Ramos: Mike Mussina and the Hall of Fame argument
From SABR member Jen Mac Ramos at Beyond the Box Score on December 19, 2013:
When you look through the 1990s and 2000s pitching leaderboards, there are names that will stand out: Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Roy Halladay, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and so on. To a baseball fan, a lot of these names just scream “Hall of Famer.” Mike Mussina’s name doesn’t necessarily evoke the same reaction, but it should.
Mussina spent all of his career pitching in the AL East: 1991-2000 for the Orioles, then 2001-2008 for the Yankees. If you look at his basic statistics throughout his career, they might not seem like something that stands out. A 3.68 ERA, 1.192 WHIP, and 270-153 W-L record. That’s not mediocre by any means, but he’s no Clemens or Johnson. But who expects everyone to be on that level? (No one, really; that’s rhetorical.)
What’s not seen on the surface of his statistics is Mussina’s consistency and well-above-average performance throughout the years. He put up 10 five-plus fWAR seasons and two four-plus fWAR seasons over 18 years, which is quite a feat in an offense-heavy division and an overlap with the steroid era.
Read the full article here: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/12/19/5225198/mike-mussina-2014-hall-of-fame-argument
Originally published: December 19, 2013. Last Updated: December 19, 2013.