Yesterday, it was reported that Yankees starter Mike Mussina would announce his retirement from MLB, after 18 seasons.  Now comes the ineludible debate, did Mike Mussina earn a place in Cooperstown?

Most Mussina discussion concerns wins.  Until this past season, he carried the knock of never having won 20 games.  He satiated this in a meaningless Boston matchup.  Mussina has 270 career wins, impressive but short of the fresh, round and lock-worthy 300.  He has an excellent winning percentage, .638 (38th all-time). Â 

This win fascination is stupid.

Wins are not performance dependent and not helpful to determine a player’s value.  In 1995, Mussina had a 3.29 ERA, a 145 ERA+ and a 1.069 WHIP, very nice.  In 1996, he had a 4.81 ERA, a 103 ERA+, and a 1.368 WHIP, not nearly as nice.  In both seasons Mussina won 19 games and finished fifth in the AL Cy Young voting.  Calling the two performances equal would be idiotic.

He was a good pitcher, played on good teams, hung around a long time and was reasonably healthy.  Throw the wins out. 

We should base the Hall of Fame assessment on how great was he and how long did the greatness last.

Mussina was one of the top ten starters in baseball for a 10-year period from 1992 to 2001.  During that time in the AL, he was top five in ERA in seven seasons, top seven in ERA+ in eight seasons, top five in WHIP in eight seasons and top five in K/BB ratio in nine seasons.  At his peak, you could count on Mussina to be a top five AL starter.

In his last seven years with the Yankees, Mussina had three very good seasons (2003, 2006, 2008).  Though his three mediocre seasons (2002, 2004, 2005) and an awful season in 2007 negate them.

Mussina was very good, but he was never dominant.  His three best non-asterisked contemporaries are Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez.  Mussina had two seasons with an ERA+ above 150 (1992, 1994).  His highest was 163.  Maddux has nine seasons over 150 with a high of 271.  Randy Johnson has eight such seasons with a high of 197.  Pedro Martinez has seven of them (five over 200) with a high of 291.  They all had consistent peak runs better than Mussina’s best individual season.

Those three are the great pitchers of his generation.  Mussina’s not as good.  He’s not even in the discussion.

Strict constructionist that I am, I can’t consider Mike Mussina Hall of Fame material.  Though, he won that meaningless late September start against the Red Sox to get 20 wins.  In the inclusive and misguided system in place, that probably seals Mussina’s entry.

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