A Case for Moose
Mike Mussina’s retirement will set up an interesting choice for baseball writers in five years. While his last year will go down as his only 20-win season, there are reasons to cut him some slack on that front.
Why? The baseball strike of 1994-’95 that cancelled the ‘94 World Series. The strike also cut short two of Mussina’s finest seasons, when he easily could have won 20. In 1994, Moose’s 16 wins in a 112-game season ranked near the top of the American League. With nine more starts – a distinct possibility in a normal season – the magic 20-win plateau was within reach.
The strike also did Moose no favors in 1995. When players returned to work, the new season was set at only 144 games. Mussina did his part, leading the league with 19 wins on a losing team. He also topped the AL with 4 shutouts that year. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that he might have won 20 with three or four more turns in the rotation.
With 270 career wins and a .638 win percentage, Mussina has a strong case for the Hall. The fact that he played his entire career in the American League East of the 1990s and 2000s is another plus. While not a first-ballot selection, Mussina has a compelling Hall of Fame resume that is hard to ignore.
Keeping track of the game's past -- and the Hall of Fame's future
2 comments:
Good points about Moose, but Baltimore fans still think he should have stayed with the O's instead of the dreaded Yankees.
The one knock I have against Moose is that -- except for 1997 --- he did not shine in the postseason. Career postseason numbers, thanks to Baseball Reference.com:
16 Postseason Series
W/L = 7-8
G = 23
GS = 21
ERA = 3.42
IP = 139.2
H = 121
ER = 53
BB = 33
K = 145
WHIP = 1.102
OK, he had excellent WHIP and stikeouts-to-innings-pitched and strikeouts-to-walks ratios. But, except in the 2001 ALDS, when he shut down Oakland in a must-win game, Mussina did not pitch well when the Yanks needed him most in the postseason: the 2001 WS, the '03 & '04 ALCS and the '05 & '06 ALDS. His numbers are poor in all of those.
As much as I'd love to see a Williamsport, Pa., native -- and another Yankee -- make the Hall, I don't see it happening.
Post a Comment