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.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
