Hall of Fame Poll: Mike Mussina

Mike Mussina is kind of like Jamie Moyer, in that they had long careers, Mussina’s not as long as Moyer’s (18 seasons, compared to 25). Neither was ever the best pitcher in baseball. Mussina never won 20 games (Moyer did it twice), but Mussina didn’t have the bad season’s that Moyer had. He was more consistent.

Mussina was never the best pitcher baseball, but he was good for a long period of time. With 270 wins, he's 33rd all time. He had 9 straight seasons of 200 innings. He was thought of as a good defensive player, winning 7 Gold Gloves.

Mussina had a very good 18 year career, getting double digit wins in every season except his rookie year, so that's 17 years of double digit wins (Moyer had 15 seasons of double digit wins)

Mussina had a 82.7 career bWAR which puts him 24th on the All-Time list. He’s 33rd in career starts. And 20th in strikeouts.

Mussina never won a Cy Young, but he finished 2nd in voting once and finished 4th through 6th 8 times. He was an All-Star 5 times, including the rather famous time that Cito didn't bring him into the game in Baltimore. We talked about in depth back there.

Mussina had no World Series rings but his teams made the playoffs 9 times. He was never the best pitch in baseball or in the AL, but he was a top five pitcher for a long stretch there.

This is Mussina's 5th time on the ballot, he received 51.8% of the vote last year. He’s made big jumps, going from 20.3, to 24.6 to 43.0. I hate trying to out guess the voters, but I think he will make it at some point.

It’s tough to find a great comparison because most guys that have a career that’s as good and long as Mussina’s, generally, will have that season or two where everything goes right and they win 20 and get a Cy Young. That’s why he isn’t in the Hall yet. If he had that one or two seasons, he’d have been elected by now.

You can check out his stats here.

Matt’s chart:

Similar Players: John Smoltz, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale (all elected by BBWAA).