Mike Mussina's locker at the Yanks' Spring Training Complex in Tampa is situated right between youngsters Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes.

The Yanks didn't plan this…but Moose insisted on it, "If I'm going to sit there talking to Kennedy," Mussina said yesterday, "we should have Hughes there too."

Hopefully, the two youngsters will be dutiful students as the feat of the master, for Mussina can teach them a lot when those spontaneous pitching discussions begin.

Always a thinking man, the Stanford-educated Mussina has spent a career staying one step ahead of the hitters. He's been known change his game plan on the fly as he adjusts and readjusts to what the batter is doing. He throws his four main pitches from four different arm slots, creating the effect of a 16-pitch arsenal.

Despite his success, Mike still gets a lot of guff from many Yankee fans. He is often perceived as stubborn and soft. Mussina has never been thought of as ace and his failures on the mound have seemed more notable than his successes.

He is the greatest pitcher never to have won 20 games in a season and never to have won a Cy Young award.

Mussina has won 18 games three times in his career; twice he has won 19 games. Although actual W/L is not a good barometer of a pitcher's worth, his near misses at 20-win seasons are interesting because they are indicative of a guy who "almost gets there." This trait reached its symbolic climax when Mike had a perfect game in Boston with two outs in the ninth before Carl "The Paleontologist" Everett got a base hit.

Mussina's May 6, 2006  victory against the Texas Rangers was the 229th of his career -- and it moved his career mark to 101 games over .500, at 229-128. That game was Mike's 450th career start.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only seven pitchers during the expansion era (since 1961) have won more games than Mussina in their first 450 starts: Tom Seaver (236-131), Bob Gibson (236-137), Juan Marichal (236-139), Jim Palmer (234-130), Roger Clemens (233-124), Randy Johnson (231-116) and Greg Maddux (230-128).

Just look at the company Mussina is keeping:

CAREER
1920-2007

RSAA                            RSAA   
1    Roger Clemens        732  
2    Lefty Grove              668  
3    Greg Maddux           559  
4    Randy Johnson        519  
5    Pedro Martinez         511  
6    Tom Seaver              404  
7    Carl Hubbell             355  
8    Bob Gibson              350  
9    Curt Schilling            346  
10   Bert Blyleven           344  
11   John Smoltz            323  
12   Phil Niekro               322  
13   Whitey Ford             321  
14   Warren Spahn         319  
15   Gaylord Perry          317  
16   Jim Palmer              314  
17   Tom Glavine            313  
18   Hal Newhouser        309  
19   Kevin Brown            304  
20   Mike Mussina          302  

CAREER
1920-2007
3,000 IP

BASERUNNERS/9 IP       BR/9 IP  
1    Juan Marichal              10.02  
2    Tom Seaver                 10.23  
3    Catfish Hunter             10.34  
4    Curt Schilling               10.38  
5    Don Sutton                  10.42  
6    Ferguson Jenkins        10.44  
7    Greg Maddux              10.51  
8    Carl Hubbell                10.62  
9    Robin Roberts             10.63  
10   Dennis Eckersley       10.65  
11   John Smoltz               10.67  
12   Jim Palmer                 10.71  
13   Don Drysdale             10.73  
14   Gaylord Perry             10.81  
15   Warren Spahn            10.82  
16   Roger Clemens          10.84  
17   Mike Mussina             10.85  
18   Randy Johnson           10.90  
19   Luis Tiant                    10.91  
20   Bob Gibson                 10.93  

CAREER
1920-2007
3,000 IP
                                    WINNING  PCT   
1    Whitey Ford               .690  
2    Lefty Grove                .680  
3    Roger Clemens          .658  
4    Randy Johnson          .654  
5    Jim Palmer                 .638  
6    Mike Mussina             .635  
7    Juan Marichal             .631  
8    Carl Hubbell               .622  
9    Bob Feller                   .621  
10   Greg Maddux             .619  
11   Tom Glavine              .604  
12   David Wells                .604  
13   Tom Seaver               .603  
14   Freddie Fitzsimmons .598  
15   Warren Spahn           .597  
16   Curt Schilling             .597  
17   Kenny Rogers            .595  
18   Kevin Brown              .594  
19   Bob Welch                 .591  
20   Bob Gibson                .591  

Okay - so you know that he has been a great pitcher, a border line Hall of Famer, but where does that leave Mussina for the 2008 season?

Bill James projects 11-7, 3.74, with 159 hits surrendered in 154 innings. The Marcel (Tom Tango) projections aren't as rosy: 10-8, 4.53, 174 hits surrendered in 155 innings.

Both prognosticators, however, see Fussy Mike picking up his k/9 ratio. It was a mere 5.39 in 2007. But James sees Mike leveling out at 7.25 and Marcel at 6.56.

With the Yanks having such a young staff, Mussina's contributions with be extremely important this year. Something tells me he will reach back and pitch better than James or Tango suggest.

It's true that Moose has lost a lot on his fastball. He no longer throws 93, or 90 for that matter. But last year's drop-off was just too swift to be trusted.

The venerable Voros McCracken weighs in:

"It seems likely Mussina's hits per balls in play will come down as nobody (not even non-pitchers who try and pitch) have rates consistently as high as his was in 2007. The big question is whether at his age we might be seeing a lessening of his stuff which might lead to fewer strikeouts and more home runs.

I think he probably should be better, but I'm not sure that means he's necessarily going to be "good." League average is a reasonable best case scenario (like his 2005) and with the Yankees offense that would be plenty to win games with."

And an added benefit: Moose doesn't have to answer any questions about steroid use.