THE MOOSE IS LOOSE IN COOPERSTOWN! Mike Mussina Finally Gets Voted Into The Baseball Hall Of Fame
https://twitter.com/Orioles/status/1087852096945352704
It's about damn time, congrats to Mike Mussina on finally getting the call to Cooperstown. I spoke here a few weeks back about why this was the year Moose should have made it. Mussina made it in with 76.7 % of the votes, after receiving mid 60% last year. This is a long time coming for Moose and I'm really happy for him. He'll be going into Cooperstown with Harold Baines, Lee Smith, Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez. Two first ballot guys, a stud pitcher who was arguably one of the best in his era in Halladay, and a stud DH who has insanely impressive hitting numbers in Edgar, a nice class here.
I'm insanely happy for Mussina, a guy who pitched 18 seasons in the big leagues, 10 with the Orioles, and the last eight with the Yankees. Not only did he have a longer career in Baltimore than he did in New York, he put up better numbers in Charm City, you can say that was because he spent two more seasons there than New York. Regardless of where he was pitching, he was one of the best pitchers during his time. He wasn't the Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens blow you away type, but he was still pretty damn good. 270 wins in 18 seasons, a 3.68 ERA, five-All Star nods, seven-Gold Gloves, 1.192 WHIP, 2,813 strikeouts in 3,562.2 innings, a 20 win season, and a handful of close calls away from several no-hitters. Consistency was spelled "Mike Mussina" from the early 90s to the late 2000s.
This one is a special one for Orioles fans because he really was the LAST home grown stud the Orioles had. You can toss the name Erik Bedard, around, but he was shipped out for some guy named Adam Jones, Kevin Gausman may have been on his way there…but he's gone, and we only have Dylan Bundy left as the guy who COULD be the next big Orioles starter, but it's not looking great. Mussina was the homegrown talent every team desires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSt774n6ZVE
Since I blogged it a few weeks ago, I'll regurgitate some of my previous thoughts below.
"He won 15 games 11 times, had two 17 win seasons, three 18 win seasons, two 19 win seasons and one 20 win season." He was so damn consistent. Hard to argue with a guy that went out every fifth day and got you a win for 18 years.
"Just look at his career numbers, 270-153 split with 147 of those wins coming in his 10 seasons in Baltimore. His lifetime ERA sits at 3.68, a lifetime WHIP of 1.192, 57 complete games, 23 shut outs, 2,813 strikeouts in 3,562.2 innings, 376 homers surrendered, five All Star Teams, seven Gold Gloves, and finished in the top 5 for the Cy Young award six times. Overall those are damn good numbers and very impressive when you look at which teams he was pitching against, and the ballparks he played most in. He was known for having a very good four-seamer, and a pretty sick knuckle-curve as well."
"Lets take a deeper dive into the numbers through. He’s seventh all time in bWAR for the Orioles at 47.8, only second in pitchers behind Jim Palmer. Fifth all-time in Gold Gloves for pitchers with seven. His all time pitching WAR is 82.9, that is 23rd overall for all pitchers. Of the 22 people ahead of him, 21 are in the Hall, the only one that isn’t is Roger Clemens. Moose’s career WAR is 83, of the people in MLB history who have a higher WAR, all but 5 are in the Hall. Clemens, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre, and Albert Pujols. I mean come on, you look at those names and the company Moose is next to on these lists, he should 100% be in. He finished top 10 in ERA 11 times in his career, again, going against the most feared hitters in some of the smallest parks."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7qcPEbtsM&t=44s
Now the question is does he rock the Orioles cap or Yankees hat in Cooperstown. Obviously I am a bit biased and I would love to see him go in the hall as an Oriole. I can understand why he wouldn't want to since he wanted to stay in Baltimore, but was lowballed by Orioles' owner, Peter Angelos back when Moose was a free agent. After the lowball offer Mussina signed with the rival Yankees and was called "a traitor" by many of the Orioles faithful. You can't really blame Mussina for taking a bigger contract, especially from the Yankees in 2000. They put the full court press on him with phone calls from Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, and Andy Pettite to try and convince Mike to don the pinstripes, obviously it worked. He went to New York for a ring but just missed out on both ends. With the Yankees winning it all in 1999, the year before he got there, and in 2009, the year after he left. Since he didn't win anything with the Yankees, and clearly had a better career with the Orioles, I believe he'll be the next Oriole flying into Cooperstown, and rightfully so.
Congrats to my dude, Michael Cole Mussina. I'm looking forward to the number retirement and statue behind Center Field in Camden Yards.
PS. How sick is this old Orioles program with Mussina and Ben McDonald, they don't make program covers like they used to.
https://twitter.com/editti22/status/1087798090541731840
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