Hall of Fame Poll: Mike Mussina

This is Mike Mussina’s 7th time on the ballot. Last year he got 63.5% of the vote. Normally, once player gets that high, he’s sure to get in. I’m not so sure with Mussina. There are more good candidates added to the ballot each year.

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.

Mussina had a 82.7 career bWAR which puts him 23rd on the All-Time list. He’s 35th 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 pitcher in baseball or in the AL, but he was a top five pitcher for a long stretch there.

It’s tough to find a great comparison because most guys that have a career that’s as good and long as Mussina’s 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. If you look at Matt’s “similar players” Smoltz and Drysdale each won a Cy Young and each had seasons of over 20 wins. Marichal had 6 seasons over 20 wins, but had a tough time winning a Cy Young as he pitched at the same time as Koufax, Gibson and Drysdale.

You can check out his stats here.

Matt’s chart:

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