February 20, 2008
Ranking Mussina
Phil Allard at WCBS radio in New York notes Mike Mussina's desire to teach Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. He also points out that Mike is likely to rebound in 2008.
The venerable Voros McCracken weighs in:
"It seems likely Mussina's hits per balls in play will come down as nobody (not even non-pitchers who try and pitch) have rates consistently as high as his was in 2007. The big question is whether at his age we might be seeing a lessening of his stuff which might lead to fewer strikeouts and more home runs.
I think he probably should be better, but I'm not sure that means he's necessarily going to be "good." League average is a reasonable best case scenario (like his 2005) and with the Yankees offense that would be plenty to win games with."
Phil also shows some impressive all-time ranks for Mike.
Posted by David Pinto at
03:51 PM
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wow....didn't realize Moose was in such good company career-wise. He's the perennial B+ student.
The problem with Moose last year was that the balls put in play were f'ng scorched.
league average for what is probably a #5 pitcher would be fantastic. What was the average ERA for #5 pitchers last season? 6+?
I think statistics in this case are deceiving.
Yeah his BABIP was abnormally high, but it isn't a factor of balls dropping in luckily... it was because Moose wasn't hitting his corners.
He's never had a scorching fastball, but got around it by pitching smart, hitting corners, and a good combo of off-speed pitches.
But it doesn't matter how fast, how slow, or how curvy your pitches are if you aren't hitting the corners. Especially when you consistently go deep in counts and hitters wait on that fastball that seems to always stand in the middle of the plate waiting to be crushed.
I expect a small improvement over last year, but still nothing to be happy with as a Yankees fan, a player, or a GM.
Moose's problems these last few years boil down to this point I will make. Every pitch he throws is in the strike zone. Fastballs, curveballs, sliders, knuckle curves, change ups....they all fall in the strike zone. Moose never learned in his latter years how to go outside the strike zone to get outs. On far too many 0-2, 1-2 counts, he comes over the plate. His control is too good if you will. I'll also add in his defense though, perhaps it is part of the catcher's job to get his pitcher out of the strike zone too.
I dunno - OBA was .311 last year - Moose hasn't had 200 IP since '03 and has only had 1 year with an ERA under 4.4 since '03. He gave up 188 H in 152 innings last year and only had 91K - he only threw 86 pitches per start - there's not much good in there anywhere.
All of you probably saw Moose pitch more than I did last year but the comment that he failed to pitch inside was right on target for what I observed. Needs to keep hitters honest even if he's only wasting his fastball up and in or off the plate inside a couple of inches.
Moose is the type of pitcher whose stuff ought to allow him to age well, certainly better than he showed last season. A pitch that breaks toward a RH batter and away from a LH hitter would also help. Most of his pitches all break down and away from a RH.