Mussina for the Hall?A New York Post writer
trashes the notion:
Mike Mussina was a solid pitcher, great at times. He never got hurt and was never awful. For the most part, every time he took the mound his team had a chance to win. But he’s not an all-time great, he’s not an immortal. Only immortals should go into the Hall of Fame.
Right now, there are six or seven (depending on where you stand on Roger Clemens) current or recently-retired hurlers who are pretty much locks to go into the Hall over the next 5-8 years. Those pitchers are Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Mariano Rivera, John Smoltz and possibly Clemens. Does Mike Mussina really belong in the same group as those guys? Of course not. You could argue (and the Yankee fans are gonna love this one) that Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling deserve to go ahead of Mussina, and you wouldn’t be nuts.
It's my considered opinion that Mussina should definitely go into the Hall of Fame; he's way above the dividing line. Consider his 270-153 career won/lost record. That's 127 games above .500. Granted, Mussina labored for some good teams in his career, but that's an extraordinary number. Tom Glavine is 102 games above .500. Greg Madddux is 128 games over sea level. Randy Johnson is 135 games up.
Price brings up a few pitchers who have a few more wins than Mussina:
Many Moose supporters will bring up his 270 wins, but if you’re gonna use that as a barometer, then Jim Katt (283), Burt Blyleven (287) and Tommy John (288) should go in ahead of him.
But they also have lots more losses; Kaat was only 46 games above .500, Blyleven only 37 games and John 57 games over even.
Labels: Mike Mussina
