Yankees: The case that SP Mike Mussina belongs in Cooperstown

The 2019 Hall of Fame ballot was released last week and featured beloved Yankees Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte. Mo is a no-doubt first ballot Hall of Famer, while Pettitte is considered borderline. However, another former Yankees pitcher certainly belongs in Cooperstown based on his immaculate accolades: Mike Mussina.

Before we get started Yankees fans, I want to clarify something. Mike Mussina will someday be a Hall of Famer. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

What confuses me is when members of the BBWAA release their ballots to the public and I don’t see Mussina’s box checked off. It really makes me wonder if we’re all looking at the same numbers?

Hence, the statistics and numbers below dig deep to prove why Mussina should be in the Hall of Fame.

The Rundown

Let’s get down to the basics. Over his 18-year career in the majors (10 with the Baltimore Orioles, eight with the New York Yankees), Mussina appeared in 537 games (started 536) and possessed a 270-153 record with a 3.68 ERA. Additionally, the righty struck out 2,813 batters in 3,562.2 IP.

Among every pitcher in the history of the game, here is where Mussina ranks all-time in some of the most significant pitching categories:

Wins: 270 (33rd all-time)

Games Started: 536 (35th all-time)

Strikeouts: 2,813 (20th all-time)

Innings Pitched: 3,562.2 (66th all-time)

Moose was a five-time All-Star (1992-94, 1997, and 1999) and finished in the top five in the American League Cy Young voting six times (finished second in 1999). It blows my mind how Mussina never took home a Cy Young award, but with guys like Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez winning the award year-after-year, I can see why.

Mussina had mixed results in October baseball, but he did appear in the playoffs in nine different seasons (seven for the Yankees) with very respectable numbers. Overall, Moose pitched in 23 games (21 games started) and compiled a 3.42 ERA with 145 K across 139.2 IP. Sadly, the righty was never able to capture a World Series title.

While not very relevant to our argument but simply a neat fact, Mussina was born in Williamsport, PA. How cool is that! Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs provides some excellent additional background on Mussina in one of his latest articles titled JAWS and the 2019 Hall of Fame Ballot: Mike Mussina. 

Golden in the Field

One of the most underrated aspects about Mussina’s game was his fielding. He was incredible! The righty won seven Gold Gloves (Four with the Orioles: 1996-99, Three with the Yankees: 2001, 2003, and 2008) during his career.

The former Stanford Cardinal is tied for fifth all-time among pitchers for the most Gold Gloves. The list is pretty impressive:

Greg Maddux: 18

Jim Kaat: 16

Bob Gibson: 9

Bobby Shantz: 8

Mark Langston: 7

Mike Mussina: 7

With the exception of Maddux and Gibson, this list doesn’t punch your ticket into Cooperstown by any means. However, it’s certainly a great place to start.

Furthermore, the righty finished with a perfect (1.000%) fielding percentage six times (1993, 1996-98, 2003, and 2006) in a single season. In fact, Mussina posted a fielding percentage of .950% or above in 17 of his 18 seasons in the big leagues.

Mussina is tied for 163rd all-time in career fielding percentage (.9798%), which certainly isn’t newsworthy by any stretch. However, only five pitchers on this ahead of Mussina have pitched 18 or more seasons:

50th: Woodie Fryman (18 seasons, .9878%)

82nd: Pete Alexander (20 seasons, .9847%)

88th: Jesse Orosco (24 seasons, .9842%)

92nd: Mariano Rivera (19 seasons, .9840%)

123rd: Rick Wise (18 seasons, .9820%)

163rd: Mike Mussina (18 seasons, .9798%)

While we are certainly number-crunching, my point is that with the more years added onto a pitcher’s career, the likelihood of that pitcher’s fielding percentage going down.

A pitcher who qualified for this list but only pitched single-digit seasons for his career has a better chance of having a higher fielding percentage than someone like Mussina, who pitched in the majors for almost two decades.

This means WAR!

This is where Mussina’s Hall of Fame case gets interesting.

For those of you who are unsure of what WAR is, it stands for Wins Above Replacement (Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs both have different calculations for determining WAR). What’s great about WAR is that it gives us, the reader, a round number when comparing both hitters and pitchers.

Mussina compiled a career pitching WAR of 82.9, good for 23rd all-time among pitchers. Here’s the astounding part of this number.

Of the 22 pitchers in front of Mussina for all-time pitching WAR, 21 are in the Hall of Fame. The only pitcher who is not in Cooperstown is Clemens, who would have been elected had it not been for his controversial playing career.

But wait, it gets better.

The righty has a career overall WAR of 83.0, good for 58th all-time among past and active players. Check out who is sandwiched in between Mussina:

57th: Ken Griffey Jr. (83.8)

58th: Mike Mussina (83.0)

59th: Nolan Ryan (81.8)

Pretty elite company if you ask me?

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There are only five players on this list who are in front of Mussina in career WAR but aren’t in the Hall of Fame. Two of them are for-sure Hall of Famers in Albert Pujols (31st all-time, 100.0 WAR) and Adrian Beltre (38th all-time, 95.7 WAR).

The other three are controversial based on confirmed or rumored PED-use in Barry Bonds (fourth all-time, 162.8 WAR), Clemens (eighth all-time, 139.6 WAR), and Alex Rodriguez (16th all-time, 117.8 WAR). The numbers don’t lie, Mussina is right in the middle of the best-of-the-best, the titans of our game.

While WAR certainly isn’t the best indicator in determining who should be in the Hall of Fame, it certainly gives us an advantage of providing us a round number to make these comparisons among hitters and pitchers.

He’s so close!

This is by far the easiest section to make our case.

Mussina retired after the 2008 season and first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot back in 2014. Each year when the results were made public, Mussina’s chances have only increased. Remember, a player has to receive at least 75.0% of the vote to get inducted into Cooperstown.

These are the year-to-year percentages from the BBWAA:

2014: 20.3%

2015: 24.6%

2016: 43.0%

2017: 51.8%

2018: 63.5%

So far, Mussina’s biggest jump was 18.4% between 2015 and 2016 (not including the 20.3% mark when he first appeared on the ballot). The results have been extremely encouraging, and if continuing with this current trend, Moose has a great shot of making The Hall in either 2019 or 2020. Additionally, Mussina still has five more years on the ballot.

Last Licks

There you have it. Mussina’s career numbers and accolades make him a Hall of Famer in my mind. He’s certainly among the best starting pitchers in the history of the game, while also pitching against the heavy-hitting American League East for his ENTIRE career.

The only question is, will the righty go into Cooperstown as a member of the Baltimore Orioles or New York Yankees.

Only Mussina knows that answer.