Kenny Rogers: Does He Have Any Shot of Making the Hall of Fame?

Does Kenny (the Gambler) Rogers have any shot at making the Hall of Fame?

Here is his record to date:

Lifetime record of 207-139. Good for a winning percentage of .598. The 207 wins puts Rogers in a tie for 91st place all time with, Curt Schilling, Hal Newhouser, Carl Mays, and Bob Lemon. Newhouser and Lemon are in the Hall of Fame.

His K rate is 5.4, while his BB rate is 3.2. That works out to a 1.7 K to BB ratio. As those who have seen him pitch already know, Rogers is not much of a strikeout pitcher, and he's not even much of a control pitcher.

Career ERA of 4.19, which is 91% of the League ERA over his career. That's a fine number, but there are over 70 retired starters who have done better (200 or more starts). Other starters with the same percentage of the League ERA include Catfish Hunter, Fergie Jenkins, Phil Niekro, Herb Pennock, Vic Raschi, Lou Tiante, and Early Wynn. Hunter, Jenkins, Niekro, Pennock, and Wynn are in the Hall of Fame.

Kenny Rogers has yet to win a Cy Young Award. He has been an All Star 4 times, and he has won 5 Gold Gloves.

Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game for the Texas Rangers on July 28, 1994 vs. the Angels.

The Gambler currently has 1,850 strikeouts, which is good for a 76th place tie on the all time list with Mickey Welch.

Rogers post season record is 3-3, with a 4.15 ERA in 9 series. His teams have gone 6-3 in those series. In two World Series, Rogers has gone 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA. Rogers won the World Series with the New York Yankees back in 1996, and lost last year's World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was accused by some of doctoring the ball with pine tar. (The camera certainly showed a pine tar looking smudge on his hand.)

Over the course of his career, the teams Rogers has pitched for have gone a combined 1555-1458 (.516). His lifetime winning percentage is .598. So Kenny Rogers has pitched .082 better than the teams he has pitched for. That is a very high number that only 16 retired pitchers have bested.

Looking at Rogers record, a great deal of the percentage above teams pitched for has been the product of the last 5 years. From 2002-2006, Rogers went 75-41 (.647), while the teams he pitched for went a combined 425-385 (.525). So Rogers has pitched .122 better than his teams over the last 5 years. That is a very high number very few pitchers ever achieve over a 5 year span. His percentage of the League ERA over the last 5 years, 87%, has also been better than what is was over his whole career (91%). And in four of the last five years he was pitching in tough parks in Texas (3 years) and Minnesota.

Still, prior to 2002, Rogers had a lifetime winning percentage of .574, while his teams had a winning percentage of .513. So he was .061 higher than his teams prior to 2002. That is still a very high and impressive number. The average Hall of Fame pitcher has moved his team forward by .055. So Rogers was still ahead of the average Hall of Famer prior to 2002.

Does Kenny Rogers have any chance of making the Hall of Fame? Unless he can keep doing what he has done over the last five years, for at least three more years, it's very doubtful. Rogers has never done the things that impress the Hall of Fame voters. He has never won 20 games, never won a Cy Young Award, he is not a power, high strikeout pitcher. But a careful examination of his record reveals he has been a high percentage pitcher throughout his career. Like him or hate him, you have to give him credit for that.

Rogers was recently diagnosed with a blood clot in his shoulder and had surgery to remove it. He will be out at least through the All Star break in 2007.