I keep seeing all these upcoming HOF nomination articles that have Sabathia's name in the headlines.

Is this just to get clicks from Yankees fans? Or is he a legit candidate to get inducted?

He was very good for the peak of his career but not enough.

I think of him more like a Orel Hershiser, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte, Doc Gooden, Carlos Zambrano, Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Suttcliffe, Jon Lester level player.

Saves weren't a stat until 1969 so someone had to be the record holder.

AgRyan04 said:

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I keep seeing all these upcoming HOF nomination articles that have Sabathia's name in the headlines.

Is this just to get clicks from Yankees fans? Or is he a legit candidate to get inducted?

He was very good for the peak of his career but not enough.

I think of him more like a Orel Hershiser, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte, Doc Gooden, Carlos Zambrano, Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Suttcliffe, Jon Lester level player.

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Sabathia has received about 92% of the vote on publicly revealed ballots (about one third of the total).

At this point, it appears highly likely that he going in first ballot.

The 3000 strikeout club is the most compelling argument for his candidacy.

WAR based metrics suggest that Sabathia's career value exceeds all of the players you mention, although he is behind Kevin Brown, Luis Tiant, David Cone, and (most surprisingly) Rick Reuschel.

https://www.bbhoftracker.com/

jja79 said:

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Saves weren't a stat until 1969 so someone had to be the record holder.

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Saves have been back-calculated pre-1969. Jeff Reardon was legitimately the record holder. Of course, this is because no one cared about saves before they were invented. (No one should care about saves after they were invented, either.)

WAR is a stat that I dont completely understand - does his WAR benefit from him playing for so long, even though he was pretty much "just a guy" for the last 7 or 8 years of his career?

Take Roy Oswalt....if he had continued to play another 6 or 7 years at an level well below what he had would his WAR be a lot higher?