In a lot of ways, Curt Schilling is the Manny Ramirez of pitchers. Ramirez never won a league MVP award, which is a glaring hole on any elite baseball resume, and he alienated fans and Hall-of-Fame voters with his alleged PED use. Similarly, Schilling never won a Cy Young award, which leaves a glaring hole on any elite baseball resume, and he alienated fans and Hall-of-Fame voters with ignorant rhetoric. Neither are sympathetic figures, which leaves both historically underrated strictly from a production standpoint. Now, let’s not get it twisted. Any knowledgeable baseball fan knows that Schilling was a fantastic starting pitcher. However, like Ramirez, it’s just how fantastic that seems to get lost in the noise.

The two most important traits a pitcher can have are limiting contact and avoiding walks. Schilling’s arsenal might have featured the best mix the league has ever seen. He is the only pitcher since 1920 to pitch 3,000+ innings with a K/BB ratio of at least 4.38. He led the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio five times, which is the most by any pitcher to debut since 1927. He’s the only pitcher in history with 3,000+ strikeouts and fewer than 715 walks. Schilling and Juan Marichal are the only two pitchers since 1920 with at least 215 career wins and fewer than 715 walks. What makes Schilling’s power/control mix so remarkable is that he was able to maintain it while also being one of the preeminent workhorses in Major League Baseball. He’s the last pitcher to throw back-to-back seasons of 250 innings, and he led the league in complete games four times. Since 1988, only Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux have more complete games. Perhaps most impressive is that he’s the last pitcher to have three seasons of at least 21 wins. In fact, he might be the last pitcher ever to accomplish that feat.

The comparison to Ramirez extends beyond the regular season. Schilling’s regular-season numbers are Hall of Fame-worthy on their own, but it’s the success he had in the postseason that makes him one of the most unique pitchers baseball has ever seen. In 133 and 1/3 career postseason innings, Schilling went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and .97 WHIP, while winning three World Series titles in four appearances. He was named the 1993 NLCS MVP and 2001 World Series MVP. He holds the record for most innings pitched in a single postseason without a loss (48 and 1/3 in 2001). His 56 strikeouts in the 2001 postseason are nine more in a single postseason than anyone else in history. He holds the record for Win Probability added in a single postseason (2.1 in 2001), and he has the highest postseason winning percentage among starting pitchers with at least 55 postseason innings. Schilling–like Ramirez–has given baseball fans and Hall-of Fame voters plenty of ammunition to look everywhere other than the back of his baseball card. Those who do will discover one of the greatest postseason pitchers in history, and one of the most accurate workhorses the league has ever seen.

The usual caveats about PEDs apply here, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at Manny Ramirez’s career statistics and conclude that he was an elite hitter. Just how elite seems to fly under the radar. Part of that is likely due to the fact that he never won a regular season MVP, and the other is his connection to PEDs, which hardly makes him a sympathetic figure. However, the stats are the stats and it is a fact that Ramirez battered pitchers in a way that we literally haven’t seen since Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Ramirez and Ruth are the only two players in history with at least 550 career home runs, a .410 career on-base percentage, and a career .310 batting average. Ramirez and Ted Williams are the only players since 1936 with at least a .310 career batting average and a career .585 slugging %. He’s 8th all-time in career slugging % (min. 5,000 plate appearances), and he has the fourth-highest slugging % since 1958. He’s 10th all-time in AB/HR, and his 165 RBIs in 1999 are the most in a single season since 1937. He tallied seven seasons of at least 120 RBIs which trails only Alex Rodriguez for the most since 1937.

Ramirez was clearly a regular season beast, but his postseason numbers are what make him arguably the most underappreciated hitter in baseball history. He led 11 teams to the postseason, winning two World Series titles in four appearances, while also being named the 2004 World Series MVP. His 29 postseason home runs are the most in history. Jose Altuve (27) is the only other player within seven of Ramirez. He’s second all-time in postseason RBIs (78), just behind Bernie Williams (80). In fact, Williams is the only player within 15 RBIs of Ramirez’s total. Ramirez is tied for the lead in postseason walks (72) and fourth all-time in postseason hits (117) and runs (67). Ramirez wasn’t a five-tool player, which does limit his ceiling on the all-time list. However, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest postseason players in history and one of the most productive hitters since the 1930s.