Is Curt Schilling a Hall of Famer?

Curt Schilling announced his retirement from baseball. There will be plenty of people who either love Schilling or hate him. With that in mind, many wonder whether or not Schilling will be inducted into Cooperstown?

Schilling's career wins and losses, 216 and 146, respectively, are borderline Hall of Famer.

He pitched 20 years in the Major Leagues.  In three of those 20 years, Schilling had 20 or more wins, and in seven of the years, he had over 10.  That translates to half of his career made up of single-digit win totals.

Also in his career, Schilling amassed 83 complete games and 20 shutouts. He also struckout 3,116 batters to just 711 walks and has a career ERA of 3.46.

Schilling's best season in the majors was with Arizona in 2002, when he went 23-7 with a 3.23 ERA, struck out 313 batters, walked only 33, and had five complete games.

But in many of those years where Schilling did not win a gaudy amount of games, he did, however, pitch an amount of complete games that can only be associated with elite pitching.

In his 1992 season, he went 14-11 with a 2.35 ERA, struck out 147 to 59 walks, and had 10 complete games.

Another argument for Schilling's best season was his 1998 season with Philadelphia, where he went 15-14 with a 3.25 ERA, struck out 300, and walked 65, but had an extraordinary 15 complete games.

Surprisingly, even with the three years of 20 or more wins and a career winning percentage of .597, schilling never won a single Cy Young Award.

Schilling's career also got off to a rocky start when he was traded twice, once from Baltimore to Houston and then from Houston to Philadelphia.

The reason he was traded from Houston was because he came in out of shape, acted like he already made the team, lacked discipline, and complained when he was being worked out of the bullpen.

The problem that may arise for Schilling is that he may not have anywhere near the amount of wins to go to the hall of fame, with only 216. Ten years of singl-digit win totals isn't that impressive. He also had five years of double-digits in the loss column.

Again, when he was on top of his game, he was an outstanding pitcher, but he just doesn't have the wins or the consistency to belong among the best the sport has seen.

One could argue that Stan Coveleski got into the Hall of Fame with 215 wins, but there are reasons for his induction, including the 224 complete games he compiled, more 20-win seasons than Schilling, and a better ERA.

So, the question that needs to be answered is, is Curt Schilling a Hall of Famer?

And that answer is no.