| Andrew Perna. 10th June, 2008 - 12:03 am
 It’s hard to believe that Mike Mussina will be forty years of age this December, but it’s even more difficult to believe just how well he has pitched for the Yankees this season.
Early on, Chien-Ming Wang was the stud of New York’s rotation, streaking out to a 6-0 mark. More than a month after winning his sixth game, Wang is 6-2 and winless in his last seven starts.
Meanwhile, Mussina has won eight of his last ten starts, figuring into the decision in thirteen of his fourteen appearances this season.
The fact that he’s nearly forty and pitching so well is one thing, but considering the 2007 season he had, it becomes a story of rejuvenation.
Mussina was 11-10 last year with a 5.15 ERA in 152.0 innings over twenty-seven starts for the Yankees, the worst statistical season of his career. He posted losing records in both 1991 (4-5, his rookie year) and 2000 (11-15), but his ERA's were solid at 2.88 and 3.79, respectively.
It was speculated over the winter that Mussina might be done as a reliable starter in the Major Leagues especially with young arms like Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Joba Chamberlain primed to enter the team’s rotation.
Now as he enters free agency this winter, he might have at least one more year left in his right arm after a tremendous first half in 2008.
After pitching well against the Royals on Monday afternoon, Mussina is 9-4 with a 3.82 ERA in 75.1 innings of work over fourteen starts. He’s allowed a little more than a hit per inning (1.09), but he has walked just eleven batters this season against forty-two strikeouts.
That’s a 3.81 strikeout-to-walk ratio and an amazing rate of just one walk in every seven innings he pitches for the Bombers.
He has always had great control, but he’s getting out of jams more often this season and seems to catch fire over multi-inning stretches.
Mussina has allowed five or fewer hits in six appearances in ’08, and two earned runs or fewer on nine occasions for New York. When pitching like that for the Yankees, he will rack up victories even when the offense isn’t hitting as well as they should.
Two of his four losses this year have come at the hands of the Red Sox – he’s 0-2 with a 9.35 ERA in 8.2 innings against Boston. That pair of starts came over a six-day stretch, during which time many critics declared his lengthy career over.
Now, twenty games shy of the midpoint in the season, Mussina is on pace to accomplish something he has never done in his Major League career.
Win twenty games.
Twice he’s posted nineteen wins (1995, 1996 in Baltimore), and he’s notched eighteen wins on three occasions (twice with the Orioles, 1992 and 1999 and once with the Yankees, 2002).
One would imagine that as New York’s bats continue to warm up this summer – including the return of catcher Jorge Posada – Mussina will be able to record a few victories later this season even when he’s not excelling on the mound.
Another key stat for Mike this season has been his ability to figure into the decision when he starts, something he’s done in all but one of his appearances in 2008.
He’s also lasted at least five innings in all but two of his fourteen starts.
On Monday he pitched beautifully despite notching his first no-decision of the season.
He threw 89 pitches over eight innings of work, scattering seven hits for two earned runs. He walked none while striking out three Royals. He was dealing a shutout until the seventh inning when Miguel Olivo broke though with a two-run shot to momentarily give Kansas City the lead; the Yanks went on to lose 3-2 after Alex Rodriguez tied the game with a two-run bomb of his own in the bottom of the seventh.
It’s astonishing to think that Mussina could win twenty games for the first time in his career during what many people figured would be his last season in the Major Leagues.
He very well could decide to “hang up” his arm this fall but instead of struggling to the finishing line like a majority of aging hurlers do – Mussina will exit as a pitcher rejuvenated.
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM.com and will be covering the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium next month. If there is any specific coverage you’d enjoy from the Bronx, let me know via e-mail. (Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com). |
