Philllies: Is this the year Curt Schilling makes the Hall of Fame?

Curt Schilling could be among several Phillies who finally makes the Hall of Fame

Few candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame draw as much attention and controversy as former Phillies ace Curt Schilling. He’s just as outspoken on his personal beliefs as he was dominant on the pitching rubber.

Some can’t put Schilling’s political stances aside when they open their Hall of Fame ballot, while others view their vote as one fo the player, not the person.

Schilling has been on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for seven years and finished last year with 51.2 percent of the votes, up 6.2 percent from the year before. His total votes have gone backwards twice and he still hasn’t fully recovered after receiving 52.3 percent in 2016.

According to Ryan Thibodeaux’s ballot tracker, Schilling is on pace to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with nearly 20 percent of the votes accounted for. He currently sits with 75.9 percent of the votes, and needs to receive at least 293 more votes to ensure his induction this summer.

Last year he had a net gain of 14 votes from returning voters despite losing 11 votes. This year he’s only lost one vote and has picked up four more from returning voters. He’s also received 100 percent of the vote from four new voters.

There are still plenty of votes left to tally, but to receive a large portion of votes early could mean good things for Schilling. There are around 100 writers who voted for him last year who haven’t submitted their ballots publically yet. If you give Schilling 100 more votes on his current total he’d have about 89% of the vote. There are still be several hundred more votes that need to be cast publically before December 31.

As a player, Schilling deserves those votes and should have been inducted years ago. Playing for some very bad Phillies teams after the 1993 pennant team Schilling received no Cy Young votes until his eighth full season in the big leagues and went four more years before he finished second in the Cy Young in three of the next four seasons.

He put up ridiculous stats like 300+ strikeout seasons and a 15 complete game campaign back in 1998. He won three World Series and was close to winning a fourth in Philadelphia. If not for a strike he could have put up bigger career numbers.

Schilling wasn’t the perfect pitcher and isn’t the perfect person, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. It would be incredible for Phillies fans if he goes in with the late Roy Halladay, but if it’s not this year he could be in the same class as Derek Jeter in 2020.

The last year Schilling is eligible would be 2022, which would line him up with the following first-ballot candidates: David Ortiz, Jimmy Rollins, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira.