Baseball Hall of Fame 2017 ballot: Who’s in and who’s out?
Mike Mussina
Mussina had a memorable career for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, winning 270 games. He also went out on top at the age of 39, winning 20 games in his final season in the major leagues. Mussina left wins on the table by not pitching at least one more seasons and that has probably cost him during his first three years on the ballot.
The problem with Mussina as a Hall of Fame candidate is the quiet, unspectacular way he went about his business. He never won a Cy Young, but finished in the top-five six times. Mussina also won seven Gold Gloves, and was always one of the best fielders in the league. The right-hander from rural Pennsylvania never dominated the league, but was remarkably consistent in a difficult era for starting pitchers.
Over 18 seasons, Mussina accumulated 83.0 WAR according to Baseball-Reference’s formula. That ranks him 23rd all time, ahead of names like Nolan Ryan, Tom Glavine, Bob Feller, and Don Drysdale — all Hall of Famers. Mussina’s 83 WAR is over 12 percent better than the average for starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame. Mussina’s peak years rate below the average Hall of Famer, but even by the outdated win statistic, he still rates ahead of many Hall of Famers.
The only knock on Mussina is that he was never one of the “it” pitchers in baseball. There’s truth to the notion that Mussina was never the best pitcher in baseball, but he was almost always among the top 10. What he lacks in wow factor, Mussina more than made up for with shear consistency over an 18-year career.