guy pitched 20 straight seasons of 200+ innings which is insanity to me. I skipped over the 1981 strike year, and the season which broke his streak? He merely pitched 191 innings as a 42 year old! Eight straight seasons in his prime, he also pitched more than 250 innings per year.

But think about how important pitching a ton of innings is to, not just a pitching staff, but to the entire team. Sutton repeatedly going deep into games saves the bullpen, sure. But it also changes the entire roster construction of the team. Being able to depend on Sutton meant that he could take the place of three or four other pitchers and then the team he was on could use those resources in other places. Maybe have a leaner pitching staff to have an extra pinch hitter or something like that. Sutton’s durability helped the entire team, and not only that, innings pitched goes a long way to WAR…mainly because it helps the entire team.

In addition, Sutton may not have been dominant, but he was often the best pitcher on very very good teams. Sure, he made four World Series appearances and didn’t get a ring to show for it, but he was arguably the best pitcher on all four of those teams (three for the Dodgers, one for the Brewers in 1982).

On top of the very valuable innings pitched, he also led his league in WHIP four times and was in the top five for Cy Young voting for five straight seasons. Don Sutton may not be on the pantheon of the greatest pitchers ever, but he deserves his plaque in the Hall of Fame.